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WHO DOES THE WORK AT SMC? Pete Ives was one of the three original owners when we restructured in 1987 - he's been here more than 25 years (longer than anyone except John) and we still love him. He is one of our primary job superintendents, and he's also the dean of island surfers, although these days he's sometimes drawn to the fairways as often as the waves. Pete is a member of our Personnel Committee.
One of our oldest employees and owners (in both age and time served), Mike Drezner is the ancient warrior of the carpenters. For many years he has also done a wonderful job managing our pension and reserve funds. He serves on our Board's Management Committee and Personnel Committee. When we need to discuss financial matters and business theory, we can sometimes find him in his orchard or out looking for an escaped lamb. Peter D'Angelo has been here 18 years and done it all. A fine carpenter and mechanic who was Pete's right-hand man for a decade or so, these days he is one of our three foremen, and runs our small jobs system with Tim. In 2002-3 he masterminded and honcho-ed the extraordinary House Moves project, and continues to run our house moving and de-construction efforts. His quick wit makes up for his legs (rumor has it that he doesn't own any long pants). Bill Dillon was hired in 1988 after we searched the East coast for the best carpenter/job super we could find. He was it. Still is. He shepherds us through some of our largest and most complex jobs with tremendous skill and ability. A fine teacher, he's been responsible for training some of our best carpenters. He's usually pretty sure that the next storm is gonna be the big one.
John Abrams founded SMC in 1975 and owned it until 1987. When we restructured, he became president and one of the owners. He's supposed to run the company and stay out front; that's what he does (we think). In recent years, in addition to his sales, management, and renewables division duties, he devotes significant time to developing affordable housing projects and to working to stengthen our local economy. John often represents us in the public arena, at conferences and speaking engagements, and on consulting jobs. He manages our Board meetings as well. Peter Rodegast came here 22 years ago. The first few years he split his time doing carpentry and design; since then he's been one of our primary designers (although he still longs for the old days every now and then). He is an important part of our Personnel Committee. A veteran do-it-yourselfer, an expert scrounger, and a world traveler, he also serves on the West Tisbury Conservation Commission.
We discovered Peggy Faesy MacKenzie driving a tractor at George Moore's when we went to renovate his house in 1987. We coaxed her down and got her to put on a tool belt. She moved from the field to shop and then gravitated upstairs to the office when she became pregnant. She runs our inventory system, does a lot of our buying, manages our Personnel Committee, occasionally has an opinion about issues large and small, and sometimes she'd rather be on a smaller island, off the coast of Maine. After completing architecture school in the 70's, Derrill Bazzy spent many years splitting his time between doing carpentry in the Boston area and working with refugees in Guatemala. He came to SMC in 1991 as a carpenter, but soon became one of our primary designers. He has been one of the island's leading housing activists, and has led the way in the restoration of the Vanderhoop Homestead in Aquinnah and its transformation into the Aquinnah Cultural Center. Tim Mathiesen arrived in 1992 to run our solar division and quickly made himself invaluable in a multitude of ways. Computer guru (not only for us but for many Vineyarders), lighting and electrical designer, soundman, co-ordinator of small jobs with Peter - you name it. He is a problem solver, a steadying influence in the office, and a great teacher (he teaches a variety of computer and digital imaging courses both within the company and out in the community). Deirdre Bohan arrived in 1995 to be our bookkeeper. After she quickly whittled that job down to part-time, we sent her to school to pursue her real interest, interior design. She now runs our thriving Interiors division. She runs our Management Committee and took on a major leadership role while John was away on sabbatical writing his book. Phil Forest is an ace craftsman who did fine woodworking in our shop for many years. Several years ago he started our sales division for renewable energy and Loewen products. For a while he was able to split his time between the shop and these duties. Alas, he did his job so well that he finally had to give up the shopwork, now he and Rob Meyers work fulltime on renewables and product sales. He is forever thinking of ways for us to be better corporate and environmental citizens. He walks his talk; at home he is striving for energy independence. When Laurel Wilkinson came to SMC in 1998, she brought a wealth of talent to our design room. She is a superb draftsperson, a highly artistic renderer, and she is becoming a fine designer, running the design and project management of diverse & complex jobs. Whether designing an addition or a stained glass window, it's always a thing of beauty.
