Page 6 - Scene Magazine 46-04 April 2021

Did You Know?
BY KATHY BANFIELD SHAW
for all athletes at the college level? In 1995 Patti Hubbard was working for the athletic department at Western Michigan University and was having to type forms in triplicate for every athlete competing at the school. She contacted the NCAA office and asked if she could create forms on the com- puter that would tie into their system rather than type three copies of every form. They thought that would be great... and so she did!
Patti has held a number of jobs
in the greater Battle Creek area in addition to her responsibilities as wife, mother, and co-owner with husband Bob, of Hubbard Plumbing aka Roto Rooter Plumbing and Drain Services. She’s back at Hubbard Plumbing now but told me about her other jobs that included Leila Hospital, W. K. Kel- logg Foundation, and WMU’s Athletic Department. “I so enjoyed my job at Western,” she said. “I was there for about a year and it was truly a breath of fresh air... exactly what I needed.” She has lots of stories of the people who worked in the Athletic Depart- ment including current director, Kathy Beauregard and Father John Flecken- stein... just ask, I’m sure she’ll share.
269-965-2979
www.shawcommunication.com
T. R. Shaw Jr. Co-Founder / CEO / 269-209-5555 cell / TRSBCMI@gmail.com Kathy Shaw Co-Founder / President / 269-209-9719 cell / KSBANFSH@gmail.com
6 SCENE 4604 I WOMEN IN BUSINESS
Did you know one of our own was the person responsible for making upgrades to the way the NCAA creates computer forms
Patti Hubbard
The Roto-Rooter business came to Battle Creek over 40 years ago when Patti’s husband Bob took over from his father who began in Kalamazoo and started Roto-Rooter in Battle Creek. “We serve Battle Creek, Albion, Cold- water and Hillsdale,” she told me. “I remember when we had the business phone in our home and it would ring at 2am... I always had to sound as if I was awake at 2am!” The business started on Jameson, near the Doris Klaussen De- velopment Center and in 1990 moved to their current location on Tower Avenue. Her stories of being the wife of the owner are legendary... such as the night she drove the pump truck to Kalamazoo
to unload it before the valves froze because of the outside temperature.
She said she could drive it but didn’t know how to work the valves properly to unload it. Her brother-in-law would meet her there once she was able to get the truck to Kalamazoo. She strapped the kids into the one seatbelt on the pas- senger side and started the truck only to see the gas gauge on empty. Then when she arrived at the gas station she pulled in on the wrong side of the pump. “The gas station attendant said he knew how to maneuver the truck around the station to get it to the right side of the pumps,” Patti said with a laugh. “Once we had gas we could make the round trip to Kalamazoo before the valves froze.” Just another typical day as the owner of your own business!
Besides working as a phone operator and part-time truck driver, Patti learned many skills at her jobs. “I started working at 13 in a retail shop,” she told me. From her stories Patti has never not worked. She and Bob had three daugh- ters, Sandra, Linda, and Susan. “Linda passed away in 2014 and we miss her,” she said. “Bob and I were married just after I graduated from high school and I began working for Comstock Schools part-time and did that for ten years.” It was her office experience that helped her with the family business. “I finally convinced my husband that purchasing a computer and systems for billing and retaining client records was worth the investment.” Listening to Patti I came to realize how much she added to every business she worked for. She told me about learning and training others on new systems in each of the places she worked.
Besides always helping the family business and working either full-time or part-time outside the home, Patti went back to school earning her Associate Degree at Kellogg Community College and after reviewing the colleges avail- able chose Spring Arbor to receive her Bachelor’s Degree in 2004.
“I’ve lived by the rules my mother once told me,” Patti said. “You can have anything as long as you work for it.”