April 2018 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 7. S S D M I M
ARUNDEL – Those who own a business knows that it is often not a picnic, especial- ly in the marine industry. You work long hours, deal with a multitude of business issues, which is compounded by the need for additional education on new products and because the industry uses a variety of hazardous products. In the end you may have a couple of days off to do something diff erent and you hope your checkbook will allow it to happen. There are a number of associa- tions that help businesses navigate through these issues and in the State of Maine the go-to group for the marine industry is the Maine Marine Trade Association (MMTA). They deal with education, regulations and any other problem a marine business might have. For more than 20 years, the driving force behind this organization was Susan Swanton, who worked tirelessly for the in- dustry and the people she loved. At MMTA’s annual meeting last November Sue retired and turned the helm over to Stacey Keefer. Sue grew up in New Jersey and had no
exposure to boats or the water. She came and spent four days in Kennebunkport in the 1970s. She said, “I don't know if it was the ocean or the architecture or the people or what, but I knew this is where I belonged. The following year, I made the move and a couple of years after that I got married and bought a house and didn't have any mean- ingful work and needed to make my half of the mortgage.” One of her friends had been trying to
talk her into going to work in the offi ce at Rumery’s Boat Yard in Biddeford. Her argument for not going was that she did not know boats and did not know anything about running an offi ce as she had majored in art in college. Finally after a couple years she went and checked it out and said, “I got hired
and I had an awesome time there for eight years.”
“Earl (Rumery) had just sold to Bob
Williams,” said Sue, “and that is who hired me. The crew were really awesome guys and they never seem to be bothered by the fact “a” I was a girl and “b” I knew nothing. I would sit with them at break and ask a lot of questions. In addition to being my fi rst exposure to the industry, it was also my fi rst exposure to the Association. In those days the Association was very small and was run completely by volunteers. MMTA literally existed in the trunk of Wally Baker’s car. What I really appreciated about the Associ- ation was that even though it was small, it always managed to do some training or in- formational sessions that were really helpful to me. I assumed I was the only person on the planet that had these problems, which when I got to MMTA meetings I found out it was not like that at all, we all have these problems.” Sue had been hired to work in the offi ce,
but by the end of tenure she basically the general manager. Unfortunately, Rumery’s was not doing well mostly due to the econ- omy and Bob decided that he needed to sell. Greg Carroll, who had recently rebuilt a lob- ster pound at Biddeford Pool and after some urging he went to Earl and asked him about it. Earl told him he was not going to make a million dollars and if you do it right you can make a living. However, when you sell it to the guy who wants to put in condos that is when you will make your big money. Greg purchased Rumery’s and ran it for more than ten years and Sue worked him awhile before going to work for Albert G. Frost Company in Scarborough. Sue added, “Their service department was in a bit of trouble and I got hired to clean that up. I did the best I could,
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but apparently they were in trouble long before they hired me and they couldn't hold on. It was interesting because they were a dealership and I had never worked in a deal- ership before, so that was a whole diff erent dynamic. Quite frankly, it probably wasn’t the best fi t for me. Sue then went to work for the Harris
Company in Westbrook doing inside sales. She said, “Even though it wasn't where my heart was it was really good experience. I probably talked to every boat builder and every boat yard in New England. It was neat for me because I had experience in a yard and I could actually help them a little bit more than just saying ‘yes, we have that part in stock. So that was great fun for a bit. Looking to get out of the sales cubicle
and back in a yard, Sue went to work for Bucky Wooster at Dayton Marine in South Portland. “He needed somebody to help them out in his service department,” said Sue. “That was probably my coolest job because I ran the service department Bucky took care of all the transport sort of stuff . I had a lot of fun there. Then I went to Chase Leavitt, which is another really cool thing
Susan Swanton, former head of MMTA.
to have done. This was purely retail at this point and I managed the chart room, which in those days was a complete chandlery.
Continued on Page 10.
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