Jim Vercruysse runs our shop in fine fashion. He's a woodworker to the bone, and he's always been a woodworker as far as anyone can tell. He's also a great manager, is largely responsible for the smooth sailing that characterizes the shop, and makes damn sure everyone eats well at work. Jim performed a two year stint chairing the Martha's Vineyard Commission, the island's regional planning agency - a tremendously responsible and challenging position. John likes to say of his son Pinto Abrams, "He's got all the natural talent I never had." Pinto works with Jim in the shop doing cabinetry and furniture and has the patience, skill, and ability to visualize to do all the weirdest and most intricate stuff - from driftwood to inlay. SMC is his day job - in the evenings, he pursues his other love - roots music. But for the last two years he has been caught up building a gorgeous house for himself and his family. Ken Leuchtenmacher, our newest owner, came to SMC in 1997 after running several contracting businesses of his own for many years. He quickly became a fixture on the geezer crew and Billy's right hand man. He is a super carpenter and always filled the gaps in that role. Recently he made the move to the shop to fill the spot vacated by Phil. He's still a farm boy from Iowa, but he sure does love the lathe. The Others We work with a wonderful group of consultants, associates, and subcontractors - without them, our work would be impossible. Perhaps our most important collaborator is Indigo Farm, a company with a similar structure and philosophy to ours, which does site and landscape design and construction. Indigo works with us right from the start of nearly every project and they help us to create seamless integration of land and buildings. They are a critical piece of our design and construction process, and they are an immense contributor to the end result. We've worked with Indigo for well over a decade now, so we know each other's moves and complement each other well. Their principal designer, Mike Turnell, is consistently part of our design team. The build crew is a crackerjack group. Go to our Site and Landscape article. Although the lion's share of our design work is done
by our in-house design staff, we get lots of help, as needed, from a fine
group of people: The many subcontractors who work with us are indispensable parts of the team. Mostly, for each of the construction trades - excavation, foundation, electrical, plumbing, plaster, tile, roofing, etc. - we try to work with at least two subcontracting companies so they can handle the schedules. We try to keep steady relationships with subs so we get to know each other well, but they change from time to time. A few deserve special mention - for many years they have managed to do all of our work and still keep us satisfied (no mean feat!) as we've grown. Among them are WH Russell Company, our painting contractor (they also do our wood floors); and Matt Viaggio, our cellulose man and the finest of insulation contractors. Tile master Bob Wilcoxson and crew are standouts. And of course, the aforementioned Indigo.
There are countless other wonderful individuals and companies who support our efforts: attorney Ron Rappaport, a great advisor, client, and friend, and his staff; attorney Matt Kiefer; our photographers Randi Baird, Brian Vanden Brink, and Peter Mauss; our bankers Richard Leonard and the staff at MV Co-op bank, our accountant Jerry Tulis, who has become an expert at worker-owned cooperative matters at our behest, and his associate Sal Novaco; our socially responsible investment counselor Christine Platt; and all the fine folks who supply the stuff we need: EC Cottle, Adlee Bruner, Cataumet Sawmills, Pioneer Millworks, and countless others. Then there are good friends of our company who have taught us so much in so many ways: Jamie Wolf, Jonathan Orpin, Kevin Ireton, Merle Adams, Robert Leaver and Alex Wilson. And the people who we collaborate with on affordable housing efforts: Philippe Jordi, David Vigneault, Pat Manning, and the boards of the Island Housing Trust and the Island Affordable Housing Fund. What an amazing group of people we have the good fortune
to work with! We love 'em all (most of the time anyway). Especially our
clients. After all these years the group of people that are and have been
our clients mixes into a rich blend of friends, advisors, collaborators,
supporters of our causes - we can't say enough about what a splendid bunch
they are. Without them. . . hmmm. . . . but that's another story, and
we discuss our clients (and hear some choice tidbits from them) in other
parts of this site.
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