By Ricky Doc Sauceda
In 1987 I had quit college to pursue my wife and reunite with her and to be with my son and daughter, who were ages four and three. I was living with my mother in the Rio Grande Valley and going to college at Pan American University. My wife had been working, gotten fired, was miserable being an in-law and just couldn’t take it any more.
I first worked as a pharmacy counter clerk for a bit. I actually walked back and forth to work each day so my wife could drive our car to her job. Before I joined her in Houston, she was getting rides from her sisters who lived close by. I eventually joined the place of her employment to work nights. She used the car for her day job and I used it at night for my job. It worked out well for us.
The job was good and this is where I met the most inspiring man I have ever known, George Gavrilos. He was the owner of A&G Wholesalers, Inc. and the relative of the owners of Christie’s Seafood restaurants and he had the favor of the traditional Greek community. They admired his work ethic and gave him the majority of their business, which included Pappas Restaurants, Damaris BBQ, Vasos BBQ and a string of small restaurants that were Greek owned in and around Houston. George was from Greece, of course.
This story is about Richard Dahn. I met him while working those nights with A&G. I had earned trust with George and he made me Night Manager of the business within a year’s time. I was coping with the issue of purchasing items that we were short on or didn’t stock. The practice of price gouging was common from competitors in the market and if you needed additional inventory to cover the shipments it was costly to do.
I had difficulty with one particular business that would gouge beyond logic. I discovered my boss was calling the business back during the day to adjust to more reasonable prices. I also found I could order items before the night crews came in for their shifts. I started my work at 4:pm and the other night people didn’t arrive until 6:pm or later.
I started going over our customer orders and tallying the items we needed. I called and placed orders for the short items before the other night people even had a chance to know what was happening. I would also drive a bobtail around the market and do pick ups before the day crews went home. I even found a place to call at night that was fair with us on prices – Kalil Produce. The gentleman I dealt with was Richard Dahn and he became a friend.
He was always personable and easygoing – my kind of people. We would talk about an array of things and he took our orders and good care of us at A&G. This is how to properly conduct business: establish a good rapport with your customer, be courteous and be reliable. One of our drivers lived in the North area of town and would do the pick ups on his way to work mostly each day. My boss was very pleased by this approach.
Richard left Kalil and went out on his own to sell herbs. He built a nice relationship with herb farms that supplied Kalil and decided to do it for a living. He set up shop with another company in our market, Raymond’s Produce. I would go and visit with both of them and we always had good talks. These were the days I am most fond of in my life in relation to work. I felt connected to the people and was part of them.
I left this life to venture into restaurant management. The structure of health insurance, career ladder, rewards and opportunities for management growth drew me like a fly to honey. It would turn out to be the costliest mistake of my life to date. I had a chance to return and left again only to find out the lesson that I should have stayed where God had placed me.
Before coming to Houston I had prayed for the Lord to tell me what to do. Stay in school or go to my little family in Houston. With the assistance of my three-year-old daughter, I chose to go to them. On a visit to Houston she asked,” Daddy, when are we going to be together again?”
I returned to the fresh produce industry after a bout with diabetes type II in October of 1992. I posted a story on this some time ago, so I won’t elaborate. In February of 1993, I began a seventeen-year odyssey with Schoenmann Produce Co. The man who price gouged me when I was with A&G asked me to interview for a job. God placed me where He wanted me, and I stayed put.
The window of time from when I rehabilitated and got back on my feet and joined Schoenmann is the place where my story on Richard is focused. As I look back now, I see the connection. I can see how we as friends in life endured, moved forward and chose what path to follow with God’s blessings.
God chooses who gets what, and judges our hearts to gauge what we are given. He loves us and will correct us if we cause Him to. Even to the point of taking us before we ruin our destiny to be with Him eternally. Ecclesiastes and Jeremiah teach us these things about life.
God had given Richard a new life. While I was away toiling in futility with the restaurant business, my friend had moved out of that loft in Raymond’s warehouse and moved to his own building off of Griggs Rd. I visited with Richard when I was working with a small company trying to build them into a competitor. He had a good operation and was successful beyond his wildest dreams. I was amazed by the growth of the business and I marveled at the things he said were taking place in his life.
However, there were people in his life and business that he allowed to muck up his blessings.One was a woman who was married and ambitious. The other was an employee who had worked as a driver for A&G and Kalil. Unfortunately Richard, the woman and the driver were in a love triangle. I called one day to place an order for herbs but couldn’t get through. I felt something was wrong and drove over to his warehouse. It was taped off and police and EMS were on the scene. The woman’s husband showed up and wanted to know where his wife was.
This is what happened. The day before, the woman revealed to Richard that she was also involved with the driver and that she was attempting to break up. The driver said he would kill her if she ever tried to break up. Richard talked to him and said that he needed to leave the woman alone. So, the next day Richard was sitting at his desk with a gun nearby, but was taking an order from the son of the man who would ask me to interview for a job later on.
Before Richard had a chance to grab his gun, the driver quickly entered the office with a Tech 9 and killed him, found the woman and shot her and then climbed up onto a refrigerated cooler and shot himself. This is how the life of my friend ended. To this day, it makes me shiver. The thought that he had overcome divorce, suffering and was blessed with gifts and bounty from the Lord and to lose his life over a married woman…is hard to bear.
We must live in the Light and on the path of the Lord. Never allow success to overpower your conscience and decision-making. Honor God with your life and treasure. It is the Lord who gives them to you.