Meet the sons and daughters of Marshall University who have established successful, local businesses
For some, entrepreneurship calls to them from an early age. For others, it is a calling they discover later in life. For these Marshall graduates, the latter is true. Originally on different career paths from the time they entered college, and even after, these local business owners eventually found their passions and joined or established businesses in Huntington. Though their fields may differ – from baking to construction to graphic design – their principles of running businesses that bring growth and prosperity to the community unite these Marshall graduates with a common bond.
Angela Holland Smith, Graphic Solutions
In 2001, Angela Holland Smith and her husband, Todd, begged a local bank for a $25,000 loan so they could buy screen-printing equipment and establish a fledgling business. The loan officer had some misgivings about their request, but she nevertheless approved it.
Soon the young couple was busily printing custom-designed T-shirts in her parents’ Ceredo garage. They named their new company Graphic Solutions and in their first year did $28,000 in gross sales.
In the years since, Graphic Solutions has grown dramatically. The company grossed $785,000 in sales in 2014. Over its 14-year history, it’s done more than $4 million in total gross sales.
Angela and Todd met at Marshall University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in legal studies and Todd earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Married at the Marshall Campus Christian Center in August 1992, they have two children, ages 19 and 21, who work in the family business.
Angela worked as a paralegal and Todd as a Hurricane police officer for several years before they decided to open their business.
“Todd’s natural artistic talent was helpful in learning graphic design computer skills from the Cabell County Career Technology Center,” Smith said. Meanwhile, she used her legal background and social skills to do all the administrative legwork and customer development necessary to get the business started.
Moving out of her parents’ garage, they set up shop in rented space at the busy intersection of Fifth Avenue and 31st Street. In 2005, they bought their current 8,000-square-foot building.
In April 2014 the couple started an online business, Velocity Sportswear, which specializes in high-end T-shirts and apparel with designs promoting activities like swimming, cycling, running and lifting.
In July 2015, they purchased state-of-the-art, automatic screen-printing equipment, which Smith said has “quadrupled our production efficiency.”
The company’s customers include schools, sports groups, small businesses and restaurants like Hillbilly Hotdogs, churches and other groups. It’s employed as many as a dozen people at a time, in a mix of full-time and part-time positions.
Smith attributes Graphic Solutions’ success to “long hours, hard-working employees, loyal customers and large doses of prayer.”
James Leach, E.P. Leach & Sons
James Leach, the president of E.P. Leach & Sons, represents the third generation of his family to head the Huntington construction company.
The firm’s roots reach back to the 1920s when his grandfather, E. P. Leach, and C.R. Neighborgall formed a partnership as Neighborgall and Leach Construction Co. Both men had sons and as the boys grew older the partners decided it would be best to go their separate ways.
The senior Leach organized E. P. Leach & Sons in 1946, when his sons James E. and Charles E. returned home from service in the Army.
In the early 1950s, the firm moved into a building at 1424 Fourth Ave., where it’s still located. Among the company’s projects in its earliest years were the Cammack Children’s Center, the old A&P Supermarket at Fairfield Plaza and Our Lady of Fatima School.
Today, James Leach – born James E. Leach Jr. –is following in the footsteps of his late father, grandfather and uncle.
Thinking he might go to law school, James Jr. earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Marshall University. But his “greatest accomplishment” at Marshall, he said, “was courting Sheila Baxter, the student body president.” Today, James and Sheila Leach have two sons, James III and Ryan, who are learning the business.
“After I graduated from Marshall, I went to graduate school at West Virginia University for one semester and then was drafted,” Leach said. “When I got out of [the] service, Sheila and I wanted to get married, so I started working for my dad. He told me if I was going to join the business I was going to learn it from the ground up. So I joined the carpenters’ union and was out in the field for 18 years. It was great experience. Early in the 1990s, I came into the office to work.”
The company has 10 full-time employees and hires additional union construction workers as needed.
Over the years, Leach has had a close relationship with Marshall, doing a number of projects, including, among others, the renovation of the old Science Hall, construction of the former Welcome Center that’s now the Public Safety Building, the $1.9 million upgrade of Edwards Stadium in 2013 and a newly completed $1 million upgrade at the Harless Dining Hall.
