Our initial investment in WILTRON worked out to be almost one-half of each of our personal net worth. The reasoning being that we weren’t risking everything, that if necessary we could put in more money later on. Just as our own money almost ran out in two years we started turning the corner getting in more money than we paid out. The ratio of partner investment was 1 for Dunwoodie, 2 for Lacy and 4 for me. This gave me a comfortable majority of 57%. My control of the company was never an issue either at the founding or afterwards. There were no regrets. I was risking the most money, $75,000 compared to Pete’s $37,500 and Duane’s $18,750. Duane was the junior member from the age and experience point of view. In the long run, Duane proved to be the steadier, harder working contributor so as time went by he got much additional stock by way of options plus a larger share of the real estate partnership, JLD II, which bought him all the Ferraris he wanted. My margin of control also permitted us to sell about 10% of the stock to key employees and still remain in control of the company. I was the spokesman, the technically competent leader, and also the business man. This gave comfort to our bankers!

During more than 30 years of partnership we never ever had an argument over money. In hard times we didn’t have the luxury of even thinking about our relative salaries. In the final reckoning at the end of our company ownership there was more than enough to satisfy all of the stockholders large and small. In between, by the artful use of partnerships for our company buildings we always had money for personal ventures, homes etc.

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