Working with Dad

We'll always be grateful that Mom and Dad gave Larry his first job after he graduated from BYU. He had offers in Idaho and California, but when Dad called and said they needed some help in the insurance business if we were interested. That sounded the best to us. We wanted to get back in the Duncan area.

Larry only worked for them a little over a year before we realized that he business couldn't support two families, but that was a year when Larry got to know and love Dad as I did. It was a real blessing to us. When the opportunity came to go to work for Phelps Dodge, it was a tough decision because Larry enjoyed their relationship so much!

One of the first assignments Dad gave Larry was to go see if he could collect on some bad debts left over from the Western Auto closing. There were several people that had bought appliances that had only made one or two payments on them. Larry said sure, he could do it and he proceeded to call on these people one by one.

I guess he told them something to the effect that if they didn't start making payments, the would have to repossess them. The very next day one little lady came in with tears in her eyes and made a payment. She said, "Please, please Mr. McGrath, don't take back my refrigerator." Two or three other also had similar results and Dad wouldn't let Larry go out anymore. He would rather have had bad debts than a bad relationship with people.

this was taken from "Memories of Dad" by Evelyn McGrath Rapier