User:Vaoverland/aboutme
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Personal Information for Wikipedian Vaoverland
Basics, current home, summary
My real name is Mark Fisher. And, while I was born elsewhere, I have been living in Virginia for the past 50 years, most of that time in the Richmond area. My career has been mostly in bus transportation, and includes many types of public service transportation of passengers, such as school bus services, commuter service, paratransit, charters, and so forth. Basically, I enjoy almost anything bus-related.
My user name Vaoverland derives from Virginia Overland Transportation, a multi-service bus company based in Richmond, Virginia which I helped found in 1973 with my parents, Ruth and Marvin Fisher. Virginia Overland began as a part-time consulting service, as we all 3 had other employment. However, soon it grew to include several bus dealerships and provision of a wide range of mostly localized transportation such as school bus, commuter, paratransit and charter services. Beginning in 1976, as transit operations converted to public operations, and officials of the state department of education fought against school bus contracting using questionable self-generated statistics to coerce districts, we began consolidating a number of other small Virginia bus companies, some with heritages dating back to the streetcar and interurban era as early as 1915. The companies and operations were not the larger ones, such as the citywide public transit systems in of Richmond, Norfolk, Roanoke, and so forth, nor were they major operators in longer distance travel such as commonly performed with motorcoaches which were designed for intercity services, such as most of those operated by Greyhound and Trailways. Rather, the companies which became part of Virginia Overland were mostly suburban, short interurban, and and school bus operators. The largest operated 66 buses. These companies were essentially too small to be very attractive to the national consolidation efforts and financial business models of companies such as ATE, ARA Transportation, etc., at that time.
With each such acquisition customarily came both valuable advice and financing from the retiring former owners. Building upon such a rich and diverse background, Virginia Overland grew to eventually operate the second-largest fleet of contracted school buses in the state, and was the only one to have more than a single school division under contract in the 1980s.
Despite our company's growth and national trends, in Virginia, public school contracting was a losing battle, with the last conversion to district self-operation taking place in 1996. One of our leaders, a retired Lt. Colonel from the U.S. Navy, ruefully labeled this trend in Virginia as "reverse privatization" as the last school division to contract finally stopped trying to resist the state bureaucracy. Despite that, and the demise of Wayne Corporation in August 1992, which had been our principal dealership franchisor, and source of a model of school bus known for its safety features and well-represented in our operations, we continued with university transit, Head Start, suburban commuter service, charters and day camps, as well as new and used bus sales and fleet maintenance services.
My parents wound down their involvement in the early 1990s, and my father succumbed to cancer in 1997. Largely for family health reasons, I became semi-retired from Virginia Overland in 1999, but stayed involved until the business closed in 2004, and became a full-time caregiver. Along with 2 other disabled family members, we moved to Grove, a small community which is still somewhat rural in James City County in the Virginia Peninsula sub-region of the Hampton Roads region. Located about 7 miles southeast of Colonial Williamsburg and 3 miles west of Lee Hall.
The Grove Community and nearby Carter's Grove Plantation on the James River are situated on land which was originally part of Martin's Hundred, first settled by English colonists around 1620. Studying maps, I came to the realization that Grove is located in almost the exact geographic center of the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, which consists of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. This proved an ideal retirement location for us. Nearby, the CSX trains loaded with West Virginia bituminous coal still roll east on Collis P. Huntington's former C&O tracks on their way to the coal piers about 35 miles east at Newport News.
Around here, you cannot go far without coming upon something both historic and interesting. Among my favorite rides is the bucolic Colonial Parkway, which is nearby and offers beautiful views of wildlife and both the James and York Rivers, and connects with the Jamestown Ferry, crossing to Scotland Wharf in Surry County. Both the Colonial Parkway and the Jamestown Ferry are a shunpiker's delight: no tolls or fees! For those seeking more active entertainment, we are only slightly more than a stone's throw from both the award-winning Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park and Water Country USA, one of the country's largest water parks.
Following the passing of the 2 disabled family members in 2006 and 2007, beginning in late 2007, I was able to return to more conventional employment. Initially, I served as a manager of a convenience store at a major gateway exit to Williamsburg from Interstate 64, a few months later joining the staff of a local hotel near the historic area and the College of William and Mary. In both roles, I enjoyed welcoming visitors arriving in this extraordinary community, working throughout 2008 and 2009 on the overnight shifts. Ever the night owl, I soon discovered the wonders of Williamsburg's restored area in the early morning hours after 7 AM but before Duke of Gloucester and other streets are closed to motor vehicle traffic. This is a time when the animals and other aspects of Colonial Williamsburg (CW) are coming alive, an aspect of the old colonial capital which few visitors see. I also joined the CW Good Neighbor Program and enrolled in hospitality training through a cooperative program of the local Chamber of Commerce and Thomas Nelson Community College.
