Richland High School Alumni
North Richland Hills, Texas (TX)
Gary Jacobs
Richland High School
Class of 1968
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GARY'S PROFILE
| First Name | Gary |
| Last Name | Jacobs |
| Graduation Year | Class of 1968 |
| Gender | Male |
| Current Location | Cypress, TX |
| Hometown | Richland Hills, TX |
| Relationship Status | Married |
| About Me | After high school, I worked for a new car dealer while going to college. I learned a lot more on the job than in class, but I was grateful for both experiences. In 1972, I was hired by the Buick Motor Division of General Motors about 10 weeks before graduating from TCU, and within a week after taking my last finals, I was in national HQ in Flint, Michigan. A month later I returned to Texas to get married to a wonderful girl I had met at college. First I was assigned to sales operations dept for a few months and then to national car distribution for the balance of my time in Flint. That dept was responsible for processing orders from the dealers, apportioning orders to the assembly plants, and managing production and transport. None of the others in central office (the "Ivory Tower") wanted to go into the plants, so I was given the infamous "Blue Pass" ID which gave me access to all parts of the huge Buick City plant complex. I accepted it because it gave me a chance to learn first-hand about manufacturing, assembly operations, transport logistics, etc. Most of my time was spent in the office on the phone or helping to calculate weekly allocations of cars to the 26 zones across the country. Still to this day, those occasional experiences in the plants gave me the knowledge to do things that others thought were impossible. In 1974, I was transferred to St. Louis as a district service mgr where I would meet a future employer. This job involved working with dealers on service issues, warranty claims, and customer problems. It was a lot more interesting than it sounds and gave me a further education in both automotive technology and human nature. However I was only there 18 months and then transferred to Chicago as a district sales mgr. In those days Chicago was the biggest zone in the country accounting for 15% of the national sales. The office there was like a beehive, always busy and staffed by dynamic people throughout. There were 9 districts and mine covered South Chicago and around the lake into northern Indiana. I was responsible for monitoring dealers sales, business mgmt., and distributing the cars to dealers based on their sales rate. In 1978, I left General Motors to work for a big dealer I had known from my days in St. Louis. He had just bought a dealership in Dallas and his operating partner was an ex-GM zone mgr who had been my boss there. They wanted me to head their sales dept, but it would involve starting a business from scratch. The rewards were potentially high, but not certain. It was a tough decision, as my career was going well with GM. However a move back to Flint was in the works for a position that would require a lot of travel. On top of that we now had a baby with serious health problems. In the end, we decided to take the offer and move back to Texas. Moving to Dallas turned out to be a good but tough experience. The business was located across the river from downtown in Oak Cliff, about 3 blocks from where Lee Harvey Oswald was caught. By then it was a very rough neighborhood, which in itself was nothing new to me after South Chicago, but the level of theft and vandalism was a new experience. However we drew customers from all walks of life and from all parts of the metro area and established a commercial fleet operation with some large companies such as EDS, Frito-Lay, and several national leasing companies. In the early 1980's the company acquired a smaller dealership primarily to sell trucks to our fleet customers. One of the interesting aspects was the effects that such diversity had on employees. We were dealing with this long before "diversity" became a political buzzword, and we discovered it takes a certain type of person to deal with it and stay for the long term. In the mid-80's the business was moved further south to the suburbs and flourished until the operating partner was diagnosed with leukemia. The principal partner in St. Louis decided to sell the businesses in Texas. After going thru a couple of false starts, we sold them to 2 different buyers. In the end, it was left up to me to handle the sale until it was time to get the lawyers involved. After the sales were finalized in late 1987, we moved back to St. Louis to work for the holding company which had in the meantime grown to 7 companies in the greater St. Louis area. Over the next 10 years, I would serve as general mgr of 4 of those, in every case going in to a turn-around situation. I suppose every conglomerate starts with one successful company and eventually comes to the conclusion that "...if one is great, two will be twice as good, three will be even better and so on." Most of the time, the reality is that half of the companies do well, and the other half are either marginally successful or outright struggling. Over time, some of those outcomes are reversed - in other words some go down and others come up. There are many reasons such as product acceptance, location, economic conditions, etc but mostly it reflects the quality and experience of management and employees. In a few cases, we dealt with serious issues such as theft and embezzlement, but more often the problems were either incompetence or lack of knowledge. The latter I could work with as willing people can always learn new things. Whenever possible I always tried to keep the existing people on board and give them a chance to prove themselves. My job was to provide the support (a realistic business plan, quality work