Mayer, James B., 1986 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Item
Title
Mayer, James B., 1986 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Description
Talks about growing up in Corcoran and Fresno, losing both of his parents very young, attending Fresno State and serving as student body president, serving as Deputy Mayor of Fresno and starting with Producers Cotton Oil. He discusses his friendship and working with Leon S. Peters after World War II, and his surprise at being given the Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award. He talks about his involvement with local hospitals and working with other local business leaders in growing the healthcare infrastructure in the Fresno area.
Creator
Mayer, James B.
Mehas, Dr. Peter G.
Relation
Leon S. Peters Legacy Collection
Coverage
Fresno, California
Date
2000
Format
Microsoft word 2003 document, 6 pages
Identifier
SCMS_lspl_00001
extracted text
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Jim Mayer, Leon Peters recipient. What a pleasure it is to
have the opportunity to have this interview. Jim, tell us about, well first of
all for the record, name, place of birth and date of birth.
>>James B. Mayer: Well the name is Jim Mayer, James B. Mayer. I was born in Los
Angeles but I was living in Corcoran, I mean my mother was living in Corcoran.
We went to Los Angeles, where I was born on January 13th, 1914; a couple of
years ago. Then we lived in Corcoran for a number of years and then later I came
up to Fresno.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When'd you come up to Fresno?
>>James B. Mayer: I came up 1933 to go to Fresno State.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So you're a Bulldog?
>>James B. Mayer: A Bulldog, right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you get started in your profession and what was it
like sort of growing up in this era, in the ‘30s?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh Pete, I think, I look back on it, it was a lot of fun. I
don't ever recall hurting much during those Depression years. I worked my way
through high school. I lost my father when I was 9. My mother died when I was a
baby. And I lived with some people, and then some distant relatives and then by
myself from 15 years on. But you know, I never found it that tough. I didn't
have anything but who cared about missing a meal now and then, which we did. So
you did all kinds of jobs, like you know, like you did when you were a kid and
you worked your way through school. I figured, I stayed out of school a couple
of years and I decided this is no business; I've got to get to college. And I
didn't have any money so I came up here to Fresno State. In those days they took
you pretty cheap if you were honest and had a clean shirt. And so I went through
Fresno State and graduated from there in 1937. That's where I got started in
Fresno.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And then how did you get started in your business? ‘Cause
I always remember you, when I think of Producers Cotton and those years when you
were Chief Executive.
>>James B. Mayer: Right well first before that, Pete, I had a real break. In
1936 and ‘37, I was student body president at Fresno State and in those
activities, related with the community, I met a number of the leaders downtown
and Frank Homan ran for mayor and he ran on a cleanup, reorganization type
campaign and Frank Homan was a wonderful gentlemen. A good mayor, honest man,
lots of good ideas, had been head of the school board, did a lot of things for
this community. But he didn't like to meet trains and to shake hands with the
governor and make speeches and he said, I've got to get me an assistant to do
that. So right out of college, just before I graduated, I [laughter] got
appointed Deputy Mayor of the City of Fresno. And then come to find out it
wasn't just shaking hands and starting conventions and so forth, he turned over
the administrative functions of the departments to me. And so I had the
administrative responsibilities for the police department, the fire department,
the parks, the playgrounds, the health department, the planning commission, all
those functions except the utilities, which were under the commissioner of
public works. So that's where I got my first real intro to Fresno because in
that office, obviously you met all of the leading businessmen, the public
officials and everything else in Fresno and it was a wonderful experience. I
don't know how good it was for the city to have me there that young but it was
certainly an exciting and wonderful experience for me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We oftentimes talk, those of us who were born and raised
in this area, about the pillars of the community and certainly Lew Eaton and Lee
Peters and Jim Mayer's name is always amongst them. You knew Lee firsthand, for
a long, long time.
>>James B. Mayer: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Can you describe for us a little bit about your
relationship with Lee and ->>James B. Mayer: Well my relationship with Lee came after the war. After I left
the city hall there was, in 1941 and then when Pearl Harbor came along I went
into the service and was in the war for the four years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What branch of the military?
>>James B. Mayer: I was in the Army Air Corps, ground officer. I spent all my
time over in the Pacific, three and a half years, but when I came back I went to
work for Producers Cotton Oil Company. And as you know, and a lot of other
people that were here back in those days know, Producers was a very strongly,
community oriented company. Not only in Fresno but everywhere where we had
offices. And two of the founders, Jack O'Neill and Harry Baker, who were good
friends of Lee Peters, and this is about the time that Lee began to come to the
fore. He'd just bought his company and he was really beginning to make his mark.