Regretfully, my own health issues forced me to retire at the end of 2009. However, I still stay busy. I am currently one of less than 1,000 active administrators of the English version of Wikipedia, with over 5 years of experience, often mentoring other WP editors. Among millions of registered user accounts on the English Wikipedia, there are less than 1,000 active administrators, so I stay busy with that work, as well as moderating 5 Yahoo Groups which I had founded some years earlier. (My involvement with Wikipedia began in 2002 when it was much smaller. In 2005, a reporter with the Newport News Daily Press (a local newspaper) came by our home, met our family, and did a nice story about my work with Wikipedia while also being a caregiver). Then and now, I love to learn more about things of interest to me and help share through Wikipedia as I do so. I work primarily with Virginia and/or transportation-related articles, especially historical aspects. Because I have lost close family members to prostate cancer, MAC Disease, and Alzheimer's Disease, these are areas of Wikipedia close to my heart where I also contribute and monitor.
I try to reply promptly to requests from readers and fellow Wikipedians which are left on my WP Talk page at User_talk:Vaoverland.
The following sections provide more information about me. Please refer to my main WP user page at User:Vaoverland and my more detailed contributions page at User:Vaoverland/Contributions for more Wikipedia-related details.
Updated Vaoverland (talk) 07:22, 17 May 2010 (UTC)
Youth, education, activities
I was born in Chicago, Illinois, the railroad capital of the United States during the Korean War. Since I was very small, I've always loved and been fascinated by transportation vehicles, including trains, streetcars, interurbans, trolley-buses, school buses, motorcoaches and all other types of buses, and automobiles.
I am old enough to recall the streetcars and electric trolley-buses in Chicago. I recall watching in awe the diesel-electric-powered Zephyr streamliner passenger trains, as well as the groups of steam locomotives headed to scrap on the 3 track main line "racetrack" of Burlington Railroad between Aurora and Chicago. The frequent trains passed within a half block of our home in Downers Grove, a western suburb, and former location of a CB&Q roundhouse.
Shortly after relocating to Virginia in the very hot summer of 1958 (when I was 7 years old), our family began driving on weekend trips to some of the many historic sites and I thus became very interested in the history and geography of the Old Dominion. Among just a few of my earlier memories are our visits to such places as Monticello, Jamestown, Lexington, Natural Bridge, and the many units of the Richmond National Battlefield Park and its neighbor to the south, Petersburg National Battlefield Park. At the latter, I can recall seeing The Crater as well as some other sites such as Fort Sedgwick, also known as "Fort Hell", which have since been lost to development. (Some extant Civil War sites are still threatened by development, although much has been preserved there, and elsewhere in Virginia). Of course, the crown jewel then and now is Colonial Williamsburg where the extensive restoration and recreation of the entire colonial town facilitates envisioning the atmosphere and embracing the ideals of the 1770s-era patriots, many of whom helped mold the beginnings of the democracy we enjoy in Virginia and the United States, even as it is still a work-in-progress.
I attended public schools in Illinois, Kentucky, and Virginia. I believe that phonics training in grades K-1 in Illinois and Kentucky combined with a lot of attention from my Mom (a former school teacher) to help me become a good reader early-on, an activity which I still enjoy a great deal. I was a hyperactive child and only a mediocre pupil in the Chesterfield County Public Schools after we moved to Virginia. My folks learned keeping me busy helped me stay out of trouble (usually). I loved maps and was often our "official navigator" on family outings and our longer trips to visit relatives in other states. I recall the early construction which seemed to be everywhere as the Interstate Highway System began to replace much of the U.S. Highway system, as well as the inevitable "detours" which added time, miles, and variety to our travels. My Dad was confounded by such disruptions of our carefully laid plans, while my Mom saw each diversion as an adventure. Such contrast in perspectives was classic in their partnership, and seemed to help them find a wonderful balance in their marriage, which lasted for over 50 years.
I was active in my church youth groups and choirs, Junior Achievement, and in the Boy Scouts troop sponsored by our church, where I earned the God and Country Award and achieved the rank of Life Scout. During scouting, I first saw submarines and aircraft carriers, touring these and other ships at the massive Naval Station Norfolk at Sewell's Point on Hampton Roads. During such trips, I got to see the wonder of the then-new Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, first of this design, which was almost as fascinating to me as the Navy base.
As soon as I was old enough, I became a bicycle newspaper carrier for the former afternoon Richmond Newsleader, where I won a number of sales awards and was named "Newspaperboy of the Year" in 1965. At 16, with my savings and some funds from my grandmother, I bought my first car, and I took on a massive suburban motor route as a newspaper carrier for the morning Richmond Times-Dispatch, rising each morning at 3 AM to face a mountain of newspaper bundles and miles of driving before high school hours, where I was then known to fall asleep at times. A night owl even back then, as I delivered the news, I usually listened to WRVA, our clear channel AM station. While listening to the all-night Lou Dean Show, I recall first learning the of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King and the riots which followed, closely followed by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy during that terrible spring of 1968. Combined with the Vietnam War, the draft, and the Cold War, it seemed to be a very troubled time for our country and the world.
