1966 – A VERY BUSY YEAR #44

They say that time flies, when you're busy. That must be true, because 1966 sure went fast. I really enjoyed having my own district and seeing it grow. I was very fortunate that I met many business people who helped me, many of whom also became friends. One of these people was Mr. Bill Von Weiler, a retired Dutchman who I met when he came into my office in regard to a trip to the Netherlands. Knowing that I was new to Detroit, he took it upon himself to introduce me to various people he thought I should know. He was a past President of the Detroit Rotary Club and took me to a Rotary Club luncheon. I became a member of Rotary and am still a member up to today. I am currently a life member of the Rotary Club of Marathon, in the heart of the Florida Keys; more about the Rotary, in future blogs.

One of the highlights of 1966 was my success and good luck of increasing the Dutch Immigrant Society charters from two to four, per year. Other Memories of the year follow.

All the major foreign airlines as well as Delta, United, and other domestic airlines, decided to form a Detroit Airline Managers Association where members had a place where we could all discuss common local problems. I was elected the first President of the association.

I was invited to join the Detroit Press Club. Since most of the Airline Managers handled local promotions and advertising, the Press Club felt we were eligible for membership.

Roger Ackley decided to hold our regional meeting in Miami. Our District Managers from Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Cincinnati, along with their salesmen also attended. In addition, Fritz Kielman, Luke Asjes and nine department heads from New York participated. Those were five days of everybody learning about the various departments of KLM and the assistance they can give the people in the field. We were also updated on KLM's goals and ambitions for its future.

My son Kirby and I, along with Roger Ackley and his son, went on a weekend fishing trip at International Falls, Minnesota. We fished the Thousand Lakes area that goes up into Canada. We had a houseboat and an Indian guide. We caught many walleyes, cooked them onboard and had a wonderful time. Kirby and I still talk about it today.

In December, KLM wanted me to attend a three week Management Training Program in Windsor, England. There were 12 of us to attend. Managers from India, Egypt, Holland, England, Norway, Germany, France, Japan, Hong Kong, Poland and Curacao were also going to participate. The course was to be given by Urwick Or, a British management training organization. It was three weeks of intensive instruction, solving many different management problems, roll playing, etc. One rather interesting way they presented a lesson was to put all of us in a room. In the center of the room was a very large table; in the center of the table was a pile of sand. There were small models of hotels, factories, houses, animals, trucks etc. There were also long plastic, curved and straight pieces that represented rivers and roads. Around the room were windows where people outside the room, could observe what was going on in the room. Our instructions were to construct a make believe town on a river, with factories where the people would work. Play grounds for children, and small farms. That was it. We could have all the time we needed, and then the instructor left us standing in the room.

At first, everyone just looked at each other. Then someone says "Let's go" and the building begins. The one, who said "let's go", said "let's put the houses here, the river here "etc. Someone else says no! The houses should go over there, next to the factory where the people will work. Someone else says no! The people wouldn't want to live next to a factory. Someone else chimed in with his idea. Well, you get the idea. Eventually, one or two get together and make a land plan. The whole project is to see how some people are leaders and some are followers. It was a lesson in how to determine those who are natural leaders and who take over to get the project done. It was all very interesting; at the end of the three weeks, everyone got a certificate of completion. No one received a report card; these were sent to the home office in the Netherlands.

During the course, one other event that I will always remember is when we were all asked how we would go about developing more business. They gave an example of a large company that had a great deal of air freight business. We were meeting with the Freight Manager and the teacher wanted to know how we would approach him in an effort to get his business? Each of us gave an off the cuff idea as to how we would ask for the business. It was going very well until the Manager from the Egypt office had his turn to offer how he would ask for the business. In a very serious way, he offered his sales pitch. He would ask the Freight Manager, "Would your wife like a nice fur coat?" The Egypt manager couldn't understand why we were all laughing so hard. Apparently he thought that this was a perfectly good way to get business. KLM is such a straight laced Company, I doubt the Egypt Manager survived.

Being in England in December was a wonderful experience. We were put up at the White Swan Hotel, in Windsor. From my window I could see Windsor Castle. The town of Windsor was resplendent with Christmas decorations; I couldn't help but think of Charles Dickens Christmas story. The local pubs were a far cry from U.S. Bars. There were lots of toasts and songs, and in the streets, people hurrying through the snow. I had the happy feeling of being privy to an English Christmas.

As I flew home, I had time to contemplate the past year and look forward to 1967.