Currently, the firm is busily working on a major renovation at Wayne High School, a building it originally built in 1960.
Paula Vega, Paula Vega Cakes
At age 5, little Paula was waiting on customers at her daddy’s Barboursville grocery store, running the cash register and counting change.
Today, a grown-up Paula Vega is still waiting on customers – now at her popular business, Paula Vega Cakes, located at 308 9th St. in downtown Huntington.
Vega started baking as a young girl, carefully taught by her mother. The older she got, the more she baked.
A graduate of the former Barboursville High School, Vega spent three years at Marshall University pursuing a business degree before she took a different career path. When her mother was stricken with a serious illness, she decided to become a nurse, which she did, earning her degree as a registered nurse.
But she never stopped baking. “I baked for church functions, for family and for friends. It was just a hobby, but I loved it,” she said.
As an RN at Cabell Huntington Hospital, she started baking for members of her medical family. “I’d bring in red velvet cake for all of us – anything to spice up the day. One day someone offered to pay me to bake a cake for a shower. After the shower, I got three more orders. Soon I got so many orders I had to reduce my hours at the hospital.”
After 19 years as nurse, the lure of the kitchen proved irresistible. “I loved nursing and I miss it, but I finally traded in my syringe for a piping bag to fulfill my love and passion for putting smiles on people’s faces.”
In 2010, she opened a bakery counter inside the Third and Ninth Deli Market on Third Avenue, across from Pullman Square. Her creations were an immediate hit with sweet-toothed customers. Her cupcakes proved especially popular. “Cupcakes seem to have a universal appeal,” she said.
Pressed for space at the deli, she moved around the corner to her own shop, where she typically sells 65 dozen cupcakes a day and does two to five wedding cakes each weekend. “For Valentine’s Day this year we did 120 dozen cupcakes and sold out in a matter of hours.”
The shop has grown to a dozen employees and Vega said she’s again running out of room and thinking about relocating.
“I love downtown Huntington and am determined to stay in the downtown, but it would be great to have a place with some parking.”
Judd Roseberry, Richwood Industries
For nearly 40 years, many of the world’s busiest mining operations have turned to Huntington’s Richwood Industries for help in solving their bulk material handling
problems.
Founded in 1976, Richwood designs and manufactures conveyor belt accessories. It offers a wide range of items but its primary product is a belt cleaner that cleans off the materials that stick to the conveyor belt as it operates.
Over the years, Judd Roseberry and his brother-in-law Richard Stoll partnered to build Richwood into a worldwide leader in the materials handling industry. Stoll died in 2006, and Roseberry is now the company’s sole owner. “I feel very privileged to say that,” he said.
Born in northeastern Ohio, Roseberry went to Youngstown State University for a year before a visit to Huntington convinced him to enroll at Marshall University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business, with an emphasis on management and accounting.
“When I graduated, Richard gave me half of the company he had started with $200 in cash and a $5,000 credit line,” Roseberry said. “I did whatever needed to be done but mostly I kept our books, putting to work the accounting skills I learned at Marshall.”
The fledgling business started out selling lumber and wood pallets. Later, it became a distributor for coal mining equipment. At first, Stoll and Roseberry were the company’s only employees. By 1979, they had added a handful of workers. Then, in 1980, they lost their distributorship and literally had to start over.
“We found ourselves back at zero, so we decided we would start making our own products instead of selling somebody else’s,” Roseberry said.
Today, Richwood employs 200 people and sells its products across the nation and around the world. It started with a big order to China and now exports to a list of 10 foreign countries, from Canada and Mexico to Indonesia and Ireland.
“Currently, 46 percent of our business is with the coal industry,” Roseberry said. “Our second largest market is copper mining. Iron ore, gold, anything that uses conveyor belts is a market for us, as long as they have enough volume to make it worth our while.”
Richwood has four buildings in Huntington, with its main building at 707 W. Seventh St., a machine shop at 740 W. Sixth Ave. and a rubber shop at 1900 Eighth Ave. “And we’ve just acquired another building on Madison Avenue,” Roseberry said.
By James E. Casto
Photos by Rick Lee