A happier memory is that I had become licensed as a school bus driver during my junior year of high school and participated in Junior Achievement. I was a Distributive Education (DE) student during my senior year at Huguenot High School (1968-69). At that time, a DE student worked a job which is coordinated with school. Mine was working with a small independent (private) school helping manage a small fleet of automobiles, minibuses and school buses, which as it turned out, began my career path with buses and school transportation.
After high school graduation, while attending community college, during the following two years I worked for Henrico County Public Schools and Richmond City Public Schools (local public school divisions). Because of what they saw as exceptional ability to learn and negotiate routes and deal with contingencies, I was given many different tasks for each school division, rather working with a regular daily route and bus.
Working for public school division and part-time consulting
During the 1970-71 school year, while still a school bus driver for Richmond Public Schools (RPS), I was selected to do special assignments for the Superintendent of Schools' office to accumulate information and statistics the legal team needed during a school desegregation lawsuit, Bradley v. Richmond School Board. In April 1971, Federal District Judge Robert R. Mehrige, Jr., ordered an extensive citywide desegregation busing program. Subsequently, as work was undertaken to implement the plan, I was professionally trained in bus routing logistics by a team of professional transit consultants from ATE Transit Management Company of Cincinnati, Ohio (now part of FirstGroup) hired by the school system to plan the new system.
As the new plan was implemented in the fall of 1971, and the city school bus operation tripled in size, I was in the right place at the right time, so to speak, and became a full-time staff member in pupil transportation, the youngest in Virginia at age 20. Although 60-70 hour work weeks were the norm for each of us on the small salaried staff, it was a fantastic career development for me, greatly aided by top-level school administrators who valued my abilities and dedication and tolerated my youth and inexperience while mentoring me. I stayed with the Richmond school system for 4 more years. For two years, I served as one of 4 area field bus supervisors during each AM and PM operating period for the buses, working middays as the staff routing specialist. Then, I was promoted again to oversee city-wide daily bus operations, serving another 2 1/2 years, until late 1975.
In 1973, my parents, Ruth and Marvin Fisher, and I began a small business which became Virginia Overland. We didn't begin with plans to have our company grow to the size it did. It began as a strictly part-time endeavor, doing school transportation consulting and management work for several small, independent schools and delivering new school buses from Indiana to Virginia for a Carpenter bus body dealer. At that time, I was employed with the Richmond Public Schools, my father was working in the Controller's Office at the headquarters of Reynolds Metals Company in Richmond, and my mother was employed by a small independent school working with a kindergarten program. Each of them had been a teenager during the Great Depression, and together, I believe we made an interesting and balanced team.
Our school transportation consulting and management business seemed to fill an unmet need in our community (Greater Richmond). Despite the fact that the three of us were each employed elsewhere, it kept growing as customers talked to each other and additional ones sought us out. Virtually all of our evenings and weekends were soon consumed with the work of the expanding business.
By the summer of 1975, as we added a handful of local day camps which were operating route buses with counselors driving, we found it necessary to beginning hiring additional people to help out. Our first employee was a long-time family friend who was a student at the University of Virginia on summer break between school terms. That summer, the day camps claimed to have experienced the smoothest and safest summer operations in their recent memory, with leased school buses returned to their owners totally damage free, a first we were told.
That fall, as we began operating a coordinated school bus system for 5 independent schools in the Richmond area, I reluctantly left the city school system and the transportation staff to work in the private-sector full-time. (Always appreciative of my career opportunities and training with the city schools, I was honored to be called back in to assist my former co-workers and newer members of Richmond Schools' in-house staff with major pupil assignment plan and bus routing system changes in 1980 and again in 1990).
Virginia Overland Transportation
At its largest, in the mid-1980s, Virginia Overland Transportation (including subsidiaries) employed 200 persons, and was operating approximately 150 school buses, minibuses, transit buses and motorcoaches with garage-terminal facilities in three central Virginia cities. New and used bus sales averaged 100 per year over 30 years, with a peak sales year of 450 units, also in the mid-1980s. Business conditions and family health considerations each contributed to downsizing and eventually closing the business. But, we certainly had an interesting ride.
Longevity and profitability are surely important measures of business success, and our results were mixed at best. However, by another important criteria, we did extremely well. Despite the risks delivering literally millions of passengers rides, we never had a fatal accident. I have been told often by experts in the field of bus safety that, in this regard, we substantially defied the statistical odds of such a catastrophe. Such tragedies had occurred earlier to others who had led companies which we acquired, and happened to competitors and several self-operating school divisions during the years we operated. (Although not involved, several of us had the sad experience of working with some people close to the tragedy at Carrollton Kentucky in 1988 which killed 27 and injured 34 more).
