Pete D’Angelo came to work at SMCo in 1987. Five years later, he became an owner. For the past decade or so, he has had the complex job of planning and managing all of our small jobs and maintenance work. In any given year we do repair work and small improvements/additions to roughly 50 different houses that we previously built or renovated. It’s an important service. Co-owner Peg McKenzie manages the office end. Pete manages the field. Two carpenters and a collection of subcontractors support their efforts.
For 18 years he has also managed our indescribable annual Chappy golf tournaments.
When Pete came in recently and told me he had decided to retire, my heart sank. He’d be hard to do without. All that institutional knowledge, all that can-do problem-solving, all that relentless dedication to improvement . . . and those pithy, irreverent hilarious e-mails and comments – just gone? Just like that? Are you kidding?
Yes, just kidding. He’s not retiring. But it was close. It’s hard to express how pleased I am that he’s staying on half time, continuing to do all the most important stuff that he does, continuing to care for all the houses and clients we’ve put heart and soul into and continuing to add his always-entertaining offbeat commentary.
For many years, during discussions of upcoming company events, Pete said that we should all go to a Red Sox game together. Here’s one note he sent when we asked people in the company for suggestions for company events: “What the fuck? Trip to Fenway. We rent a bus. Stop at Jordan’s and load up on furniture cause it’s gonna be free, stay too long at the Cask and Flagon, catch a game, tattoos on the way home. Now that’s an event!!” Nobody ever listens to his pleas, but this time, as we contemplated his upcoming end of ownership and shift to half time, it seemed like a good time to listen.