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Photo of the Month
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September 2009:
Defiance, Ohio, Murphy’s Mart Grand Opening, 1976
In small communities of Ohio and Indiana where the G.C. Murphy Co. was at its strongest, the opening of a new 60,000 or 70,000-square-foot Murphy’s Mart was a big occasion, attended by Company executives and local dignitaries.
Dale Wanting of Sarasota, Fla., was a 32-year Murphy employee who helped open three new Marts before his 1980 retirement. He sends along the following photos and captions.
Opening Day store crew group photo, May 20, 1976.
Pete Shuppy, assistant to the regional manager, G.C. Murphy Co.; unidentified Murphy employee; R.G. and Mrs. Hook; unidentified Murphy employee; Defiance Chamber of Commerce representative; Dale Wanting, general manager of the Defiance Murphy’s Mart; Delores Wanting; Bob Smeltz; shopping center owner; Chuck Henderson, regional manager, G.C. Murphy Co.
Management team: Dale Wanting, Ann Cheek, G.L. Schulte, L. Duchow, G. Bowen, G. Griebel, J. Fawcett, B. Yaros, R. Abraham, unidentified, J. Hasselschwert, unidentified restaurant manager, R. Hook.
Wanting started with the Company as a stockboy in his hometown of Streator, Ill., in 1949, then transferred to Hoopeston, Ill., as a trainee assistant manager.
"From 1950 to 1958, I served as an assistant manager in G.C. Murphy stores at Streator, Ill.; Hartford City, Ind. (a Morris store); Franklin, Ind.; and Louisville, Ky. (a new store opening),” he says. “In 1958, I was promoted to store manager at Greensburg, Ind. (an old Morris store) and then to a Murphy store manager at Noblesville, Ind.”
Dale later worked as a store manager at the Streator location before becoming operations manager of the new Murphy’s Marts at Pekin, Ill., and Ft. Wayne, Ind., and general manager of the Defiance Murphy’s Mart. He retired from the Murphy Co. in 1980 after 32 years, and later went back to work as a Wal-Mart manager.
(Previous photo: April 2009, Paintsville, Ky., store)
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