In contemplating Virginia Overland, whether one credits God, fate, luck, other factors, etc., to sparing us from even a single fatality over a 30 year period, we strongly felt it was largely attributed to a tremendous commitment to safety by the drivers and mechanics, as well as those of us who worked to support them. Our heavy concentration of Wayne Lifeguard bodies may have contributed to our good fortune. In 1982, at our Petersburg operation, a 1973 model Wayne Lifeguard school bus transporting 41 elementary school children was struck broad-side at an intersection by a city fire truck which had gone through a red traffic signal without stopping while responding to an alarm.
The school bus was rocked violently, but after the fire truck literally bounced off of it (rather than penetrating the body), the school bus driver was able to regain control and bring it to a safe stop. The fire truck was spun 180" and its front was demolished. All 3 firefighters were hospitalized. The bus driver and all children were transported to the hospital as well. One child on the bus had suffered a broken arm; the rest were mostly scared but uninjured.
Later examination of the school bus revealed that the impact of the massive fire truck had failed to overcome the great strength of the Wayne Lifeguard construction and the guard rails. Investigators were amazed to discover that despite a bulge of several inches on the longitudinal interior panel, there had been no all-the way through penetration of the passenger compartment whatsoever, no joint separation, and no sharp edges created. Instead, they found the substantial impact stress had been shared over a widespread area along the entire structure of the passenger compartment "box", protecting the occupants as intended by the design.
In addition to that remarkable safety record, the fact is that we did a lot of good work and served many worthy clients, delivering dependable innovative services within budget limitations. We also did a lot public service work, whether we were properly compensated or not. And, we also managed to still have a lot of fun, at least most of the time.
Early years
The corporation which became Virginia Overland Transportation was formed in 1973, but that name was not adopted until 1975 as we expanded from consulting and management to doing a lot more. Both 1975 and 1976 turned out to be watershed years for our small company, as we became both a small bus operating company and dealership. In September, 1975, we began operating school buses with a fleet of 10 school buses, all lease-purchased by us from the schools we served. By combining routes for five independent schools in the southwest quadrant of the metropolitan area into a single transportation system, we achieved significant efficiencies over separate operations. Highly-motivated by the savings, the administrators of the schools worked hard to coordinate operating hours and schedules and things like disciplinary policies to make the system work, and it did. Within several months, other independent schools in the area were requesting similar services. We added 3 more schools in the West End of Richmond at mid-term, and six more in the North side and East End areas the following fall. By the start of our second school year, the original 10 school bus operation had grown to 30 units, with about 2/3 lease-purchased from the schools we were serving.
In addition to the growth of the school bus services, in the fall of 1975, we began to help represent Wayne Corporation in Virginia after a long-term former dealership gave up the territory to change its business plan. Wayne had long been a well-known premium product in Virginia, but several years of winding down services by the former dealership had resulted in some overdue customer relations work to be done in the school divisions around the state. This was our first task with Wayne, which we undertook with very good factory support, and I traveled around the state with a field service team as we "mended fences."
In March, 1976, we acquired a small suburban transit company based in Bon Air which was operating very small fleet of school buses, transit buses and intercity motorcoaches. This acquisition included our first repair garage. Meanwhile, our work with Wayne Corporation had please the officials there and, with our company now operating a repair facility (for pre-delivery and warranty work), we were offered and accepted their franchised dealership for full-sized school buses, as well as the Busette and commercial (non-yellow) product lines. Our services expanded greatly as we acquired several other existing older school bus companies in Petersburg and Hopewell. Within 10 years, to our own amazement, we had grown to become the second largest school bus contractor in Virginia, as well as handling franchises for new bus sales, parts and service for products of four national manufacturers.
Passenger services
In the bus services area, with a remarkable team of bus enthusiasts as employees over the years, my parents and I acquired a number of older small public service companies, some with roots in interurban streetcar operations in the early 20th century in the Richmond-Petersburg region of Virginia. In several instances, retiring owners were glad to provide both advice and financing to us as we continued their business activities. Over the years, we operated school buses, transit buses, and motorcoaches with primarily school transportation operations (elementary, secondary and university) in Richmond, Petersburg, and Hopewell in Central Virginia, Hampton and Newport News on the Virginia Peninsula, and Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and Portsmouth in South Hampton Roads at one time or another. We also had a small operation for a parochial school in Northern Virginia for several years.
Our work included both government-operated and contract bus transportation, almost entirely intrastate within in Virginia, including the separate home-to-school yellow bus programs of the entire school divisions for the independent cities of Petersburg and Hopewell. The drivers of our Hopewell operation set some kind of safety record in Virginia by operating two entire school years without a single accident in the late 1980s. We also operated smaller contracts to supplement the large, self-operated school bus fleets of several public school divisions, notably Chesterfield County Public Schools, Henrico County Public Schools, and Richmond City Public Schools.
Virginia Overland also operated transportation for Head Start programs in Hopewell and Richmond, welfare-to-work transport in the Richmond metropolitan area, paratransit, and special operations (i.e. designing and managing transport shuttle bus systems for special events), including conventions and 15 years of major NASCAR race events at Richmond International Raceway. We successfully won bids and performed several Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) demonstration projects for new public transportation projects including suburban commuter projects and employee transportation for King's Dominion.