But Producers was always very lenient with their people. Not only in Fresno but
wherever we had plants, Arizona, Imperial Valley, Bakersfield, to become
involved in community affairs, believing in the concept that whether it's an
individual or a man, you have to make a contribution in funds and in time and in
effort and in leadership and in support to your community, if you want to amount
to anything. And Lee's company and Producers Cotton Oil and a number of the
other companies in those days, did those things, as they're doing again now
today. So that was the time that I became acquainted with Lee Peters. And he
brought me on a Community Hospital board in the late ‘60s. And then I went to,
no, in the late ‘50s it was, ‘50s. And then I went to Arizona for a few years
with Producers. And when I came back, I went back on the Community board. So my
first relationships with him were in business down there in that end of town and
then through community activities, primarily the Community Hospital.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tom Brokaw, in his book, The Greatest Generation, speaks
of your generation, the generation that went through the Depression, the
generation that fought the great war, the generation that put the man on the
moon, your generation made, and you alluded to that in the very beginning, you
were poor but you really didn't know you were poor. What was it about your
generation that was able to not only make enormous sacrifices and discipline but
future generations are literally living off the equity of that greatest
generation.
>>James B. Mayer: Well I guess you could say they're living off of whatever
equity we helped develop but each generation plows its own furrow, Pete, and I
don't think, I don’t think that those who came after the Depression and after
World War II are any less able or any less committed to the development of good
communities and good ways of life and solving all the problems that we have,
than we were in those days. I think, in fact they're more efficient and they're
better trained and they're better educated. There were fewer people. I can look
back in the early days in Fresno when I came here and there were maybe eight to
ten outstanding community leaders, like Lee Peters and Louie Slater and Jack
O'Neill and Russell Giffen and those names. And today if I tried to name off the
people that I think are important leaders in Fresno like yourself and a lot of
others, we'd have to spend another hour to list them all. So we're a much bigger
city. There are a lot more people. The University is three times, four, five,
six times as large as it was when I went there. Three times as large when you
went there, right? And so there are more people, more problems, which means more
opportunity but more potential leaders out there and more people that are doing
things.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Those people who know what the Leon Peters Award stands
for and clearly it is one of the most prestigious awards in the Central Valley
and I think it was most appropriate that the chamber made that recognition to
Leon. What did it mean to you to be the recipient of the Leon S. Peters Award,
personally?
>>James B. Mayer: Well I was flabbergasted when the announcement was made and I
followed Bob Duncan was number two and Lew Eaton was number one and I was number
three and to follow those two men who were a new generation of doers and leaders
in this community, following the older boys, [laughter] it was a real, real
thrill and a real honor and I accepted it humbly. Not because of what I had done
but because of what Lee Peters typified as the things that needed to be done in
this community and the opportunities were out there to do these things. And if
you were lucky and if you worked and if you got a little recognition, then I
guess you were subject to being honored occasionally, what some of us have been.
But it was a very humbling and deep honor to receive that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As we all know ->>James B. Mayer: Not just, excuse me, not just because of Lee Peters’ name,
which is enough in itself but because of what Lee typified as a person who made
continual contributions of effort and funds and experience and knowledge to the
growth of the community, not just businesswise but in education and in health
and in all the facets that we have to have in our welfare programs. He was
involved in all of those.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you get started in terms of, everybody
acknowledges you were clearly a successful businessman but this concept of
giving back to the community. I agree with you with your earlier statements, we
have a lot of bright, well trained people but one of the things that concerns me
is sometimes people get so busy that giving spirit to the community, what
nurtured that giving attitude in your life?
>>James B. Mayer: I don't know what nurtured it. I think it, I think it's a
result of environment, an atmosphere that you're in as well as anything else. I
remember that it was a great effort at Fresno State to get you involved in
things and Frank Thomas, who was president of Fresno State in those years, was a
wonderful individual to take the time to enthuse individual students as well as
collectively, to get involved and to do something for your university. Do
something besides just go to class and sit in the union and have a Coke. Of
course most of us had to go out and work too you know but I think he created the
first of that environment. And then for me, the four years I spent under Frank
Homan, I saw that what he'd done and what the men who rallied around him to help
him, what they had done in the community and it was just a way of life. You
know, you just absorbed it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When I look at Community Hospital, Saint Agnes Hospital, I
immediately think of Jim Mayer. I immediately think of Earl Smittcamp. When I
was the president of Valley Children's Hospital, both Community, the wives and
the city fathers were really the parents of Children's hospital.
>>James B. Mayer: Right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What got you involved and certainly you look back with
pride during your tenure on the board and still you're involved with the
hospital, goodness gracious, it's expanded.
>>James B. Mayer: Oh my so it has. And of course when just before, at the time I
went on the board, Lee was developing the new drive that built the big addition
back there in those days. And then he stimulated the merger of Clovis and Fresno
and then he resigned from the chairmanship and got me put in the spot and so we
just carried on his program and we developed the merger with Sierra. We
developed the foundation and we developed some of the outlying facilities. And
then after that happened, then came the big push. That was just the foundation,
oh and I built the Clovis hospital. That was just getting the foundation going.
