Wayne German, Part I
Wayne German is one of the most gifted and interesting persons I have had the pleasure of knowing. You name it and Wayne has done it; boyhood entrepreneur, mechanical engineer, inventor, corporate executive, and consultant; just to name a part of his résumé. In retirement he owns the German Machine Works Inc. at 1302 Jeffreys Drive in Osceola.
Wayne German was born in 1931 at Harken Hospital in Osceola. He was delivered by Dr. Conrad Harken, a relative of Wayne’s grandmother. Wayne’s father and mother were Winfred and Evea German. His parents lost their farm in 1934 in the depth of the Great Depression. Winfred German, Wayne’s father, was a talented craftsman who had the skills of the building trades, blacksmithing, and was skillful with mechanical devises. Winfred German sold his 1928 Whippet automobile in 1932 because he felt an automobile was too expensive. He never owned another auto. Wayne received his grade 1-8 education at Murray School and Fairview country school where most students belonged to the Pollard, Layton, Blair, Bowers, and Jones families. Wayne liked the subjects most students hated, like mathematics, physics, and history.
In his autobiography, Wayne German wrote, “I was always more interested in the mechanical trades.” As a young boy some of his favorite places to “hang out”in Murray, Iowa were Pete Johnson’s Shoe, Harness, & Saddle Shop; “Calvy” Brotherton’s Harness Shop; Freddie Mack’s Blacksmith Shop; Alva Simmerman’s Iron and Blacksmith Shop; Cecil Meyers” Blacksmith and Machine Shop; Kenneth Schaff’s Auto Repair Garage; and Albert (Shorty, the mad Russian”) Kludt’s Auto Repair Garage, just to name a few. Wayne said, “These men were not all in business at the same time but from the 1930’s through 1970, they came and went, one buying the other out or they grew old and died.”
In the middle of 8th grade, Wayne German quit school. At the encouragement of John Schaeffer, from whom he had learned leather working skills, Wayne opened up a Shoe and Harness Shop in Murray at age 14. He located his business in a10 foot by 10 foot building that he built on his father’s lot near the Murray School. He began without machinery, doing all parts of the trade with “old time” methods of hand cutting and sewing of leather. Today, this is a “lost art.” In less than a year, he made enough money to purchase used machinery like a sole stitcher, large harness stitching machine, and all the machinery Pete Johnson had once owned. With all this machinery Wayne needed more space and rented a big building at the south east side of Maple Street in Murray from George Wolf. New merchandise was added such as shoes, boots, saddles, harness, and canvas. The “Red Wing” brand of boots was featured.
On Saturday evenings, German’s were open until midnight. Wayne said, “I sometimes would do more business from 4 P.M. to midnight on Saturday than I did the whole week.” Businessmen in Murray took an interest in young Wayne German. Druggist, John Coleman, taught Wayne bookkeeping; Max Cook taught him inventory control, from Jim Carter he learned advertising, and Cecil Meyers emphasized the importance of machine maintenance. Members of the Murray Lions Club selected young men to mentor. Lion Dr. Fred Martin, D.O., liked and chose Wayne.
At the start of Korean War period, Wayne wanted to enlist in the Navy. Accompanied by his father and Joel McNichols, the three went to see a Navy Recruiter. The Naval officer told Wayne that his eighth grade education was unsatisfactory. Suspecting that this was just the personal opinion of the recruiter, Joel McNichols insisted that the Recruiter give Wayne an aptitude test. Reluctantly the Recruiter agreed. The highest score that could be earned was 70. The Recruiter was astonished when Wayne scored 69. Wayne German enlisted in the Navy.