Engel, Pettway, Vest Inducted Into Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame
The College of Business at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga inducted three new members into its Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame on Thursday, March 27 with more than 200 guests attending this signature event.
Entrepreneurs George Pettway, founder of River Associates, LLC; and Anthony Vest, founder of Onsite Engineering and Management Company, were recognized for their success as entrepreneurs. Joe Engel, former owner of Chattanooga Lookouts, was recognized for his entrepreneurial spirit and its impact on baseball. Roger Dickson, Sandy Vest, and Dr. Robert Demos introduced the honorees.
Joseph William Engel was an American left-handed pitcher and scout in major league baseball and went on to become a promoter and team owner in the minor leagues. He was born in Washington, D.C., as one of six children of a German immigrant who owned a string of hotels. Joe Engel initially wanted to begin a baseball club in Atlanta, but turned to Chattanooga instead. In 1936, Engel decided to buy the Chattanooga Lookouts, but he didn’t have enough cash. He persuaded 1,700 fans to chip in and buy the club for $125,000. That year, attendance tripled. The fan-owned Lookouts made a profit of $50,000. The following year Chattanooga won another pennant. Joe Engel died in Chattanooga in 1969 at age 76.
After a brief career in management consulting in New York City, George H. Pettway took a job at Standard Coosa Thatcher textile plant in his native city of Chattanooga. He became President and CEO of the company in 1980 at the age of 37. In 1982 Mr. Pettway led a management buyout of the company, and three years later he sold his interest and retired. His next venture was founding a catalog company, which grew from 10 employees to 750 in one year; it was subsequently sold to a foreign buyer in 1988 for a 20-fold gain in the equity invested. In 1989 Mr. Pettway founded River Associates LLC, a firm designed to buy out small to medium size companies by using monies from investors. River Associates has bought and sold more than 30 companies.
Anthony (Tony) Vest worked for General Electric as a field engineer in the early 1970s after graduating from UT in 1969. His entrepreneurial spirit struggled as he ascended into management, however, and in 1985 Mr. Vest left GE to form Onsite Engineering and Management Company. Onsite was Vest’s first Inc 500 company, and it had grown to over 200 employees and more than $50 million in annual revenues prior to its sale in 1996. In 2001, Vest was asked to take over as Managing Partner of Teton Springs Golf and Casting, LLC, a large second-home resort development in Teton Valley, Idaho. He and his wife, Sandy, worked as a team to right a real estate development that was in serious difficulty. The successful turnaround of the development required the creation of several new companies, one of which was Headwaters Construction, Vest’s second Inc 500 company.
The College of Business would like to thank Clarence E. Harris and Bobbye F. Harris who have supported the efforts of the College of Business at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to instill the entrepreneurial spirit in our students. They understood that our country’s founders possessed an entrepreneurial spirit and had the courage to set out on a new path to build a new nation and a new economy. In today’s business world, that boldness is even more vital. The Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in the Chattanooga area.
Celebrating its 9th year, the Hall of Fame honors Chattanooga entrepreneurs that represent both the early foundations of entrepreneurship in the region, as well as current area entrepreneurs. By celebrating this entrepreneurial legacy, the Hall of Fame highlights this critical aspect of the economy and creates entrepreneurial role models for current students.
Honorees are selected each year by a committee made up of current Hall of Fame members. Present at the 2008 event were members John Thornton, James “Bucky” Wolford, James Berry, and Joseph Decosimo.
The UTC College of Business thanks the following organizations for their generous support of the 2008 Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame: Bald Headed Bistro, Brenda Lawson & Associates, Check Into Cash, Coker Tire Company, Jones Management Services, Joseph Decosimo & Company, LF Investments, Republic Parking System, Sun Trust Bank, Thunder Enterprises and TWSII Management Company.