As Lee used to say, you have to have a foundation before you can make a building
rise to amount to anything. But what they're doing today and what Saint Agnes is
doing today and what Valley Children’s is doing today, and Pete, let me take
just a moment to say this, in our community we have been fortunate to have the
level and the volume of good health care that we have. In our hospitals and in
our associated facilities that support those hospitals, I don't think any other
community can touch or beat what we've done. For a community of this size to
have the facilities of Community, of Saint Agnes, of Children's and now we've
got the Veterans Hospital came in under another approach and then you have
Kaiser but really we've got great facilities. And I'm so glad we have them with
this influx of population that we have now, they're going to be needed and
they're going to be needed even more than they were in those days. So we're
really lucky here, thanks to guys like you too and Lee Peters and Russell Giffen
and Jack O'Neill and all the others that followed them in leadership in those
various institutions.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We're getting ready to enter the new millennium.
>>James B. Mayer: Uh huh.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And you've seen a lot in Fresno and you've been right at
the forefront, where do you see Fresno County going? Where do you see our city
going in the new millennium? Any concerns? Any ->>James B. Mayer: Oh sure I have concerns but it's just gonna go, go, go.
Despite some of the things that have happened that people feel kind of held
Fresno back or some of the negatives, Pete, this is a growing empire. And when
all of these new people who are coming in, despite the fact that a lot of them
are minorities, just as soon as they absorb a little bit more time and get their
feet on the ground and then if we can find the ways and the means through your
facilities of education, to help them get going, this is going to be a going
Jenny. Don't kid yourself. Sure, there's a lot of problems but look at all the
entities and the facilities and organizations that we have working today to
improve this community, that we didn't have 25 or 30 years ago. There's dozens
of them. You can hardly count them. And they're all working to improve the
quality of our education. And you know you've got a long way to go there yet,
we're not where we want to be in education but we're working toward better. Look
what's going on in the field of welfare and support for people? We've got to do
so many things in that area yet. Goodness gracious, we can't do it all. The
federal government, the state government, they're gonna have to lead the way in
a lot of things but we in the local community can take the tools that are
available, improve them, add to them and with energy and effort and work,
there's no question in my mind but what this is going to be a fantastic
metropolis as the time goes on. And if you and I were still gonna be around here
in 2020, you may be but [laughter] I'll be looking at it from another direction.
In 2020 I think we'd be amazed at the beauty we'll see. Oh I'm just as enthused
as I can be about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As you look back upon not only your professional career of
your time, what are some of the things you're most proud of? And I know you're a
modest man but in terms of this, what are the things that have given you a deep
sense of satisfaction to have been associated with or to have been a party to? I
know when we talk about Cal State University, Fresno, your alma mater, your name
is always there along with Earl and Bob Duncan as supporters of the University.
So many of the facilities, Jim Mayer is right there all the time but what are
some of the things that Jim Mayer is proud of to have been associated with?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh I think in the beginning it was we did a few things out at
Fresno State that had never been done before. I was always a Republican I guess
but I became classed as a liberal because I got the students to raise the
student body fee 50 cents a semester so that they could have a free doctor call,
two or three times a year because there were so many kids that lived away from
home to go to Fresno State. But that was a good thing. The other colleges came
along in the system and did the same thing and now you have a good health
program out there. But I was proud of that little move. And then I think some of
the things that we did in the city when I was working for the mayor's office. A
number of individual things that I was involved in and stimulated, that I feel
some pride for. But I don't know, Pete, and then in Producers, as I say you had
a strong, good, wonderful company that was behind you and just said go, go, do
the job. Sell the product. Get the service that we need to run the company but
at the same time let's help build this community and build this valley. And I
was just proud to be a part of that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What advice would you give to young people today that are
starting off in their career. They see some of the big salaries and they see
some of the successes and they want that instant gratification. What advice
would you give them, Jim?
>>James B. Mayer: Keep going after it but set aside a little bit of your time
and a little bit of your thinking and dedicate it to something other than
yourself and your own company or your own project or your own office or your own
business, something that involves other people in the community. I don't care
what it is. I don't care what facet of the community it involves or is
associated with. Do something. Do something outside and give some time, what
little money you can. You don't have to be a big giver to be important to the
whole program. Give a little bit, give a little bit of your time. Give a little
bit of your thinking, a little bit of your heart and as time goes on,
opportunity will come for you to give more and more and more. It just comes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Vince Lombardi, great Notre Dame football coach, being a
Trojan, Vince Lombardi once said that when the great scorekeeper records the
final score, it matters not who wins or loses but how the game is played. And
you have many, many good years ahead of you but how do you want the scorekeeper,
what do you want people to finally say about, how do you want them to record the
score of Jim Mayer?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh I don't think it's very important how they record it
really. I guess if they just say well he didn't owe anybody when he died and he
didn't step on anybody to get where he got, even if he didn't get too far and he
had a good time while he did it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well Jim, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce and many of
us in the community, we are eternally grateful. Your legacy lives on, not only
through the Community Hospital but through the students at Cal State University,
Fresno. It is people like Jim Mayer, Lew Eaton and Leon Peters that make this
community the kind of community we're all proud to be associated with. So our
sincere congratulations->>James B. Mayer: Well thank you, thank you.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: For a lifetime of dedication of public service.
