A JOURNEY OF AMBITION AND FORTITUDE
Lita was born to an impoverished family in San Pablo, one of the oldest cities in the Laguna province of the Philippines. Raised in a tight-knit household with three older siblings, as a child Lita loved games of pretend play and often imagined herself a successful businesswoman living a life of afflu- ence in America. Those dreams stayed with her when she later worked as a teacher at a Catholic high school, trying to earn enough money to support her relatives, including two of her own young children. In 1981, to provide a better life for her loved ones, she made the hard choice to leave her family and take a job as a maid and nanny for a Filipino family in New York.
This supposed “great opportunity” quickly turned into a nightmarish struggle as Lita fought to escape verbally and psychologically abusive employers who held her against her will and worked her night and day. After several months of confinement, she fled to a friend’s home.
Let’s fast-forward 35 years to the present. Lita is now reunited with her children, Romilett Marcelo-Yulo and Ryan Marcelo, and has five grandchildren (eight if you include the three great-nephews she also calls her grandkids). With the support of her husband and minority-percentage business partner, Merrill Abele, she directs U.S. Lumber, a certified woman- and minority-owned lumber and building materials supplier that caters to a diverse array of clients throughout New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
“ I saw their insults as a challenge to read, to immerse myself in new ideas and information, and to expand my knowledge of the industry…I learned to keep my manner, resolve and integrity intact when dealing with those types of people.”
- Lita Abele, President and CEO, U.S. Lumber Inc.
“Before he was my husband, Merrill started the company in 1974 as Silver Lake Lumber Co. We married in 1984 and he encouraged me to learn the business. I also went to school at night and studied accounting and computers,” says Lita.
In 1985, she launched a lumber brokerage company, U.S. Lumber and Plywood Corp., which grew to $2.7 million in sales within seven years. Merrill’s business, however, hit some rough times; by 1992, he planned to sell it off and take an early retirement. His wife suggested he sell off as much of the company as he could and then let her company take over the rest, with him still involved as a 49 percent owner and she at 51 percent. The companies merged in 1993 into U.S. Lumber.
Lita Abele (front row, second from left), President and CEO of U.S. Lumber Inc., with members of her staff.
Now 23 years since the merger, U.S. Lumber grosses $8 million in sales and supplies pressure-treated framing lumber and plywood to the tri-state area using its own fleet of trucks. Its client list includes high-profile customers, such as Boeing, DuPont Co., Exelon’s PECO Energy, Merck & Co., and Philadelphia Gas Works. The firm’s products have been used in multiple noteworthy projects, including several Atlantic City casinos in New Jersey, the Philadelphia Eagles
POWERED BY THE BLUE BOOK NETWORK - SOUTHERN & CENTRAL NEW JERSEY / FALL 2016
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