Dealerships: sales, parts and repair service
In our bus dealership activities, we sold over 3,000 new and used buses over a period of 28 years (1976-2004), over 2/3 of which were Wayne Corporation products. We won sales awards from Wayne in 1977, and every year from 1979 through 1988. In 1986, we were awarded a seat on Wayne's Outstanding Dealer Council, a small group of key dealers which advised factory leaders.
We also represented other franchised product lines. In 1982, we became one of the founding dealers of Mid Bus. That small bus manufacturer was organized in Lima, Ohio by former employees after Sheller-Globe Corporation closed it's Superior Coach Company plant there. Also in the early 1980s, as recreational vehicle manufacturers began producing small and mid-sized commercial buses on cutaway van chassis, we added a franchise for Champion Bus Incorporated of Imlay City, Michigan.
In addition to dozens of school divisions, paratransit agencies, and independent schools all over Virginia, we also supplied buses such organizations as the University of Virginia, The Homestead (a luxury resort in Hot Springs, Virginia), the Virginia Department of Corrections, and Virginia Baptist Homes. Literally from the mountain regions to the coastal plain of the Tidewater region of Virginia, our Busette products proved especially well-suited for Head Start agencies transitioning to federal school bus standards from non-yellow van operations.
Braun Corporation, founded by Ralph Braun, a mobility-challenged entrepreneur who began his business in the garage of his home in Winamac, Indiana, is prominent among several manufacturers of wheelchair lifts and accessories whose products we represented. With many of our technicians factory-trained, our garages installed these products and air conditioning systems, did pre-delivery and dealer item work on our new bus sales products, and conducted preventative maintenance programs on our own fleets and those of customers, as well as selling parts and performing warranty and body repairs.
Our shop folks and other bus enthusiasts restored and prepared equipment which appeared in several movies and advertising campaigns. For a film about civil rights pioneer Vernon Johns which was filmed in Virginia and starred actor James Earl Jones, they restored an antique bus which had been literally buried in a refuse pit for years. For a commercial for a Reynolds Wrap, they rigged up another school bus to tow a flatbed trailer loaded with cameras and crew, which moved at slow speed through a Richmond neighborhood for filming. They also helped convert former school buses to become motor homes, mobile gymnasiums for young people, offices, supermarkets and race-car haulers.
In the days before deregulation of the bus industry in Virginia, as an operator of motor carriers which were public service companies (organized under public utility laws), we were careful to serve everyone equally and stay non-political. When one of our school buses was chartered as a speech platform and prop for a campaign for state office by a candidate who was stressing a promise to seek more funds for public education, our shop came up with a means of removing our company identification during the public appearances.
Throughout many years of dealer licensing and inspection station oversight by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Virginia's Motor Vehicle Dealer Board, and the Virginia State Police, we never had even a single formalized regulatory violation or unresolved consumer complaint. This is not because we never goofed. Rather, I believe it is because when we occasionally did, we sought and accepted any needed guidance and embraced both the letter and the spirit of our obligations.
Downsizing
Facing declining health of my father as well as unfavorable market conditions in two of our largest business activities, new school bus sales and school bus contracting work for Virginia public school divisions, beginning in 1989, we downsized Virginia Overland considerably.
In the 1980s, North American school bus manufacturers began experiencing a major decline in product demand. The school age-population declined as the children of the post World War II baby boom generation completed their education and school districts under court-ordered desegregation busing plans also declined. Of the six major school bus manufacturers competing in 1980, only three survived past the year 2000. Our major franchiser, Wayne Corporation, once the largest manufacturer and commanding 25% of the U.S. market, was unable to compete or find a new role successfully as consolidation occurred in the North American school bus manufacturing sector beginning in the early 1980s. In the fall of 1986, the company was preparing to launch an initial public stock offering (IPO) when "Black Friday" struck the stock market that October, forcing cancellation of the IPO. The company's economic fortunes also seemed to go downhill from that point. After years of ordering mostly Wayne products, school bus contractor and Wayne dealer Laidlaw, then an operator of 30,000 school buses in the U.S. and Canada, split its 1986 school bus body production orders between Wayne and a competitor. In 1987, a major fire destroyed Wayne's Canadian (Welles) plant in Windsor, Ontario. A bitter labor strike occurred at the Indiana plant in the spring of 1988. The strike lasted only 30 days, but as a result, several major orders were lost, a blow to the factory and its dealers. As a result of that strike in Indiana, we lost the largest order we had ever won for a quantity of Wayne Chaperone and Chaperone II paratransit buses. Damage to relationships and morale between factory workers and management seemed to sink to new lows in Indiana.
