As most are now aware, Ko-Rec-Type suffered a blow on October 25th with the death of our President - Steve Chester (pictured on far right). I have been with Steve and Ko-Rec-Type for 18 years, and he has been an integral part of my life over that time span. He will be missed by myself, the KRT staff, this industry and of course by his family. Steve, was to say the least - a character - and a very smart businessman, who first brought the KRT Imaging Supply business to the Canadian Office Supply industry in 1973.
Last Thursday, November the 2nd, Steve was to be presented with a lifetime achievement award from COPA (the Canadian Office Product Association). Steve's wife and business partner, Danielle Chester, accepted this honour posthumously. Steve had prepared an acceptance speech for that event. I delivered this speech and would like to take this opportunity to share it with those who were not in attendance:
"The events of Friday, May 18, 1973 turned out to be the most significant of my life.
A few months earlier, my uncle Vic Barouh, at the recommendation of our VP of Engineering, invested in a small, financially strapped company located in a suburb of Montreal that was trying to produce and sell carbon coated paper for use in business forms. We weren't interested in the carbon paper but in the coating equipment used to produce the carbon paper. We believed the coating equipment could be converted to coat correctable film for the production of correctable film ribbons for IBM Correcting Selectric typewriters.
So my uncle Vic asked me to go Montreal just for the day and check out what was going on. When I arrived I was greeted by a young lady working part time in the office doing just about everything. She impressed me so much that by the end of the day I had decided to marry her.
So I went back to Brooklyn and told my uncle that if he was going to keep that little company in LaSalle and if he needed someone to run it, that I would do it. He thought I was absolutely out of my mind. He said everybody up there was either French or an Eskimo and that it snowed 10 months out of the year. And even if I could find someone who spoke English they would never understand me anyway because even people in New Jersey can't understand people from Brooklyn. But, if I wanted to go, I could go.
So I did.
So I married that girl.
So I'm here.
I leave you with this:
Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember: Amateurs built the Ark.
professionals built the Titanic."
Steve will be missed by all.
John