environment, equipment, training, inventory, etc) and theirs was to get the job done. When someone asks me "...what are you most proud of in your career?" it's not sales or profit records, recognition, income or other such high points, it is being able to go into a struggling organization by myself and often under hostile conditions and then turn it around utilizing the existing employees. One of the unexpected benefits of that approach was that it enabled me to work well with the union representatives (all service operations were unionized there). In all, St. Louis was a great place to live, a good place to raise a family, and a good business climate with people who had strong work and social ethics. All good things come to an end as the saying goes and so in 1997 we returned to Texas again, this time to Houston, so my wife could be near her ailing parents. My parents lived there too, having moved to Houston while I was in college. On a personal level, it has been great. Our kids settled here after college, got married, and each has 2 children, so we see our grandkids a lot. However the job that enabled us to move there didn't quite turn out as planned, but I stuck with it for 3 years, then went to work for a training and consulting firm headquartered in Michigan. It was a great experience in many ways, involved a lot of travelling but also a lot of free time between assignments. I learned new things as well, particularly about the medium-duty and big truck business. During one of these projects, I was stuck at the Kansas City airport when the 9/11 attacks happened. In summary, I was able to work with several manufacturers, see different parts of the country, meet new people, and hopefully offer some useful ideas to them. Some people make a career out of such work, but after a few years I was ready for something new. In 2006, I was offered an opportunity to try something different. While still in the automotive category, I went to work for a Houston dealer that had a Commercial Truck dept that needed rejuvenating. We started a government sales operation, got serious about medium and heavy-duty trucks, and hired some additional salespeople. Besides ordinary trucks, we built a lot of unusual (odd-ball) vehicles such as bucket trucks, crane trucks, utility trucks, police cars, etc but the weirdest project was the "Green Monsters" for the Houston airports. They were basically truck-mounted mobile stairways that could be raised to board/unboard a stranded aircraft, had Kevlar panels to protect a SWAT team, and a hose reel for fighting aircraft fires. I learned a lot there and was grateful for the experience, but as the recession played out, the owners continued to pull in their horns, cutting back on support personnel, inventory, and other expenses beyond what was prudent for the times or the company's strong financial condition. Despite that, we maintained a consistent sales rate, at times having some record months for the commercial operation. When they sold off one of the storage lots for our commercial trucks, they expected us to order trucks for customers rather than have them on hand for immediate delivery. We always did that for the odd-ball vehicles, but for ordinary things like pickups and vans, it was the exact opposite strategy of what was needed during a recession -- in other words, the only companies buying trucks were the ones that needed it right away because their old one was wrecked, stolen or died in its tracks. By this time, an Internet presence was becoming essential for commercial trucks. Despite having a good website for their other depts., they continued to postpone their promise of building a commercial website for us. In early 2012, I received an offer that was a dream opportunity. A very successful auto dealer approached me about organizing their commercial truck operation. A big success in every other business he tried, but had never been able to get the commercial truck lines off the ground. He wanted to give it one last chance and gave that chance to me. I am happy to say that everything he agreed to do upfront in order to make it work was honored 100% and to his credit was the key to everything that followed. It wasn't exactly a start-up, but not far from it. Once again I was able to work with the existing people and found that all they needed was some direction, tools to work with, and opportunities to show their talents. In time we added more people and today have a strong operation throughout. We have set 7 annual sales records with our Medium-Duty trucks and our heavy-duty truck shop continues to grow, not only capable of mechanical repairs and parts, but also body & paint work, and fabrication design so we can build and repair custom truck bodies. While this is not the most glamorous job, or even one with the most responsibilities, I can say without a doubt it has been the most fun! In any case, it's going to be my last rodeo. I still like to walk thru the shop early in the morning. It reminds me of when I was a high school kid with a summer job working in the dealer's service department. On a warm summer morning when the big doors opened, before the customers started arriving, it's quiet and peaceful. A scene that wouldn't be repeated again until the next morning. The smell of oil, grease, and fuel. The excitement and sometimes dread of what the new day would bring. Somehow you always worked thru it and the job got done. I still love it. After 7+ years in this position, I retired in June 2019. It was a wonderful experience and one that I will always remember with fondness. Now it is time to enjoy life, spend time with family and take up some new interests and hobbies. I was blessed to work with many great people along the way and as for m...(read more) |
Class of 1968 Alumni
→ Reunite with 64 class of 1968 classmates that have joined.