By the late 1980s, Wayne's best hopes to regain profitability and market share in the North American school bus markets lay with its newest product, a transit-style (type D) school bus named the "Lifestar". Virginia Overland purchased two, which were placed in service for our long-term Hopewell City Public Schools contract operation. However, Wayne did not have the manufacturing equipment or capacity to build chassis in-house, and its future building and selling the bodies was largely dependent upon chassis manufacturers. At Virginia Overland, we found that our largest customers wanted transit-style school buses that Wayne was unable to supply. Instead, as Wayne sought one or more sources of appropriate chassis, the failure to do so doomed the Lifestar product line. At General Motors, downsizing and other changes shifted medium-duty (school bus) chassis production from its long-time base at Pontiac, Michigan to Janesville, Wisconsin and represented the earlies stages of exiting the market. Products expected from supplier Navistar were delayed for several years and were unfavorably priced when they did become available. An innovative effort by a major Wayne dealer and contractor to import chassis assembled in South Korea using U.S. drive-train and other major components such as Caterpillar diesel motors and Allison automatic transmissions also did not find broad enough market acceptance.
After reductions in capacity and other attempts at survival, the Indiana plant closed in August 1992 as the parent company declared bankruptcy and was liquidated.
As the manufacturers consolidated and closed, following a trend seen all across the United States and Canada, we were among the many school bus dealers who found themselves in a situation I would compare to the children's game of musical chairs. Virginia Overland's last major sales year with Wayne was 1988. While we continued for some years with our other product lines, after losing our relationship with Wayne, and without a major franchise to replace it, our company was no longer the major player we had been in new bus sales in Virginia.
Public school bus contracting in Virginia also went into its final phase before it became extinct as the Virginia Department of Education continued a thirty-year trend of encouraging its public school divisions to self-operate school buses. In the summer of 1989, our largest school bus service contract customer, Petersburg City Public Schools, converted to self-operation, ending a long relationship with our subsidiary (Tri-City Coaches) there. With similar urging by state officials, Norfolk City Public Schools in the City of Norfolk ended its 15 year-long relationship with Laidlaw in 1991 and also converted to self-operation of its school buses.
Joining forces with another Virginia-based contracting company
Under an arrangement Virginia Overland's parent company had from 1990 to 1993 with JL Associates, a Hampton-based municipal services contracting company. Although also a small business, our larger woman-owned partner company had a very successful track record with federal and military contracts and was expanding into a range of municipal services I found exciting, including some where the portion of the team Virginia Overland brought to the effort had considerable expertise. Although most Virginia Overland's past work had been for state, municipal and non-profit customers, we had also operated several school bus service and employee transportation contracts at nearby Langley Air Force Base during the 1980s, so we had also done some federal contacting and our people had been through security clearances, etc.
As part of this new team, in 1991, I led the negotiations which successfully acquired the remainder of Laidlaw's school bus operations in South Hampton Roads, which we assigned to a newly formed Norfolk division, using a Virginia Overland public service company operating subsidiary. At the same time, using our combined resources, the JL-Virginia Overland team added operating of a new contract managing the school bus fleet maintenance services for the self-operated fleet of Portsmouth City Public Schools. Together, we also won a renewal of contract school bus operations for Hopewell City Public Schools for five more years (notwithstanding the ever-continuing pressure upon them from certain state officials to self-operate). It was the last such operation in the state. (The Hopewell school division also finally converted to self-operation of its school buses in 1996. This final blow was described by Sigvart Sande, a retired Lt. Colonel from the U.S. Navy who had been heavily involved with the JLA-VOTC efforts, to ruefully label the trend in Virginia as "reverse privatization").
The Hampton-based company operating these services under our agreement eventually became part of the British-based Serco Group, a prominent international contract services provider. As of November 2008, both the South Hampton Roads school bus operations and the Portsmouth school bus maintenance services were still operating. The school bus services now operate as Transquest, and a fleet of modern school buses is used to transport students to many independent schools in South Hampton Roads including Norfolk Academy.
1993-2004 Richmond
After the relationship with the Hampton-based company was completed in early 1993, we consolidated Virginia Overland's Richmond operations from three sites to a single large one at 6020 Midlothian Turnpike in South Richmond, which became our sole location. From 1989 to 2004, we operated several comprehensive campus transit, school bus service and maintenance contracts for Virginia Commonwealth University and from 2001-2004, a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) award-winning welfare-to-work van service for Greater Richmond Transit Company. Among innovations for the times, we introduced the first wheelchair lift-equipped buses to the campus transit system, upgraded the university's Head Start program to school bus standards (including equipment, drivers and operations), developed and implemented a GPS-based radio-computer tracking system which addressed a major problem area with the clients of welfare-to-work transportation services, and solved a long-occurring problem at the University with overloaded buses and passengers denied boarding during peak periods by introducing the first fleet of high passenger capacity articulated suburban commuter coaches to be operated in Virginia.
