August 2005                                                                           The Megaphone                                                                                   Page 5

My Years With Sherwin-Williams

 by Jerry McClish

  When I started with Sherwin-Williams in 1965, they were the rage of the country. A few other discount stores like Gibson's, Ontario, and White Front existed in certain areas.

  K-Mart was about 70% leased. We leased the Paint and Home Improvement departments, Robert Hall -- the clothes, Schiff's -- the shoes, etc. You had a colored sticker for your sales and K-Mart would send into our office every week a check for all sales, minus 7% . . . a good deal.

  I worked in a store in the Louisville area and Ft. Wayne. Within two years, my departments both became number one in the country, earning me a district manager's job. My first area was Ft. Wayne to Cincinnati to Toledo. My second one was from South Chicago to lower Illinois to Ft. Wayne. That sets the back ground. This was to be my last visit there as a new district manager was taking those stores and I was going to take some Iowa stores, which I did later.

  One morning I was in Ft. Wayne to spend time in my two stores. The store set back off Highway 30 on a small slope. As I approached the store at 7:00 a.m., I was surprised not to see any cars of the store parked there. I made my way down the slope to pick up my manager for breakfast. As I got to the front of the store, I saw an old truck with a shell covering. There seemed to be two men fighting in front of the store with one having a beer can in his hand. As I approached the store, one guy with a guy approached me and told me to get the h--- out of there fast.

  What had happened was the store manager was in bed when he heard a noise. He was about to get out of his bed and thought it was his son leaving to pass newspapers. But it was two men with guys holding his boy. He was forced to get dressed and they proceeded to the store. They told his wife to be quiet and if she called the police her husband would be killed. As they drove there, the store manager was driving with the two men in back so he could not think of a way to warn any one or stop the two men.

  The only person in the store was Jessie, a night janitor. The three men went into the store and as they did, his wife took a chance and called the police. This is how the two cops in front of the store knew what was going on.

As I was leaving, I saw the store merchandising manager setting in his car at the top of the hill near McDonalds and a couple of clerks also. I asked the merchandising manager what was going on. He proceeded to tell me the story. The store manager's wife had called him.

I looked to my right and there set a guy watching the store from the other side of the hill. I left and got his license plate number and got me something to eat and coffee. I came back to park at the top of the hill with other store personnel.

As the two robbers came out with the store manager and janitor, the two cops set in the truck. They could not get a good shot at the robbers. Finally, the one cop got a shot but he missed. The robbers shot back and blew out a tire. Suddenly, a white Ford came up and the two men with guns drawn, sped away. So did the car on the other side of the hill whose license plate I had written down.

  I cannot recall how they did it but the two men got away without being caught. The policemen in the old truck could not follow them. Other cars came. They got the plate number from the guy who picked out the two men. I gave them the plate number of the car on the other side of the hill just in case he was involved.

  So with two descriptions of the cars and the plate numbers, the police proceeded to look for the two cars. Now these two guys were not rocket scientists. They split up and went to two motels next to each other at the edge of Ft. Wayne. The police within 24 hours found the two cars and arrested all four men.

  The police had taken my name as a witness and I had to once again go over the details how I went a got the license plate number of the other car. By almost noon my day was gone so I took the store manager and my manager to lunch. Due to the delay, I had to stay over night and change my schedule for the rest of the week.

  I got home after 3 or 4 more days and found a message to call a guy at True Detective, I think the magazine was. They did a phone interview.

  Some 5 or 6 weeks later they sent me a copy of the magazine with the story in it. Just one of many things that happened to me. I never thought as a child or teen that I would live in several states and have so many jobs in my 37 years with Sherwin-Williams.

Jerry McClish 1956
North Ridgeville, OH

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