>>James B. Mayer: Thank you for those nice words and thank you for doing what
you're doing, Pete. We appreciate it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Congratulations.
>>James B. Mayer: Okay.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
have the opportunity to have this interview. Jim, tell us about, well first of
all for the record, name, place of birth and date of birth.
>>James B. Mayer: Well the name is Jim Mayer, James B. Mayer. I was born in Los
Angeles but I was living in Corcoran, I mean my mother was living in Corcoran.
We went to Los Angeles, where I was born on January 13th, 1914; a couple of
years ago. Then we lived in Corcoran for a number of years and then later I came
up to Fresno.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When'd you come up to Fresno?
>>James B. Mayer: I came up 1933 to go to Fresno State.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So you're a Bulldog?
>>James B. Mayer: A Bulldog, right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you get started in your profession and what was it
like sort of growing up in this era, in the ‘30s?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh Pete, I think, I look back on it, it was a lot of fun. I
don't ever recall hurting much during those Depression years. I worked my way
through high school. I lost my father when I was 9. My mother died when I was a
baby. And I lived with some people, and then some distant relatives and then by
myself from 15 years on. But you know, I never found it that tough. I didn't
have anything but who cared about missing a meal now and then, which we did. So
you did all kinds of jobs, like you know, like you did when you were a kid and
you worked your way through school. I figured, I stayed out of school a couple
of years and I decided this is no business; I've got to get to college. And I
didn't have any money so I came up here to Fresno State. In those days they took
you pretty cheap if you were honest and had a clean shirt. And so I went through
Fresno State and graduated from there in 1937. That's where I got started in
Fresno.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And then how did you get started in your business? ‘Cause
I always remember you, when I think of Producers Cotton and those years when you
were Chief Executive.
>>James B. Mayer: Right well first before that, Pete, I had a real break. In
1936 and ‘37, I was student body president at Fresno State and in those
activities, related with the community, I met a number of the leaders downtown
and Frank Homan ran for mayor and he ran on a cleanup, reorganization type
campaign and Frank Homan was a wonderful gentlemen. A good mayor, honest man,
lots of good ideas, had been head of the school board, did a lot of things for
this community. But he didn't like to meet trains and to shake hands with the
governor and make speeches and he said, I've got to get me an assistant to do
that. So right out of college, just before I graduated, I [laughter] got
appointed Deputy Mayor of the City of Fresno. And then come to find out it
wasn't just shaking hands and starting conventions and so forth, he turned over
the administrative functions of the departments to me. And so I had the
administrative responsibilities for the police department, the fire department,
the parks, the playgrounds, the health department, the planning commission, all
those functions except the utilities, which were under the commissioner of
public works. So that's where I got my first real intro to Fresno because in
that office, obviously you met all of the leading businessmen, the public
officials and everything else in Fresno and it was a wonderful experience. I
don't know how good it was for the city to have me there that young but it was
certainly an exciting and wonderful experience for me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We oftentimes talk, those of us who were born and raised
in this area, about the pillars of the community and certainly Lew Eaton and Lee
Peters and Jim Mayer's name is always amongst them. You knew Lee firsthand, for
a long, long time.
>>James B. Mayer: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Can you describe for us a little bit about your
relationship with Lee and ->>James B. Mayer: Well my relationship with Lee came after the war. After I left
the city hall there was, in 1941 and then when Pearl Harbor came along I went
into the service and was in the war for the four years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What branch of the military?
>>James B. Mayer: I was in the Army Air Corps, ground officer. I spent all my
time over in the Pacific, three and a half years, but when I came back I went to
work for Producers Cotton Oil Company. And as you know, and a lot of other
people that were here back in those days know, Producers was a very strongly,
community oriented company. Not only in Fresno but everywhere where we had
offices. And two of the founders, Jack O'Neill and Harry Baker, who were good
friends of Lee Peters, and this is about the time that Lee began to come to the
fore. He'd just bought his company and he was really beginning to make his mark.