During this time, having earlier done so with Richmond Public Schools and Reynolds Metal Company respectively, my Mom and Dad once again retired. In poor health since 1988, my father died soon thereafter. His last major VOTC project with me was working on the organization of the transportation for the then-new VCU Head Start Program in late 1996. My mother was beginning to experience the early stages of the dementia which we had long feared, and I began spending a portion of my time working from home by computer and telephone while serving as her caregiver. Her last major activities with the bus company were participating in several bus auctions and helping me work at her home in early 2001 while developing our winning bid proposal to operate the welfare-to-work service. At that time, while her disease was clearly progressing, she was still able to participate in double-checking calculations and debating some of the presentation language. As always, she like to call herself "the devil's advocate" when reviewing budget numbers. She also enjoyed spotting and demanding removal of portions of what she liked to call my "excessive sales puffery" in proposals. Those memories are warm now, and that sales proposal she put her touch to as we worked together in her home in the winter of 2001 was the last major one I wrote for our company (and a winning one I would add).
Although our company continued to serve many other smaller accounts for various types of bus services, approximately 80% of our volume arose from the University and public transit agency's privatization contracts. Each of these were complex relationships won and maintained under RFP criteria, rather than low-bid price type contracts. Virginia Overland had previously had numerous past contracts of a similar type with these and other agencies.
While a family business may never actively plan to conclude its affairs, one of the biggest risks to the longevity of a contract services business is, obviously, loss of contract. Even though the business may have other work at a location, the volume of one or two major contract(s) may constitute a critical mass it is not economically viable without. Such a situation had motivated others to sell assets or businesses to Virginia Overland in the past. The most obvious example was Laidlaw's situation in Norfolk in 1991 after losing the school district contract.
In the spring of 2004, due to a reverse privatization plan involving both, we lost the two major accounts of the university and the transit agency simultaneously under terms of voluntary short notice termination without cause (30-60 days). Reacting, we found there was not time to attempt to either sell what was left of the business or reorganize and downsize it successfully. We forced to close the business completely, and assets were liquidated.
Full-circle: voluntary caregiver
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Even when I became an adult, my parents and I remained very close over the years and we managed our family business together for 23 years until they retired in 1996, largely due my father's deteriorating health. My parents had both long-expressed wishes to not be put in nursing homes in their final years, if at all possible. I am thankful that, during their separate periods of declining health, it was possible to honor that request for each of them.
After battling cancer for over 8 years, Marvin Fisher passed away at home on March 24, 1997. Ruth Fisher lived alone and continued to stay interested and informally involved in the business until she became gradually became disabled with Alzheimer's Disease several years later, at which time, I began staying with her, 3-4 nights a week at first, and later on a full-time basis.
Dementia had occurred on the maternal side of her family in the past. At the earliest onset of her first symptoms in 1999, we were able to discuss and begin facing it. I think this helped her cope without as much panic and despair as many victims must experience. Despite limitations, throughout her decline, she still enjoyed many things, including eating, her pets, music, and riding around (no one thought Virginia more beautiful than she), and socializing.
Beginning in 1999, I began more of a part-time role with our bus company, which had full-time managers. They helped make it possible for me to often work from my Mom's home by computer, which seemed to fit very well with my family responsibilities. In late 2002, I became interested in Wikipedia, contributing more actively beginning in 2003. While researching various Wikipedia articles, I found myself in a "learning" mode on a variety of topics, something which has continued to the current time.
Mom and I had always been night owls. Although they were married 50 years, my father, a very organized man trained in accounting, could never figure that out. His favorite expression, often in response to some light-hearted or zany behavior of my Mom was "For Heaven's Sake". Those words from me often generated a flash of memory in her eyes.
After Virginia Overland Transportation closed in June, 2004, we moved from Richmond to the Williamsburg area, which has became a retirement location of choice for many other people as well. There, she had several more years enjoying her home, music and pets, as well as the sights of the Colonial Williamsburg and the Historic Triangle. A long-dedicated shunpiker, she especially enjoyed our toll-free rides on the bucolic Colonial Parkway and the scenic Jamestown Ferry.
While I was Mom's principal voluntary caregiver, or "carer", to use an international terminology which is applied to a growing legions of folks, I did have help, from within our home and beyond. The local chapter of the Alzheimer's Association provided family training and enrolled Mom in their Safe Return Home program. Our local mental health agency provided her with psychiatric care. Aricept and Namenda seem to slow and ease her symptoms. Our local Agency on Aging and Social Services staff also helped with resources and oversight to keep her as safe and comfortable as possible.
For a number of years, my long-time friend David A. Swan lived with us in Richmond and Williamsburg. Dave had gained experience helping take care of his great-grandmother in her home as she suffered from both dementia and crippling arthritis in the late 1980s. From that experience, he knew that the familiarity of things in the home are very important to someone losing their memory and we worked together to provide that continuity for my Mom, even with a move. We were careful to keep her things in the places where she had always put them and placed furniture as much the same in the new home as the former one. Dave and my Mom became great friends, even though they both had serious health issues. During his many hospitalizations, they spoke by phone for hours on end. When he passed away in November, 2006 from complications of MAC Disease, it was hard for her to understand and accept that he was no longer there.
