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Hogard's Legacy
Florence Hogard was a self-starting, 40-something homemaker, wife and mother of teenagers in 1960 when, through a friend, she learned of a business opportunity she could manage from home. Out of the shed behind her farm on her rural Kankakee, Illinois property, Florence started bookkeeping for A.O. Smith Harvestore. Soon, she began handling mailing the company's newsletter, the Harvestore Farmer, and eventually also responded to Harvestore's inquiries generated by the Farmer and other Harvestore mailings. Hogard Business Services was taking off.
Meanwhile, Myrna Sullivan, after growing up in Bradley and finishing school in Bradley in the mid fifties, worked as a timekeeper for Gould's Batteries. Myrna took time out to have each of her children, returning to work shortly after each birth. In 1963, Myrna went to work for Ad-Mail, and she supplemented her work typing for Hogard's as well. "I tore apart that Olympia manual typewriter! I could turn out 200 to 300 envelopes in an hour," Myrna proudly recalls.
In 1971, Florence took over Direct Mail Marketing, including management of the one part-time and two full-time employees who were handling A.O.Smith. The new company owner/manager quickly leased a rural Kankakee warehouse for the necessary space, which by 1972 was outgrown. Florence moved Hogard's to a 6,000 square foot location, at least 3 to 4 times the space held formerly.
By the late seventies, in addition to working with A.O. Smith's literature and inquiries, Hogard's manually typed invoices, assembled manuals, and began stocking a few caps and gloves. Another of Florence's clients then was General Foods, for whom Hogard's processed fulfillment, dealing with coupons and promotions, and labeling and bulking product for such brands as Minute Rice and Maxwell House Coffee. Perhaps Myrna's extensive experience packaging and shipping Sanka, Top Choice dog food samples, Tapioca cookbooks, Jell-O recipe cards and Cool Whip trivets that equipped them so well to handle what A.O. Smith's "....few caps and gloves" would later become.
When Florence Hogard sold her business to Champaign, Illinois businessman, Chuck Taylor in 1980, she stayed on for a brief transition with five employees, two of whom were dedicated to A.O. Smith full time. Hogard's became incorporated. Florence retired just before the Christmas holidays, and within a few short weeks, 1981 became a heartbreaking year for Myrna, whose long-time employer and friend, Florence Hogard, passed away. Then Myrna's husband, Fred, a former A.O.Smith Kankakee plant employee, passed away, as did another fellow Hogard's employee.
Still the trooper, in 1982 Myrna Sullivan took over management of Hogard Business Services, Inc. and its three employees. She wasted no time training Barb Saffell to handle A.O. Smith activity.
A major fire almost destroyed Hogard's in 1984. Myrna persevered, working with the owner to refurbish and replace everything but the only two surviving pieces of equipment.
In 1986, Myrna became the proud owner of Hogard Business Services, a company she says "has always been a family business with A.O. Smith." As business continued flourishing, Myrna brought her daughter, Helen, into the company.
In 1989 Hogard's clients were expanding at a rapid rate so that they outgrew their building. Myrna bought the building next door to house some of Hogard's new clients. At that time Helen ran the annexed building while Myrna ran the main building. It was nothing for Helen to get a show order late in the afternoon that had to go out that day. Helen would scramble to get the pens, key tags, paper bags and lapel pins gathered, packed and out the door in time for the shipments to get to the customer.
Helen likes the challenge of getting an order late in the day and having to push to get it out, then be able to sit back, breathe and know that she has accomplished the task at hand. Helen does a lot of special things like measuring out jelly beans, putting them into a cello bag or box and then affixing a label to close the product. Helen is a hands on person. It does not bother her to do tedious jobs. She also packs customer packages to send wherever the customer desires them shipped to. She has packed and shipped anything includeing cement geese, drum set, antique dishes and/or large model airplanes just to name a few.
Today Hogard's is the fulfillment house for eight companies and we provide mailing services to 20 other firms. On average, Hogard's can process, fold & insert by hand, seal, meter, and mail 30,000 pieces in three days. We are a Personalized production and service company.
All four of Myrna Sullivan's children and four grandchildren have worked, both professionally and philanthropically, at Hogard's. "I've worked all my life, and worked for myself most of it. I just love it, and can't imagine ever doing anything else. After my family," Myrna adds, "work is just the most fun." Two of my grandchildren aren't old enough to work in the business, but they loved to come to grandma's work because they could ride on our packing carts on the long isle that we have in the warehouse. She has a total of 6 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.
Helen has been married to her husband, Mike for 27 years. They have a daughter, Nicholle. In her free time she loves to knit and spend time with her family. Helen has worked at Hogard's for 24 years.
Next to "talking with the (AOS) guys," Myrna's favorite part of her job is putting everything back together after chaos comes and goes. Complementing her style is Barb, who says she most enjoys processing and balancing at month's end, along with trouble-shooting. Barb and Bob, her husband, enjoy two children and six grandchildren.
Myrna announces emphatically that she has no intention of retiring....ever!. The entrepreneur says she's constantly coming up with new ideas, and will eventually get around to them all.
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