But Producers was always very lenient with their people. Not only in Fresno but
wherever we had plants, Arizona, Imperial Valley, Bakersfield, to become
involved in community affairs, believing in the concept that whether it's an
individual or a man, you have to make a contribution in funds and in time and in
effort and in leadership and in support to your community, if you want to amount
to anything. And Lee's company and Producers Cotton Oil and a number of the
other companies in those days, did those things, as they're doing again now
today. So that was the time that I became acquainted with Lee Peters. And he
brought me on a Community Hospital board in the late ‘60s. And then I went to,
no, in the late ‘50s it was, ‘50s. And then I went to Arizona for a few years
with Producers. And when I came back, I went back on the Community board. So my
first relationships with him were in business down there in that end of town and
then through community activities, primarily the Community Hospital.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tom Brokaw, in his book, The Greatest Generation, speaks
of your generation, the generation that went through the Depression, the
generation that fought the great war, the generation that put the man on the
moon, your generation made, and you alluded to that in the very beginning, you
were poor but you really didn't know you were poor. What was it about your
generation that was able to not only make enormous sacrifices and discipline but
future generations are literally living off the equity of that greatest
generation.
>>James B. Mayer: Well I guess you could say they're living off of whatever
equity we helped develop but each generation plows its own furrow, Pete, and I
don't think, I don’t think that those who came after the Depression and after
World War II are any less able or any less committed to the development of good
communities and good ways of life and solving all the problems that we have,
than we were in those days. I think, in fact they're more efficient and they're
better trained and they're better educated. There were fewer people. I can look
back in the early days in Fresno when I came here and there were maybe eight to
ten outstanding community leaders, like Lee Peters and Louie Slater and Jack
O'Neill and Russell Giffen and those names. And today if I tried to name off the
people that I think are important leaders in Fresno like yourself and a lot of
others, we'd have to spend another hour to list them all. So we're a much bigger
city. There are a lot more people. The University is three times, four, five,
six times as large as it was when I went there. Three times as large when you
went there, right? And so there are more people, more problems, which means more
opportunity but more potential leaders out there and more people that are doing
things.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Those people who know what the Leon Peters Award stands
for and clearly it is one of the most prestigious awards in the Central Valley
and I think it was most appropriate that the chamber made that recognition to
Leon. What did it mean to you to be the recipient of the Leon S. Peters Award,
personally?
>>James B. Mayer: Well I was flabbergasted when the announcement was made and I
followed Bob Duncan was number two and Lew Eaton was number one and I was number
three and to follow those two men who were a new generation of doers and leaders
in this community, following the older boys, [laughter] it was a real, real
thrill and a real honor and I accepted it humbly. Not because of what I had done
but because of what Lee Peters typified as the things that needed to be done in
this community and the opportunities were out there to do these things. And if
you were lucky and if you worked and if you got a little recognition, then I
guess you were subject to being honored occasionally, what some of us have been.
But it was a very humbling and deep honor to receive that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As we all know ->>James B. Mayer: Not just, excuse me, not just because of Lee Peters’ name,
which is enough in itself but because of what Lee typified as a person who made
continual contributions of effort and funds and experience and knowledge to the
growth of the community, not just businesswise but in education and in health
and in all the facets that we have to have in our welfare programs. He was
involved in all of those.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you get started in terms of, everybody
acknowledges you were clearly a successful businessman but this concept of
giving back to the community. I agree with you with your earlier statements, we
have a lot of bright, well trained people but one of the things that concerns me
is sometimes people get so busy that giving spirit to the community, what
nurtured that giving attitude in your life?
>>James B. Mayer: I don't know what nurtured it. I think it, I think it's a
result of environment, an atmosphere that you're in as well as anything else. I
remember that it was a great effort at Fresno State to get you involved in
things and Frank Thomas, who was president of Fresno State in those years, was a
wonderful individual to take the time to enthuse individual students as well as
collectively, to get involved and to do something for your university. Do
something besides just go to class and sit in the union and have a Coke. Of
course most of us had to go out and work too you know but I think he created the
first of that environment. And then for me, the four years I spent under Frank
Homan, I saw that what he'd done and what the men who rallied around him to help
him, what they had done in the community and it was just a way of life. You
know, you just absorbed it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When I look at Community Hospital, Saint Agnes Hospital, I
immediately think of Jim Mayer. I immediately think of Earl Smittcamp. When I
was the president of Valley Children's Hospital, both Community, the wives and
the city fathers were really the parents of Children's hospital.
>>James B. Mayer: Right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What got you involved and certainly you look back with
pride during your tenure on the board and still you're involved with the
hospital, goodness gracious, it's expanded.
>>James B. Mayer: Oh my so it has. And of course when just before, at the time I
went on the board, Lee was developing the new drive that built the big addition
back there in those days. And then he stimulated the merger of Clovis and Fresno
and then he resigned from the chairmanship and got me put in the spot and so we
just carried on his program and we developed the merger with Sierra. We
developed the foundation and we developed some of the outlying facilities. And
then after that happened, then came the big push. That was just the foundation,
oh and I built the Clovis hospital. That was just getting the foundation going.