After that time, during Mom's final year, part-time professional companion-aides contributed to her safety and happiness and provided some family respite. She loved riding the paratransit buses of the Williamsburg Area Transport service, whose drivers were invariably patient and professional with her limitations. While her mental capacity was diminished, Mom remained physically spry, retaining her sense of humor, love of music and appetite right until her final illness at age 89, which was of only a short duration. Even incapacitated in a hospital bed, we provided her favorite music with a small boom box. Her joy in it was so evident that medical staff from other areas of the hospital even looked in to see for themselves.
My mom passed away quietly in her sleep on September 15, 2007. An article in School Transportation News Online dated Sept. 17 is very informative about her: STN Online: Founder of Virginia Overland Transportation Co. Dies.
Destinations: Virginia
An important part of my work with buses involved planning group trips and tours around Virginia (our company served mostly in-state destinations). I learned which attractions groups seemed to enjoy the most, as well as how to narrate guided tours. Since it easier to plan trips to places for which you are both knowledgeable and personally interested, in addition to visiting many places, I found myself doing additional research in libraries, by watching the "History Channel", and by Internet web searches.
It was the latter activity led me to Wikipedia in 2002, and before long, I became a contributor to subjects for which I had information to add. I worked intensely on a small number of articles which gained featured article status and was named an administrator in early 2005. Later that year along with other Wikipedians involved in Wikipedia:WikiProject Virginia, I started working on improving many articles related to Jamestown as a part of preparing for the worldwide attention anticipated for the Jamestown 2007 celebration.
Moderating Yahoo! railway and bus groups
Beginning in 2002, I became active in several new (to me) activities on the Internet. In addition to working as a Wikipedia editor and administrator, I started and currently moderate five Yahoo! Groups on the Internet for bus and railway enthusiasts, which as of November 2008, had grown to a total of over 2,200 members.
These are the Yahoo! special interest transportation groups which I moderate:
- Virginian Railway Enthusiasts
- Richmond Rails
- Circus Train
- Juice Train Enthusiasts
- Wayne Bus Enthusiasts
I am especially proud of Virginian Railway Enthusiasts, which is in the top 2% of Yahoo! railway groups by membership (over 1000 members) as of Spring 2010. Some of our group members are actively involved in restoration and preservation activities in Virginia and West Virginia, and one group of retirees meets weekly to answer questions posed on the Internet from members on several continents. Large group seminars are held periodically. This Yahoo! group also includes a number of published authors. One of the more recent annual gatherings was held May 2-4, 2008 at the lodge of West Virginia's beautiful Twin Falls Resort State Park, near Mullens, West Virginia. The link to the homepage for the event Friends of the Virginian Railway at Milepost 2008 will take you to photos and more information about this successful gathering.
Another Yahoo! group I am also very pleased with is our Circus Train group. Less than 5 years old, it has grown already to over 700 members and is very active. This is likely at least partially because it includes a moderator, Rhett Coates, who frequently writes to us and posts to the Yahoo! group and to Trainorders.com from aboard either of the Red or Blue RBBB trains, adding to the reality and details. Of course, this group and the Trainorders website feature many pictures and videos as well.
I am a Colonial Williamsburg "Good Neighbor" and have hospitality training through a cooperative program of the local Chamber of Commerce and Thomas Nelson Community College. I also serve on an advisory group for our local transit system, Williamsburg Area Transport.
I attend Williamsburg United Methodist Church and do some volunteer work at the local Grove Christian Outreach Center, as does my sister, Linda, who also has some disabilities.
Now that I have been here more than 5 years, I am comfortable stating that the Greater Williamsburg area has proven to be an ideal retirement location, even within the limited financial resources of both my sister and myself, and as we deal with our respective disabilities.
Favorite Quotations
To be a Virginian
One of my favorite quotations is:
- "To be a Virginian, either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one's Mother's side is an Introduction to any State in the Union, a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above"
Not meeting any of those criteria, I nevertheless strive to someday be considered a Virginian, albeit a transplanted one. <gr>
Triage for our lives: The Most Important of the Three Days
Yesterday's a memory; tomorrow's a dream. Yesterday belongs to history; tomorrow belongs to God. Yesterday's a fading sunset; tomorrow's a faint sunrise. Only today is there light enough to love and live.
So gently close the door on yesterday and throw the key away. It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad, but rather the regret over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. "Relish in the moment" is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, swim more rivers, climb more mountains, kiss more babies, count more stars. Laugh more and cry less. Go barefoot more often. Eat more ice cream. Ride more merry-go-rounds. Watch more sunsets. Life must be lived as we go along.
- author is unknown
See also
- My main Wikipedia User Page
- Wikipedia and my role as administrator and editor
- My Contributions to Wikipedia
- Did You Know?
- My Talk Page for Wikipedia
- updated Vaoverland (talk) 22:14, 1 February 2009 (UTC)