Monday, October 24, 2022-The story behind the story.  Learning to be a Leatherman. 

This Friday Bobs conversation with Rod Correll

Episode 446- What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”  Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Widow Susan Road

Susan Thomas, born in Perth in 1821, married Harmanus DeGraff in 1838. They lived at the bottom of the road on the east side.  Harmanus died around 1848, leaving Susan with the farm and several children.

Spent most of their time looking for food

Wednesday, October 26, 2022- Episode 438-Ricardo Herrera is author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.  Herrera is visiting professor at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Learning to be a leatherman

By Bob Cudmore 

   What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll takes up that question and more in his memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”

   Rod, who lived some years in Gloversville, is descended from two important figures in the leather industry. 

   His grandfather, a German immigrant, founded Herman Loewenstein Incorporated in 1893, a respected export-import firm in New York City.

   Loewenstein’s son Rudy headed the business in the 1940s.  The son adopted his mother’s name, Correll, as his last name.  He purchased the Ellithorp tannery in Gloversville (formerly Cain’s tannery) in 1941 to prepare leather for his products.

   Rudy Correll’s company served the women’s high fashion shoe and handbag industries.   

   Rudy also created a New York City showroom to display colorful leather shoes and handbags to manufacturers and retailers.

   Born in 1935, Rod Correll worked summers learning about the family business, starting when he was about ten.  In New York City their company was in what was called The Swamp, the leather district near the Brooklyn Bridge. 

   When Rod was 17 his father offered him a “business before pleasure” deal.  The young man could take a bicycle trip through Scotland and England if he agreed to get his hands dirty for two weeks learning the ropes at the W.M.J. Martin tannery in Glasgow, Scotland. 

   “That was Rudy’s mantra, business with pleasure,” Rod said.  “He practiced that and preached it to me and I followed his rule.” 

   After his European adventure Rod came back to America, finished prep school, graduated from Yale in 1957 then worked at Herman Loewenstein.

   Within a few years Rudy suffered a stroke and heart attack.  “It was a stressful time,” Rod said. “My father kept control but he was not in a position to exercise that control.”  The firm’s executive vice president wanted to “move my father out.”

   Rod knew he had to understand how the Gloversville tannery worked “because it ended up that was where we were doing our business from.”

   Rod took over Herman Loewenstein when his father died in 1966.  The company and the industry were starting to fail.

   “Our customers in New York City, the shoe manufacturers and the handbag manufacturers were finding it very difficult to compete with imports.”

   After his father died bankers told Rod the company had been losing money for three years.  

   From 1971 to 1974 the firm did a phased withdrawal from New York City, moving operations to the Gloversville tannery.   

   Rod said, “We had 33 people in our operation in New York City and I had to let 30 of them go or find ways to transition them.

   “We offered them jobs in Gloversville.  It really didn’t make sense. Most of these people were in their 50s even some in their 60s.”

   Rod found a new product to make and sell, women’s cowhide boots.  That kept the struggling firm afloat several more years.  By 1979 a conglomerate bought the company. 

   Rod’s involvement with leather making ended in 1983 when he went back to Yale for a seminar and further M.B.A. training on leadership and motivation.

   Rod said, “I love the industry.  I had some wonderful times but it had not been my choice.  It had been my Dad’s choice.” 

   Rod and his wife Chloe live at Avila, a retirement community in Albany.  He sees his new book as a “legacy document” for their children.

   Rod has worked with the Family Firm Institute.  He advocates for building family companies that are not only financially successful but also rewarding places to work.  Rod said, “I learned how to build a group that trusted one another.”  

Thursday, October 27, 2022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—--How the town of Florida got its name.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, October 24, 2022

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