As Lee used to say, you have to have a foundation before you can make a building
rise to amount to anything. But what they're doing today and what Saint Agnes is
doing today and what Valley Children’s is doing today, and Pete, let me take
just a moment to say this, in our community we have been fortunate to have the
level and the volume of good health care that we have. In our hospitals and in
our associated facilities that support those hospitals, I don't think any other
community can touch or beat what we've done. For a community of this size to
have the facilities of Community, of Saint Agnes, of Children's and now we've
got the Veterans Hospital came in under another approach and then you have
Kaiser but really we've got great facilities. And I'm so glad we have them with
this influx of population that we have now, they're going to be needed and
they're going to be needed even more than they were in those days. So we're
really lucky here, thanks to guys like you too and Lee Peters and Russell Giffen
and Jack O'Neill and all the others that followed them in leadership in those
various institutions.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We're getting ready to enter the new millennium.
>>James B. Mayer: Uh huh.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And you've seen a lot in Fresno and you've been right at
the forefront, where do you see Fresno County going? Where do you see our city
going in the new millennium? Any concerns? Any ->>James B. Mayer: Oh sure I have concerns but it's just gonna go, go, go.
Despite some of the things that have happened that people feel kind of held
Fresno back or some of the negatives, Pete, this is a growing empire. And when
all of these new people who are coming in, despite the fact that a lot of them
are minorities, just as soon as they absorb a little bit more time and get their
feet on the ground and then if we can find the ways and the means through your
facilities of education, to help them get going, this is going to be a going
Jenny. Don't kid yourself. Sure, there's a lot of problems but look at all the
entities and the facilities and organizations that we have working today to
improve this community, that we didn't have 25 or 30 years ago. There's dozens
of them. You can hardly count them. And they're all working to improve the
quality of our education. And you know you've got a long way to go there yet,
we're not where we want to be in education but we're working toward better. Look
what's going on in the field of welfare and support for people? We've got to do
so many things in that area yet. Goodness gracious, we can't do it all. The
federal government, the state government, they're gonna have to lead the way in
a lot of things but we in the local community can take the tools that are
available, improve them, add to them and with energy and effort and work,
there's no question in my mind but what this is going to be a fantastic
metropolis as the time goes on. And if you and I were still gonna be around here
in 2020, you may be but [laughter] I'll be looking at it from another direction.
In 2020 I think we'd be amazed at the beauty we'll see. Oh I'm just as enthused
as I can be about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As you look back upon not only your professional career of
your time, what are some of the things you're most proud of? And I know you're a
modest man but in terms of this, what are the things that have given you a deep
sense of satisfaction to have been associated with or to have been a party to? I
know when we talk about Cal State University, Fresno, your alma mater, your name
is always there along with Earl and Bob Duncan as supporters of the University.
So many of the facilities, Jim Mayer is right there all the time but what are
some of the things that Jim Mayer is proud of to have been associated with?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh I think in the beginning it was we did a few things out at
Fresno State that had never been done before. I was always a Republican I guess
but I became classed as a liberal because I got the students to raise the
student body fee 50 cents a semester so that they could have a free doctor call,
two or three times a year because there were so many kids that lived away from
home to go to Fresno State. But that was a good thing. The other colleges came
along in the system and did the same thing and now you have a good health
program out there. But I was proud of that little move. And then I think some of
the things that we did in the city when I was working for the mayor's office. A
number of individual things that I was involved in and stimulated, that I feel
some pride for. But I don't know, Pete, and then in Producers, as I say you had
a strong, good, wonderful company that was behind you and just said go, go, do
the job. Sell the product. Get the service that we need to run the company but
at the same time let's help build this community and build this valley. And I
was just proud to be a part of that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What advice would you give to young people today that are
starting off in their career. They see some of the big salaries and they see
some of the successes and they want that instant gratification. What advice
would you give them, Jim?
>>James B. Mayer: Keep going after it but set aside a little bit of your time
and a little bit of your thinking and dedicate it to something other than
yourself and your own company or your own project or your own office or your own
business, something that involves other people in the community. I don't care
what it is. I don't care what facet of the community it involves or is
associated with. Do something. Do something outside and give some time, what
little money you can. You don't have to be a big giver to be important to the
whole program. Give a little bit, give a little bit of your time. Give a little
bit of your thinking, a little bit of your heart and as time goes on,
opportunity will come for you to give more and more and more. It just comes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Vince Lombardi, great Notre Dame football coach, being a
Trojan, Vince Lombardi once said that when the great scorekeeper records the
final score, it matters not who wins or loses but how the game is played. And
you have many, many good years ahead of you but how do you want the scorekeeper,
what do you want people to finally say about, how do you want them to record the
score of Jim Mayer?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh I don't think it's very important how they record it
really. I guess if they just say well he didn't owe anybody when he died and he
didn't step on anybody to get where he got, even if he didn't get too far and he
had a good time while he did it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well Jim, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce and many of
us in the community, we are eternally grateful. Your legacy lives on, not only
through the Community Hospital but through the students at Cal State University,
Fresno. It is people like Jim Mayer, Lew Eaton and Leon Peters that make this
community the kind of community we're all proud to be associated with. So our
sincere congratulations->>James B. Mayer: Well thank you, thank you.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: For a lifetime of dedication of public service.
