PPB January 2019

if it makes the industry better, it should make your business better, too.” With so much success, it’s surprising to think that as a boy, Pecher dreamed of becoming something entirely different—a high school football coach. “I started playing football in the fourth grade. I played in high school and college, and I coached for a year in college,” he says. Pecher credits many people for helping him along his journey. “It’s an affirmation of what you’ve done your whole life, but it’s not just me,” he says, when asked about his induction into PPAI’s Hall of Fame. Pecher credits a few mentors who deeply impacted his career: industry veteran Harry Rosenberg, president of St. Louis, Missouri-based supplier Specialty Advertising Consultants Inc., chair of PPAI’s board from 1975-1976 and a 1983 PPAI Hall of Fame inductee; Mark Gilman, chairman of the board for Shawnee Mission, Kansas-based supplier Gill Studios; and the late Ted Olson, the longtime president of PPAI for whom the Association named its annual H. Ted Olson Humanitarian Award. Pecher recalls his first board meeting at PPAI, which he experienced with Olson. “I was pretty young at the time, and you could still smoke [in meetings] back in those days, or maybe they just stopped, but Ted loved cigars, and Ted always had a cigar in his mouth,” says Pecher. “I learned pretty quickly when I was in trouble, because when I’d say something or give my opinion, depending on how fast Ted’s cigar moved from left to right and right to left, I’d know what he thought about it,” he says, with a smile. “I learned a lot from Ted.” And of course, he also credits his wife, Patricia “Tricia” Pecher, for her support through the years. “I couldn’t have done any of this without Trish,” he says. “If I deserve any bit of this recognition, she deserves it, too.” Going forward, Pecher says that Skinner & Kennedy Co. will continue to grow its product line, particularly incorporating more digital design, while still providing high-quality paper goods. “We keep investing back into the business,” he says. “If you don’t keep investing back into your business, your business will die.” And personally, he hopes to incorporate more traveling for leisure, and to continue golfing, which is one of his favorite pastimes. “Earlier this year, I went to Pebble Beach for the first time and played at Pebble Beach, Spyglass and Spanish Bay,” says Pecher, of the famed California golf resort. “If there is a golf heaven, it would be Pebble Beach.” Danielle Renda is associate editor of PPB. Clockwise: Chuck Pecher has been with Skinner & Kennedy Co. for 43 years; Patricia and Chuck Pecher; and Pecher winds up for another 300-yard drive at the Specialty Advertising Association of California (SAAC) golf tournament, circa 1985. Celebrating The Exceptional | FEATURE | JANUARY 2019 | 31