 

THE MICHIGAN YEARS BEGIN #43

After the wild welcome to Detroit on our first night, it was time to settle in. The family was all snug in their temporary accommodations in Troy Michigan. Helen was house hunting and I was very busy getting to know my new staff, and even more important, my new territory. First on my list of important duties was to meet Mr. John Witte, President of the Dutch Immigrant Society, or more commonly referred to as the DIS. The DIS was a very important organization to KLM. As a Dutch company, the Dutch people were a solid base of travelers between the Netherlands and America. The DIS was a large organization with branches in several states with a large number of Dutch settlers. Holland, Michigan was the largest. The Dutch people in Michigan donated money to purchase a Genuine Dutch windmill and bring it from Holland, the Netherlands, to Holland, in Michigan.

After speaking with Mr. Witte on the phone I arranged to have lunch with him the following day in Grand Rapids. I planned on stopping in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo to meet with some travel agents along the way. The meeting and lunch with John Witte went very well. He brought John DeVries, the DIS Vice President, to the lunch. I got a great deal of information on their organization. On behalf of their members, they contracted with KLM for two charter flights a year, round trip from Detroit to Amsterdam. Their membership was about two thousand in Michigan and almost as many in Illinois. They had two charters reserved for the summer of 1966, which I already knew about from my meeting with Luke Asjes, in New York. The two charters were almost full, and here it was only March. I suggested to Witte and DeVries that they consider a third charter for August or September and open it up for their members in the Chicago area. They liked the idea and asked me to present the idea to their board. I agreed to check on the availability of a third aircraft and the costs; I would then be pleased to attend their next board meeting. This was just the beginning of a good relationship with the DIS. John Witte and I had begun what was to become a very strong and warm friendship.

On my way back to Detroit from my DIS meeting, I stopped in Lansing and visited several agents. So far, the few days I had spent in Michigan had been productive. I was looking forward to getting to know the Michigan area; so far I had hardly scratched the surface. On my return to the office I had a message from Luke Asjes that he wanted to see me in New York. Two days later I flew into New York and found that all the people in the Home Office wanted to give me a farewell party that evening. I was happily surprised. I had spent over a year working out of the New York office and had a great relationship with all the departments, but I was not expecting a party. It was a very nice cocktail party and I had the best wishes of all, including Fritz Kielman, Luke Asjes and Peter Silton. All I had to do now was to make Detroit the best producing district office for KLM.

It was a couple of weeks later that I was called to Chicago for a Regional meeting with Roger Ackley, the Mid West Regional Manager. Actually I had met Roger briefly in New York. He had been a State Department Courier, the man with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist as he carries secrete documents between the USA and foreign countries. He flew KLM on a regular basis and got to know Fritz Kielman well. They became friends and Fritz, the top man in the US, convinced Roger to join KLM, which he did. After a few months of training in New York, he made him Midwest Regional Manager in Chicago.

I have to say that Roger was a very nice person, very warm and friendly. Roger was had a very nice wife and they had one child, a little boy. You could almost describe Roger as a motherly type. He was always concerned about his people and went to great lengths for them. One of his employees working in the Chicago office was a young man who was getting involved with the wrong crowd. He decided to take the young man under his wing, no doubt hoping to get him away from possible problems. When that was not working, he asked me to take him in Detroit as a sales trainee, which I did. I had to agree with Roger, the young man could have a good future if he stayed out of trouble. I found out that his parents were Missionaries from a church in Chicago, and were serving in the Congo, Africa. He only worked for me for a few months when he informed me that his parents wanted him to come and join them in Africa. They sent him money to travel, Roger got him a pass on KLM out of Chicago, and he left for Africa. I often wondered what happened to him and if the family survived the Congo. I just mention the incident as it points out the kind of man Roger was.

When I got back to Detroit, I was happy to find that Helen had found a home that she liked, in St. Clair Shores. The house was just a couple of blocks from Lake St. Clair. St. Clair Shores was a bedroom town North of Detroit. Leaving Detroit, you would drive North through Grosse Pointe; pass by Henry Ford's home and all the beautiful homes of automobile executives, drive through Grosse Point Woods and into St. Clair Shores. There were no mansions, but it was a community of nice homes. So now the family was settled, Kathy, Karen and Kirby were in school and I had about a thirty minute drive to my office. Later that month, Ken Becker flew in from Los Angeles and we completed all the paper work to turn the Detroit District office over to me. So far everything was going well.