>>James B. Mayer: Thank you for those nice words and thank you for doing what
you're doing, Pete. We appreciate it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Congratulations.
>>James B. Mayer: Okay.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Jim Mayer, Leon Peters recipient. What a pleasure it is to
have the opportunity to have this interview. Jim, tell us about, well first of
all for the record, name, place of birth and date of birth.
>>James B. Mayer: Well the name is Jim Mayer, James B. Mayer. I was born in Los
Angeles but I was living in Corcoran, I mean my mother was living in Corcoran.
We went to Los Angeles, where I was born on January 13th, 1914; a couple of
years ago. Then we lived in Corcoran for a number of years and then later I came
up to Fresno.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When'd you come up to Fresno?
>>James B. Mayer: I came up 1933 to go to Fresno State.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So you're a Bulldog?
>>James B. Mayer: A Bulldog, right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you get started in your profession and what was it
like sort of growing up in this era, in the ‘30s?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh Pete, I think, I look back on it, it was a lot of fun. I
don't ever recall hurting much during those Depression years. I worked my way
through high school. I lost my father when I was 9. My mother died when I was a
baby. And I lived with some people, and then some distant relatives and then by
myself from 15 years on. But you know, I never found it that tough. I didn't
have anything but who cared about missing a meal now and then, which we did. So
you did all kinds of jobs, like you know, like you did when you were a kid and
you worked your way through school. I figured, I stayed out of school a couple
of years and I decided this is no business; I've got to get to college. And I
didn't have any money so I came up here to Fresno State. In those days they took
you pretty cheap if you were honest and had a clean shirt. And so I went through
Fresno State and graduated from there in 1937. That's where I got started in
Fresno.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And then how did you get started in your business? ‘Cause
I always remember you, when I think of Producers Cotton and those years when you
were Chief Executive.
>>James B. Mayer: Right well first before that, Pete, I had a real break. In
1936 and ‘37, I was student body president at Fresno State and in those
activities, related with the community, I met a number of the leaders downtown
and Frank Homan ran for mayor and he ran on a cleanup, reorganization type
campaign and Frank Homan was a wonderful gentlemen. A good mayor, honest man,
lots of good ideas, had been head of the school board, did a lot of things for
this community. But he didn't like to meet trains and to shake hands with the
governor and make speeches and he said, I've got to get me an assistant to do
that. So right out of college, just before I graduated, I [laughter] got
appointed Deputy Mayor of the City of Fresno. And then come to find out it
wasn't just shaking hands and starting conventions and so forth, he turned over
the administrative functions of the departments to me. And so I had the
administrative responsibilities for the police department, the fire department,
the parks, the playgrounds, the health department, the planning commission, all
those functions except the utilities, which were under the commissioner of
public works. So that's where I got my first real intro to Fresno because in
that office, obviously you met all of the leading businessmen, the public
officials and everything else in Fresno and it was a wonderful experience. I
don't know how good it was for the city to have me there that young but it was
certainly an exciting and wonderful experience for me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We oftentimes talk, those of us who were born and raised
in this area, about the pillars of the community and certainly Lew Eaton and Lee
Peters and Jim Mayer's name is always amongst them. You knew Lee firsthand, for
a long, long time.
>>James B. Mayer: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Can you describe for us a little bit about your
relationship with Lee and ->>James B. Mayer: Well my relationship with Lee came after the war. After I left
the city hall there was, in 1941 and then when Pearl Harbor came along I went
into the service and was in the war for the four years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What branch of the military?
>>James B. Mayer: I was in the Army Air Corps, ground officer. I spent all my
time over in the Pacific, three and a half years, but when I came back I went to
work for Producers Cotton Oil Company. And as you know, and a lot of other
people that were here back in those days know, Producers was a very strongly,
community oriented company. Not only in Fresno but everywhere where we had
offices. And two of the founders, Jack O'Neill and Harry Baker, who were good
friends of Lee Peters, and this is about the time that Lee began to come to the
fore. He'd just bought his company and he was really beginning to make his mark.
