Bremen Native Earns National Business Honor
By Mike Siroky
Gary Summy, Bremen High school Class of 1968, has never forgotten his small-town roots.
He was awarded the prestigious Sales Trainer of the Year award from The Forum Corporation, as announced in Sales & Marketing Management magazine. Gary is a trainer with Motorola, based in Cleveland.
�The award, sponsored by in conjunction with SMM, is designed to recognize top performers in the sales and marketing fields who go above and beyond the call of duty and set examples for their industries. We had an incredible group of talent this year," said SMM Editor-in-Chief Melinda Ligos. "The applicant pool was so competitive, it wasn't enough just to do your job well or post impressive revenue figures. Nobody won for putting up big numbers.
�Every recipient either invented a clever new approach to conducting business or designed a unique and innovative solution to a difficult problem."
Among the business problems winners solved were issues related to the 9/11 disasters. Patrice Spinner, Director of Alliance Accounts for Marriott International, orchestrated the relocation of global professional services firm Deloitte & Touche from the heavily damaged World Financial Center to the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square in a matter of days. And Mine Safety Appliances Company, a Pittsburgh-based manufacturer of personal protective equipment, diverted its pending shipments to Ground Zero. There, the company set up a trailer for respirator fitting that remained open 24-7 throughout the entire cleanup process.
The awards recognize such innovations as E&J; Gallo Winery's development of the first empirically proven technique for marketing wine in chain stores-a feat directed by recipient John Parke, Gallo's managing director for national chain accounts. And the marketing team at Jacksonville, Florida-based Unison Industries clinched an award for its marketing campaign whose mascot earned a place in New York's Museum of American Illustration while helping to boost sales 70 percent.
Among the firms represented by the winners are five Fortune 1000 companies: Verizon (11), Motorola (56), Marriott International (189), NCR Corporation (304), and Standard Register (991). Despite the competition among hundreds of nominees from dozens of different companies, four firms had multiple winners.
It is an achievement for Gary which started with the work ethic he learned in his hometown and carried through to graduation from DePauw University and into the corporate world.
�How did I end up in sales training . . . I guess it started with my first real job, with the old Dodge Manufacturing plant in Mishawaka,� he said. �Then, in �73. I really left the area for good, when Dodge moved me to Texas and I had responsibility for half of the state.�
He was based in Dallas and Houston. His boss took the job with Motorola and brought his top man along to Cleveland, in 1977.
In 1982, he married his bride, Laurie. They have two children, Kyle Stephanie, 17, and Greg, 14.
They live in a Cleveland suburb, a small town not unlike the one in which Gary grew up.
He has the fancy title, �Leadership, Learning and Performance: Motorola University. Principal Solutions Manager: The Customer Experience.�
�I deal with the Motorola sales organization, training internal sales people, a great group,� he said.
But the hometown roots run deep. His sister, Susan Mishler, and her husband, Jim, still live in Bremen. Gary came back to attend a niece�s graduation last year. Susan is Bremen High School, Class of �71. Their daughters are Kate and Emily. His mom, Mary Ann Underwood, was from Plymouth and his dad, Russell D. Summy, owned and operated Summy Drugs in Bremen from the 1940s to the 1970s.
�Now that I come back, the old �cruise,� from where the root beer stand used to be to the turnaround where (U.S.) 6 comes into town, that�s still there,� said Gary. �But the whole town has grown up. We had just gotten the (now gone) KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) when I graduated and that was s a big deal. Now, there�s fast food places.
�Ted Huber, he was my idol. What an athlete. Marty, his little brother, was a few years behind me.
�I remember we had our prom in the high school gym and the After-Prom at the VFW. Then you�d go to the Bremen Theater and they�d show a movie for us on the one screen, then back to the VFW for breakfast. You could get a lot of things done in Bremen.
�It was a great place to grow up. Where we live, in a suburb, is sort of like that, a small-town atmosphere.
�But Bremen is still Bremen. Like I said, my dad was from Bourbon and my mom from Plymouth. Every Sunday. we�d go to Sunday dinner at the grandparents� place. As we came back to town, it was always a contest between my sister and I to see who could spot the Bremen Standpipe first. That�s a memory I�ll never forget.
�And it�s still there. Some things about your hometown never change.�
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