Marcos Lara
Class of 2020
Jessica Chavez
Class of 2006
Kay Cramer
Class of 1978
Sherri Owens
Class of 1981
Henry Havens
Class of 1989
Carolyn Pate
Class of 1981
Alex Anderson
Class of 2006
Kimery Dobbs
Class of 1994
Misty Linenschmidt
Class of 2005
Jeff Childress
Class of 1981
Joey Wilson
Class of 1998
Kristen Brown
Class of 1996
Jane Bland
Class of 1984
Christi Overstreet
Class of 1987
Chris Dunlop
Class of 1995
Chris Long
Class of 1993
Chanta Hall
Class of 2001
Jen Jones
Class of 1999
Bob Smith
Class of 1981
John Chitty
Class of 1989
Malachi Millard
Class of 1989
Conrad Kyobe
Class of 2007
Jeff Goodsell
Class of 2000
Robert Socha
Class of 1975
Upcoming Class of 1968 Reunions
Plan a Class of 1968 Reunion for Free
Class of 1968 55-Year Reunion
Invited Classes: 1967, 1968, 1969
Date: Oct 21, 2023
Description: TO RSVP & PURCHASE TICKETS SAFELY ONLINE: Tickets WILL NOT be available at the door! • Go to www.paypal.com,...(read more)
Recent Class of 1968 Reunions
50th reunion
Invited Classes: 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969
Date: Sep 21, 2018
Description: Purchase ticket after we send out emails that announce tickets are for sell. Tickets will be sold on ReunionDB. Also a ...(read more)
Class of 1968 our 50th.
Invited Classes: 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969
Date: Sep 21, 2018
Description: Need help with decorations, entertainment, finding all the missing. We have set the date for Saturday night but still wo...(read more)
REBEL ALL CLASS MIXER hosted by Class of '76
Invited Classes: All Classes
Date: Sep 30, 2016
Description: RHS Graduates/Attendees - All Years *no cover charge *Shady Oaks Buffet - $20 per plate (optional) *Appetizers Provid...(read more)
Multi-Class Reunion - Classes of 1962-69
Invited Classes: 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969
Date: Oct 16, 2015
Description: rsvp to Tommy Clemons, Class of ’66 President & Reunion Chair (512) 826-0050 Email: Tom.Clemons@bentley.com ...(read more)
45th Reunion for Classes '68 - '69 - '70 - '71
Invited Classes: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971
Date: Oct 04, 2014
Description: TO RSVP, BUY TICKETS & TO UPDATE YOUR BIO— 1. Go to: www.ReunionDB.com 2. Click on the YELLOW highlighted &l...(read more)
Class of '68 40 Year Reunion
Invited Classes: 1968
Date: Sep 20, 2008
Description: Join us for our party!. Classes of '66, '67 & '69 also invited. Go to www.68rhs.com for all details. We are search...(read more)
RICHLAND HIGH SCHOOL MEGA REUNION
Invited Classes: All Classes
Date: Sep 18, 2008
Description: If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Martha Berry Strain,(Class of 73) 817-589-0782w...(read more)