2009 Director's Award for Family Business

The business started in 1863 when great-great grandfather Thomas Kay came to the Oregon country. And he was instrumental in a little woolen mill in Brownsville, Oregon. So we've been making blankets for a 100 years in Pendleton, since 1909. But the family legacy of making fabric in Oregon goes back a 146 years to 1863. You know, when you make something that is beautiful and functional, it's very satisfying. For me I think of my grandparents taking me on an outing and we would go to the mill. Here you're just exposed to the whole operation in kind of a very natural way. With my children, I would have a weekly field trip to the Portland Pendelton shop. And they would be reluctant to go, "oh dad do we have to go with you" dududududa. And now they're in the business in different respects. And they're very enthusiastic. So it's good to see that while they were reluctant children to go with their dad to visit the Portland Pendleton shop, they're very intrigued with the whole retail process and serving consumers and being alert to market intelligence and learning how the consumer was responding to product. Those interactions and those jobs which, kind of I guess would say, started the process, started that education towards maybe becoming a bigger part of Pendleton in the future, and really I think set the standard for, you know again, that working hard, working for the long pull just striving to do your best. And all of us have been raised with our parents and our grandparents with just a passion for our business, and a caring for our business, a nurturing for our business, a stewardship for the business. We're working for the long pull. It's not just day to day, it's working for tomorrow, the next year and the year after. And I think we have all been well schooled by our forefathers in the ethic and passion of working for Pendleton. And this is something that our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents always discussed. And that is something that I think is very relevant today, to seek long-term relationships and partnerships with employees, with suppliers, with customers where there is a win-win relationship. Knowing Joan and Ken Austin and our parents knowing Joan and Ken Austin and knowing that they are behind this award really means a lot because they stand for excellence, they stand for quality, they stand for ethics, they stand for giving back to the community. And receiving an award with their name on it is very meaningful. At Pendleton we make products that have stories, and particularly our blankets. We call it Spirit of the Peoples and we dedicate it to all the peoples who have brought us to this 100 year mark. So our celebration is embracing all the peoples who have brought us to this point in our history.