Sharing Memories on Sunday - Stuelke Enterprises, West Branch

Sharing Memories on Sunday - Stuelke Enterprises, West Branch


We arrived in West Branch in October 1968. As I mentioned on Thursday, we immediately set about building a house with the idea that we would be in West Branch for a long time. Well, such optimism is great, but it doesn't always come true.

With the 'green-eye-shade' firmly in place, metaphorically, I did get the company books in good shape over the coming months. The results of these efforts plus changes in the regulatory environment led to very unexpected changes in the near future.

Many facets of the company finances looked very good. Management was good, based on what was known going into this entrepreneurial set of activities. However, as Medicare and Medicaid regulations came into focus, it became obvious certain of Dr. Stuelke's business plan assumptions had turned out to be incorrect, and were not sustainable. The best example, as I recall a couple of details, was Physical Therapy. With two nursing homes, he had hired an outstanding physical therapist who also added excellent management skills to his team… full-time, 40 hours a week of billable time. The new regulations, however, turned out to only allow 8 hours reimbursement per week per nursing home (again, as I recall it now). That meant he was paying for three days of high-level medical care costs weekly that would not have an applicable revenue stream. The were other, similar situations, as well.

The meaning of this, and other related revelations, was that he either would need to add more nursing homes - or, sell out to a bigger operation that was capable of spreading their costs over a wider base. He was not in a position to buy even one more nursing home.

In the meantime, of course, our second chance at a third daughter had arrived. Arrion was born in September 1969 in the hospital near Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. We have lots of photos of her arrival home, including visits by grandparents, aunts and uncles. This is the one, a few months later, that I was able to put my hands on, today.

 [Arrion, Annette, and Allison - aren't they sweet!]

Dr. Stuekle was able to find a buyer for his nursing homes. Of course, they had their own business manager and accounting department. Our time in West Branch came to an end in about a year.

Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., the CPA firm from GE, and here in West Branch, was opening a new Management Consulting firm 'alongside' their accounting services in the Des Moines office. I accepted a position as one of their first four consultants there. It seemed a perfect match (heard that before?!). [Richard Nixon had seemed a 'perfect match' for the Presidency recently, as well.]

We moved to Des Moines, actually suburban Urbandale, on Halloween. The older girls were a bit upset, we missed Halloween in West Branch, and, we missed it in Urbandale. Off to great start. On the flip side… we did stay in Urbandale from October 1969 until July 1983!  ;-)


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Those Places Thursday - West Branch II

Those Places Thursday - West Branch II

This is the US Steel House that we built in West Branch - this photo was taken quite a number of years later - there were no tree or landscaping when we were there! We built the house with the idea that we would be there, in this really neat small Iowa town, for many year.

The school was a few blocks over the hill back over my left shoulder, as I took this photo. My office and 'downtown' were a few blocks over my right shoulder, likewise. It was a nice house. This was 1968-69.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Sharing Memories Sunday - On to West Branch, Iowa, from Schenectady, NY

Sharing Memories Sunday
On to West Branch, Iowa, from Schenectady, NY


On Those Places Thursday this past week, I began to talk about moving to West Branch, Iowa. To do this, of course, I left General Electric as we discussed a bit earlier (my goodness, that was back in March, how time flies!).

The details are relatively unimportant, at this point, but a Dr. Stuelke, a physician based in West Branch (he also had a medical practice office in Iowa City) owned two nursing homes and a hardware store and some real estate in addition to his medical practices. He was an entrepreneur - Stuelke Enterprises was my employer. His financial advisor with Peat, Marwick (out of Cedar Rapids - the same national CPA firm I was working with at GE) had recommended for some time that he hire a Business Manager. His accounting records were falling behind, and, Medicare rules and regulations were just coming into existence that would be having a major impact on his business plans, the advisor told him (as I recall).

Anyway, his needs appeared to fit my desires to return to the mid-west, and we had a baby on the way. We got moved to Iowa and into the little rental house, mentioned on Thursday, while Nancy was still able to travel (that is a story for another day, by her!). Upon arrival, I put on my 'green eye shade' and got to work setting up a decent set of accounting records, by department, that he would need in order to understand where he stood with his business interests (using my GE learned accounting procedures). Quite a different environment and scale of operations, but I was very pleased to have the opportunity and I was really enjoying what I was doing.

[I didn't really wear a 'green-eye-shade' but the concentration was the same - neat image!]

Being back in Iowa was nice, too, of course, being much closer (at least in the same state) with both of our families. We settled in, of course, with the girls in school.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Those Places Thursday - West Branch I

Those Places Thursday - West Branch I

This photo, that shows up on Easters, from time to time, is from April 1969. It is inside the little brown house we lived in for several months as our new house was being build - we'll see it next week. I have not found a photo of the outside of this little house, but nothing much lost.

We moved here from Schenectady, NY, to West Branch, IA, near Iowa City. West Branch, of course, is the birthplace of Herbert Hoover and site of his Presidential Library and Museum. The front of the museum, in the link, faces east. Walk perhaps six blocks east and a couple south, and you would be at our little house. It was on a side hill... I suspect you could see it, if you stood outside the house behind where Annette sits in the photo above. This is a classic photo of Allison, holding the egg. So neat! ;-)

Families are Forever! ;-)