Captainkirk's Duster project

The first thing I did was to drag my shell-shocked, sorry *** to a phone and ring up Tommy...he confirmed the news. Ted had died of a massive heart attack while waxing his truck at home.
Now, Ted was one of the most influential people I've ever worked with, without trying to be. He was friendly, outgoing, always had a kind word or a laugh to share, and made each of us feel privileged to work for him. I had a tremendous amount of respect for the man. In retrospect, what he did was astounding. We found out (after his untimely death) that when he and Marie had purchased the company, it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, due to poor financial decisions, too many employees (9, when I started) and over-extension of credit cards and open vendor accounts, not to mention non-collection of numerous customer accounts that were seriously past due. Ted and Marie fixed all that; in 5 short years, they took us from almost 100k in debt to being finally in the black, with a skeleton crew of the vital people to keep the company furnace stoked. It was no secret that Ted was entertaining thoughts of selling the place; he openly discussed it. In fact, he'd considered several offers, but refused them, because.....get this.....he didn't think they would take care of his people.
Several of us employees had, in fact, discussed the option of purchasing the business from him, and although he'd made us an offer almost too good to be true (fully HALF the going price) it was still more than we felt we could manage. Remember; at this point in time the business had gotten to a 'break-even" point. You can't make much of a living on "break even" no matter how much improved the situation was. We would have had to borrow money to purchase the business, and then pay that back out of the profits. Sounds good on paper, but.....In the end, we agreed to hope that Ted would find a potential buyer with a rosy outlook, a great work ethic, and deep pockets.
We all worked well together. Each of us felt secure (even if underpaid) in our respective positions, and Ted gave us the authority to make our own decisions, and consequently backed them up.
Case in point; Once, a customer brought in his plane for an annual inspection, during the course of which I discovered a quarter inch of prop tip missing. When I pointed this out to the owner, he got defensive, stating that he had struck a chunk of ice while taxiing several months prior. Well, the manufacturer makes no concessions for what they consider a "prop strike", and brother, this fit the bill. According to the engine manufacturer, the only proper action was to send the prop in for overhaul and do an engine teardown inspection. 20 grand would've been the cheap side of that estimate. The owner wanted me to dress the prop blade out and paint it, and look the other way. I flat-out refused and told him in no uncertain terms I didn't work that way, and if he pushed me, I'd notify the FAA. This apparently ticked him off, so he stormed into Ted's office with the intent of getting Ted on his side, to force my hand. I'll never forget it; Ted told him that he trusted his people implicitly, and that he stood behind our decisions. The guy threatened to sue; threatened non-payment, threatened to call the Better Business Bureau.....Ted stood his ground, and stood behind us. The customer took his plane without the benefit of an airworthy sign-off that day, and Ted lost a wealthy customer who would have been willing to spend money on other toys, avionics, mostly...deliberately, because he believed in his people, and he knew we were right, and damn the torpedos! He earned my undying respect that day, and I'll never forget it.