Unlikely Merger Authors: Our Business Influences Day 2

This week Write Integrity finishes up revealing chapters from the sequel to The Love Boat Bachelor, Unlikely Merger. Starting June 20 you can vote for the hero you want Mercy to end up with. [tweetthis]Unlikely Merger will release on Amazon July 1 and it will be FREE July 1-5.[/tweetthis]

To celebrate, this week the authors are sharing what business people inspired them. Today we have Raelee Carpenter.

Raelee Carpenter:

My grandpa. His mom was a single mom, and he started a little penny arcade when he was still a kid to help her out. When he grew up, he supported a family of six kids as an entrepreneur.

The business person that inspired me was the CEO of what was Corning Glass when I was growing up, Amo Houghton, Jr. He might be more widely known as a congressman but overall and especially in Corning, NY, “Amo” is known as a class act.

Even though I was too young to remember, in 1972 our area was devastated by a flood that stemmed from Hurricane Agnes. It was horrific, people still talk about it. It was Amo who took not only Corning Glass by the horns and led them out of the disaster, he took the entire city and encouraged them they would come out better on the other side.

Because of his vision, he convinced Corning to look at the disaster as an opportunity to look ahead. They revitalized the company and the city. Corning ended up flourishing. Twenty miles down the river was the city of Elmira. There was no plan in place. They never recovered. (I’ve been gone for 11 years so I haven’t been to Elmira, but growing up I can say Elmira struggled post flood.)

But for his vision and encouragement, Amo is known as a nice guy. I know people that spoke with him, ate with him and despite the Houghton money, he was down to earth. My sister-in-law back then told me she went to his door to sell him a calendar and he was very kind and bought one.

If you visit Corning for any length of time I think you’d be hard pressed to be there and not hear about Amo. And while visiting places, look for the signs that show the flood stage from 1972. The waters were very high.

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