In the mid-1970s, the Federal Business Development Bank and the Chamber of Commerce of the day named John Row, the president of Crossroads Construction, as the Prince George businessman of the year. Here is his story in a nutshell.
John was born in 1931, just north of Prince Albert, Sask. In fact, he was delivered by his father at their homestead. He left the farm at the tender age of 16 and headed to southern Alberta for a job in construction. He moved to Nanaimo in 1950 for a six-month construction job and then moved back to southern Alberta.
In 1964 he moved to Prince George for work on the construction of the pulp mills and he has been here ever since. He started working for Crossroads Construction and bought the company in 1972.
John said, "I used to employ 200 construction workers. I got into the habit of putting the coffee on early every morning; that meant I had to be there before 7 a.m. My union workers would arrive well before their 8 a.m. shift for their coffee and we would talk about the jobs and all it cost me was the coffee. I called it managing for success.
"We were a success and some of my employees worked for the company for 24 years with an average length of employment of eight years. Pete Jensen worked for the company for 36 years until he retired. We are still good friends today.
"The company is a lot smaller now; my son is the manager and we have only two employees. I semi-retired in 1995 but I still act as a consultant if they need me."
Over the years, Crossroads Construction built the Victoria Medical Building, the addition for Reid's Prescriptions, the Phoenix Medical Clinic, Lakewood Dental, the new Civic Centre, numerous schools and the Library Commission building at Quinn and 15th Avenue. His company worked on the construction of the Northwood, Intercontinental and the Prince George Pulp mills, as well as B.C. Chemicals Ltd.
They contracted all the way south to Castlegar, north to Fort Nelson, west to Prince Rupert, east to Grimshaw Alta. and everything in between. John was an inspector on the University of Northern B.C. building project for eight years.
John met Mary Riediger in 1952. Mary was born in 1933, on the Oxly Ranch, in Stavely, Alta.
She had a twin brother and comes from a family of five girls and three boys.
John was doing some construction work south of Calgary and the wife of his boss just happened to be making Mary's graduation dress.
Mary said, "I already had my eye on John and his car. I watched him drive by in his Model A and I fell in love with the car. Two years went by before I actually met him. His boss told him about me and told him to look me up sometime when he was in Calgary and he did. I let him chase me until I caught him. We married in 1955 and we will celebrate 64 years of marriage in May.
"I was attending business college in Calgary when John looked me up. After college I worked for the federal government in the office of the agricultural department in plant products.
"When the children started to arrive, I quit work and became a stay at home mom. I enjoyed being at home with my children. I sewed all their clothes and did lots of knitting. We grew a large garden and I either froze or canned all the produce."
John and Mary have four children: Karen (Bob) Rutherford, Jack (deceased), Cheryll Johnson and Graham (Becky). They have seven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
John has been a member of the Rotary Club since 1978, the Shriners since 1968 and he has been a member of the Masonic Lodge since 1966. He has served as a director for the Prince George Construction Association for about 38 years and a trustee of the Carpentry Apprenticeship Joint Board.
Mary was a member of the Daughters of the Nile for 28 years until the group folded and she sang with the Sweet Adelines for 28 years until her voice wore out.
She was a member of the Master Bowlers Association, developed her skills, became a Master Bowler and taught youth bowling from 1968 to 1982. Mary said, "I taught many great kids from the ages of seven to 12 years of age. I took a team to the Provincial Zone Championships and from there we went on to the nationals.
John concluded by saying, "We moved to Prince George in 1964 with the intention of only staying here for five years. That was 55 years ago and we are still here. Prince George has been a great place to raise a great family.
"We took winter vacations for 30 years but I stayed in touch with the office every day. Now, because of health issues, we spend our winters here at home.
="I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers, construction associates and suppliers and all the wonderful people we met along the way to our retirement."
