The Kirby Risk Electrical Supply Company was founded in 1926, by my former father-in-law, Mr. Kirby Risk. I joined the company in 1971 after his son, Jim Risk, became president. The company at that time was small, having 35 long-time employees, doing three million in sales. Jim had interest in aggressive growth and needed some young blood employees. Having spent a hitch flying airplanes in the Navy and then some years selling insurance in Maine, at 32 I was still thought of as young blood and joined the company.

The senior Mr. Risk was still involved in the business when I joined the firm. Customer service was our focus and one of the well-known stories was how Kirby spent a night in a customer’s plant on a folding chair overseeing the installation of an electrical panel that had failed shutting down the plant’s main assembly line.

Back in the early days, we used to give customers calendars that had the company’s key employees’ names listed in the masthead showing their home telephone numbers. Mr. Risk asked me if I would allow my name and number being included on the calendar. “Sure,” I said.

“Hold on a minute, think about it.” Kirby said. “If you can’t respond in the middle of the night to a call by a customer for an urgently needed product, and do so willingly and enthusiastically, we don’t want you screwing up our reputation.” Oh wow! The company was serious about this service thing.

I remember my first test of that sacrificial service commitment. It began with a late-night call from a grain elevator in Lafayette about a failed conveyor system. In addition to electrical supplies, we also sold power transmission products like V-belts, roller chain, sheaves, and pulleys. A roller chain driving an auger had broken and the elevator was shut down during its busy harvest season. This particular roller chain, similar to a bicycle chain was huge, each link about the size of a tennis shoe. And they urgently needed 30 feet of it. The chain’s manufacturer was in Maysville, KY, four hours away.

Hopping into my station wagon I figured I would drive all night, get the chain and deliver it to the elevator by 8 or 9 AM the next morning. The chain manufacturer had the chain boxed and ready for me on the loading dock when I arrived, and I was soon on my way back to Indiana. However, during two hours of my return drive, it bothered me that two warehouse workers had been able to lift that box into my car. That huge chain should have weighed hundreds of pounds and should have required a forklift.

Pulling to the side of the road, I hesitatingly tore open a corner of the box and to my chagrin discovered the chain I was given was the wrong size, much too small. Finding a pay phone, I called Jim Risk to report the problem. His response was immediate. “You’ve got to go back and get the correct chain.” Hmmm, okay. That added four hours to my night-long travels. The correct chain was successfully delivered at midday the following day.

Our company’s first branch was opened in Columbus, IN, about eighteen months after I joined the firm. I was asked to manage its operation. We were an unknown business in that part of the state, but Jim Risk used to make weekly visits to Columbus bringing additional supplies and joining me in joint sales calls on industry. One of the companies we were trying to attract was a large international firm in a town 40 miles away that produced hospital equipment and mortuary products. I’ll not mention its name because of an interesting practice I’m about to reveal.

One day after Jim arrived in Columbus, I received a call from Boris Johnson, the head of maintenance at this plant asking if we had a lighting specialist in our company. “Sure do, it’s my boss, Jim Risk.” Boris had a lighting problem they wanted us to evaluate. “No problem. How about us looking at it next week?”

“No, how about today?”

“Oh, okay. We’ll be there in 60 minutes.”

When Jim and I arrived at the plant, we asked where the problem was located. “Follow me,” Boris said and put us in his pickup truck for a drive to a farm just outside of town. Huh? There, we were led into a large barn and greeted by one of the elderly founders of the company. He was wearing a double-breasted blazer with ascot and had spats around his ankles. Never in my life have I ever seen anyone wearing spats.  He said, “Boys, what you are about to see is an area we use for family entertaining. Just family, you understand.”

“Yes, sir.”

In an adjoining room we discovered a lavash, 30-foot-long bar with 20 highbacked leather bar stools lined up against its rail. Behind the bar on a mirrored shelf was an array of every bottled libation I’d ever heard of or could imagine. However, as astonishing as that bar was, it was the next room that totally took our breath away. It was a casino that would compete with anything found in Las Vegas. Crap tables, blackjack stations, and roulette wheels all handsomely surrounded with black leather upholstered furniture and tasteful lighting. The one area not lighted however was a roulette table in one corner and that was the challenge we were being asked to correct.

Jim’s recommendation was immediate. “In keeping with the other impressive surroundings,” he said, “I’d suggest a four-foot stained-glass Tiffany chandelier hung above the center of the table.”

“Sounds perfect,” our hosts replied. “When can we get it?”

“Well, if we order today and expedite, maybe in a few days.”

“No, we need it Saturday!”

“Hmmm, let’s see what we can do.”

Jim Risk returned to Lafayette that afternoon, called the lamp manufacturer, then that same day drove to Detroit to pick up the fixture. The chandelier was delivered to the casino the next day, hung in place, and was shimmering beautifully by Friday afternoon. I’m sure the “family” was very pleased.

Oh yeah. And that unnamed manufacturing company became a major important customer.

Thirty years later under Jim Risk’s leadership, our company had spun-off several other businesses involved in manufacturing. precision machining, building custom engineered systems, and electrical apparatus repairs. We had offices in several different states, had thousands of employees, and revenues in the hundreds of millions.

Kirby would be very proud.