Earlier this week our staff held a party for one of its own.
It’s not an unusual thing at the Advertiser, or probably for other family-owned businesses, to take a break during the day and share some cake and a bit of fun.
This past Wednesday, we celebrated the guy who started it all, as Bill Adsett turned 80 on April 22.
Up until very recently he still delivered the Advertiser to numerous addresses and businesses near Elmira. Much the same as his experience across the rest of Wellington County, he quickly made friends and business contacts on that route. The odd time that we subbed in for him, the question would crop up at many addresses: where is Bill?
His fondness for going on deliveries and making sure it was done right has been a preoccupation for nearly 48 years. We hazard to guess over that time our company has delivered over 50 million Newspapers. It’s amazing really, considering it all started with an idea, some ambition and a desire to have a Newspaper delivered to every resident in Wellington County free of charge.
While getting photos together for his little party we stumbled across some from our old offices downtown. It brought to mind a story Mac Mason used to tell about picking up papers at the plant and a young fellow helping him was asking about the old guy doing deliveries. Of course it was Bill, unassuming as always, helping organize and load. The nickname stuck as a term of endearment thanks to Mac.
More than once Bill countered the phrase with “I’m just glad to be here.” For our staff and family, we’re glad he’s here.
We’ve met few people that can engage others in conversation the same way. Like many of his peers that age, he has a knack for visiting. Entering a crowd where he knew no one, before he left he would have made a friend or friends, and know who might be related to who. It’s a skill lost on us, but one we admire greatly.
Like many other family businesses, we catch ourselves referring to him as dad more so than Bill. Even suppliers tend to ask for dad. It’s been that way for so long we are sure if we asked where Bill was, people wouldn’t know who we were talking about. So it continues.
On behalf of our staff in Fergus and Drayton, plus your family in Rockwood, Ottawa and Nova Scotia, happy birthday, dad – and best wishes for many more.
