Elite Personnel days

I worked for a company called Elite Personnel for 15 years. I met the owner when she first started her company. She called on me when I worked in the Personnel Department at TRW Environmental Engineering in RTP. I let her know we were laying people off so wouldn't be needing her services. She stayed in touch and when she found out I had been laid off, she kept calling me trying to send me on interviews for a new job. Eventually, I interviewed with a company in Chapel Hill where I worked for three months before realizing this was a very unprofessional company. (I have written about this company before on here - it eventually folded.)

Then she asked me to come over and meet her husband so I did and before I knew it - they had hired me to be their marketing rep and we were going to try it out for six months and then review whether I would stay. Long story short - I stayed on and eventually became the Vice President. We grew the company to three branches (Durham, Raleigh, Smithfield and four divisions - Temporary, Permanent, Light Industrial and Technical). I've run across some pictures from my time with the company and who should call as I'm scanning them but the Owner/President of the company, Lise! They sold the company back in 1998 and retired. She and her hubby have been in Canada (they are both from Canada and she is French Canadian) at their resort condo for three months. She said they had a wonderful time. They were able to spend time with her sisters, his mother (99 years old) and other relatives.  They are getting ready to fly out to San Francisco and will be there for her 70th birthday. You would never believe she is 70 years old though. She is one of those unique people who looks better with age.

 I think this was our wedding anniversary. At first I thought it was when she made me the Vice President of the company but I believe she did that on the anniversary of my hire date in the summer time. It was a surprise and she had my sister Alice, Kelly, Douglas, Dwight and Monica come to be with us. I think this was taken in 1985 or 1986 - probably 1986.

This is a group picture of our employees at her home for one of her famous company dinners. I think it was taken in 1988 and she must be the one taking the picture.

This was taken of her and her hubby Chris for their 20th wedding anniversary. We surprised them at one of our co-worker's home. We gave them a hot air balloon ride for their gift.

This is how we let them know what they were getting from all of us. We all enjoyed knowing we had really surprised her. Dwight used to tease her and say if they liked this gift, next time we were going to give them a ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Yeah - he thinks he is so cute.

I can not remember what year this was but it was when we had our Open House and invited our clients and friends to join us. It was well received and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Lise always had the best food catered at every event we had.

This is Dwight cooking his famous BBQ Chicken at one of our company gatherings on the deck at her house. Everyone loves his chicken - he is pretty well know for it locally.

I eventually went to Raleigh and worked in that office for a few years. This was my first staff there.

They eventually asked me to come back to the Durham office and this is the staff in Raleigh after we hired Beth to manage it. Beth was promoted and brought to the Durham office right before they sold the company. She went on to start her own agency and as far as I know, it is still doing well.

If I'm not mistaken, it was when Dagmar moved to Wilmington that I was asked to come back. This was her going away party.

This is Kimberly (1996) who eventually managed our Smithfield office. I'm not sure what she is doing now. I do know she had a couple of little girls. She and I traveled together to Peabody, Mass after the company was sold. We were there for two weeks in their headquarters being trained.

Like I mentioned before, when she found out we could celebrate our wedding anniversaries, she started making that a special time for me, Dwight and our children.  These are from one of our little anniversary parties she always gave me and Dwight. Since we got married in December, it seems we were always getting our pictures made in front of the office tree.  I always felt funny like we were "making" the staff celebrate this with us when I didn't celebrate anything else but they assured me many times they wanted to do it and we always appreciated it.

This is the year we surprised Lise and Chris with a little brunch for their wedding anniversary in the office.

This is our beautiful Stephanie who became the branch manager for awhile. She stayed on with the company that purchased us and did very well with them. 

This is "our" beloved Blitzen. He was Lise and Chris's sweet little dog who had a very good life. You can see his gray hair here.  We always enjoyed loving on him when we had functions at their home.

Another one of a company dinner in their home. There are many more pictures but I haven't come across them yet. I promised Lise I would send many of them to her when she gets back from San Francisco. Good memories......