Working couples maintain business, relationships
Valentine's Day — beyond the cherubs and roses and hearts — is about being together with the one you love.
But what if being together with the one you love wasn't all gauzy pinks and reds and chocolates, but a seven-day-a-week grind in the black-and-white world of business?
If anyone has mastered the trick of blending romance and dollars and cents it might be Jerry and Janet Campbell, co-owners of Campbell Bus Co. of West Sunbury, who have been married for 53 years and in business together for 48 of them, launching their bus company in 1969.
“When we started, some of the buses were at our house,” Jerry Campbell said.
Their kitchen doubled as their office complete with a two-way radio to keep in contact with their drivers.
“There are advantages to having the business in the home,” said Janet Campbell. “You can do the laundry while you are doing paperwork, but there are times when it's nice to not have it in your home.”
For Pete and Julie Sebock co-owners of Clear Choice Enterprises Real Estate Sales and Service, with locations in Butler and Beaver Falls, their business and home lives are identical.
Married for 14 years, the two Realtors opened their own business six years ago.
The Sebocks said they and their two sons are together in the office a lot, because they consider real estate a seven-day-a-week job.
“We do everything as a family unit,” Pete Sebock said.
Working together, he said allows “a flexibility of schedule that is really nice. Our sons have never had one day in day care. They've grown up in real estate.”
Steve and Mamie Ogle also work together all day every day, although their successes won't show up on the bottom line of a ledger or spreadsheet.The Ogles are co-pastors of Community Life Church which meets at McQuiston Elementary School, 210 Mechling Drive.“We actually preach together. We team teach on Sundays,” said Steve Ogle.Mamie Ogle said, “We started the church. We finished 12 years in November.”The two met Eastern Michigan University in 1975 and married in 1977.After three years of living in California, they moved to Butler where she worked as a nurse and he as a painting contractor until they felt the calling to the church, Mamie Ogle said.The Ogles said they were part of the Victory Family Church in Cranberry Township for 10 years and on the church staff for four years until 2004 when they decided to go back to Butler and pioneer a church.Steve Ogle said, “Sometimes it is hard to separate it out because of living together and preaching together.”But they attribute their successful marriage to a higher power.“Our marriage works because we understand the love of God and the fruit of the spirit,” Steve Ogle said. “If you walk in the love of God together, we won't find ourselves in divorce court.”“We are absolutely where we are supposed to be doing what God wants us to do,” he said.
Optometrists Michael and Jennifer McGrath, the husband-and-wife owners of Butler and Chicora Eye Care, are also where they are supposed to be but for family not divine considerations.Michael McGrath said they met while they were both students at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University in Philadelphia.He is from West Virginia and she is from eastern Pennsylvania. They decided to live and work in Butler County as a geographic halfway point between their respective families.Jennifer McGrath, said, “We were actually opposed to working together. He applied for a position and it got so busy, I decided to jump aboard.”“It's the best of both worlds,” she said. “We try to leave most of the business out of the home because family comes first.”Michael McGrath said, “We make it a point that work doesn't come home. We try to leave work at work.”“Most of the time we are not together in the same place,” he said. “I think it is a great thing. As much as we love each other, she doesn't want to spend every waking moment with me.”
For Jim and Shelly McLaughlin, co-owners of Brose's Superette at the corner of South Main Street and Rockenstein Avenue, a meat market and smokehouse deli that the two operate, working together every day for the past seven years has created its own problem.The two of them work together Tuesday through Saturday.“I take the meats, she takes the deli, just like mom and dad did,” said Jim.The constant togetherness doesn't create friction between the two, Jim said, but there are some unexpected consequences.“Sometimes when you get off, you have nothing left to talk about. You see each other all day,” said Jim.That's why it's important to spend some time apart, said Shelly.“I do paintings, a variety of paintings. I go to the movies a lot,” she said.“I drink beer,” said Jim. “I built a little shed out back where I tinker. There's a '66 Charger that I'm re-doing.”When asked how they keep the business from crowding the romance out of their relationship, Shelly said, “We wing it.”Jim suggested frequent getaways to their favorite spa in Sandusky, Ohio, goes a long way to easing out the kinks both physical and emotional.“I have no problem working together. It's just the business that gets frustrating,” he said.Steve Ogle said, “We do take alone time. I really like to bow hunt, so I have some alone time there.”Alone time isn't something the Sebocks experience.“We do everything as a family unit,” Pete Sebock said.Harmony in a marriage can translate into a harmonious business.
Bus company owner Jerry Campbell added, “We do work fairly good together. She's worked as hard as I have. She's cleaned buses, whatever it took,” he said.They were able to spin off Campbell Bus Lines of Slippery Rock as a separate business run by their sons Art and Todd.The elder Campbells are assisted in their own business by their daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Troy Hull.Janet Campbell said, “He comes here (West Sunbury) and I go to Slippery Rock two or three days a week. I'm the secretary, pay the bills.”Jerry Campbell said he does whatever needs doing to keep the 50-bus fleet on the road.“I drive a little bit, wash the buses, do some repairs and stuff,” he said.“It just works,” said Jennifer McGrath of their working arrangement. “I like the Chicora office. It's quiet and more calm than Butler. Butler is busy.”Julie Sebock said, “He is my best friend. I trust him wholly in the business. Half the time when a decision needs to be made, I know what he is going to say already. We just know each other.”