But Producers was always very lenient with their people. Not only in Fresno but
wherever we had plants, Arizona, Imperial Valley, Bakersfield, to become
involved in community affairs, believing in the concept that whether it's an
individual or a man, you have to make a contribution in funds and in time and in
effort and in leadership and in support to your community, if you want to amount
to anything. And Lee's company and Producers Cotton Oil and a number of the
other companies in those days, did those things, as they're doing again now
today. So that was the time that I became acquainted with Lee Peters. And he
brought me on a Community Hospital board in the late ‘60s. And then I went to,
no, in the late ‘50s it was, ‘50s. And then I went to Arizona for a few years
with Producers. And when I came back, I went back on the Community board. So my
first relationships with him were in business down there in that end of town and
then through community activities, primarily the Community Hospital.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tom Brokaw, in his book, The Greatest Generation, speaks
of your generation, the generation that went through the Depression, the
generation that fought the great war, the generation that put the man on the
moon, your generation made, and you alluded to that in the very beginning, you
were poor but you really didn't know you were poor. What was it about your
generation that was able to not only make enormous sacrifices and discipline but
future generations are literally living off the equity of that greatest
generation.
>>James B. Mayer: Well I guess you could say they're living off of whatever
equity we helped develop but each generation plows its own furrow, Pete, and I
don't think, I don’t think that those who came after the Depression and after
World War II are any less able or any less committed to the development of good
communities and good ways of life and solving all the problems that we have,
than we were in those days. I think, in fact they're more efficient and they're
better trained and they're better educated. There were fewer people. I can look
back in the early days in Fresno when I came here and there were maybe eight to
ten outstanding community leaders, like Lee Peters and Louie Slater and Jack
O'Neill and Russell Giffen and those names. And today if I tried to name off the
people that I think are important leaders in Fresno like yourself and a lot of
others, we'd have to spend another hour to list them all. So we're a much bigger
city. There are a lot more people. The University is three times, four, five,
six times as large as it was when I went there. Three times as large when you
went there, right? And so there are more people, more problems, which means more
opportunity but more potential leaders out there and more people that are doing
things.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Those people who know what the Leon Peters Award stands
for and clearly it is one of the most prestigious awards in the Central Valley
and I think it was most appropriate that the chamber made that recognition to
Leon. What did it mean to you to be the recipient of the Leon S. Peters Award,
personally?
>>James B. Mayer: Well I was flabbergasted when the announcement was made and I
followed Bob Duncan was number two and Lew Eaton was number one and I was number
three and to follow those two men who were a new generation of doers and leaders
in this community, following the older boys, [laughter] it was a real, real
thrill and a real honor and I accepted it humbly. Not because of what I had done
but because of what Lee Peters typified as the things that needed to be done in
this community and the opportunities were out there to do these things. And if
you were lucky and if you worked and if you got a little recognition, then I
guess you were subject to being honored occasionally, what some of us have been.
But it was a very humbling and deep honor to receive that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As we all know ->>James B. Mayer: Not just, excuse me, not just because of Lee Peters’ name,
which is enough in itself but because of what Lee typified as a person who made
continual contributions of effort and funds and experience and knowledge to the
growth of the community, not just businesswise but in education and in health
and in all the facets that we have to have in our welfare programs. He was
involved in all of those.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you get started in terms of, everybody
acknowledges you were clearly a successful businessman but this concept of
giving back to the community. I agree with you with your earlier statements, we
have a lot of bright, well trained people but one of the things that concerns me
is sometimes people get so busy that giving spirit to the community, what
nurtured that giving attitude in your life?
>>James B. Mayer: I don't know what nurtured it. I think it, I think it's a
result of environment, an atmosphere that you're in as well as anything else. I
remember that it was a great effort at Fresno State to get you involved in
things and Frank Thomas, who was president of Fresno State in those years, was a
wonderful individual to take the time to enthuse individual students as well as
collectively, to get involved and to do something for your university. Do
something besides just go to class and sit in the union and have a Coke. Of
course most of us had to go out and work too you know but I think he created the
first of that environment. And then for me, the four years I spent under Frank
Homan, I saw that what he'd done and what the men who rallied around him to help
him, what they had done in the community and it was just a way of life. You
know, you just absorbed it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When I look at Community Hospital, Saint Agnes Hospital, I
immediately think of Jim Mayer. I immediately think of Earl Smittcamp. When I
was the president of Valley Children's Hospital, both Community, the wives and
the city fathers were really the parents of Children's hospital.
>>James B. Mayer: Right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What got you involved and certainly you look back with
pride during your tenure on the board and still you're involved with the
hospital, goodness gracious, it's expanded.
>>James B. Mayer: Oh my so it has. And of course when just before, at the time I
went on the board, Lee was developing the new drive that built the big addition
back there in those days. And then he stimulated the merger of Clovis and Fresno
and then he resigned from the chairmanship and got me put in the spot and so we
just carried on his program and we developed the merger with Sierra. We
developed the foundation and we developed some of the outlying facilities. And
then after that happened, then came the big push. That was just the foundation,
oh and I built the Clovis hospital. That was just getting the foundation going.
As Lee used to say, you have to have a foundation before you can make a building
rise to amount to anything. But what they're doing today and what Saint Agnes is
doing today and what Valley Children’s is doing today, and Pete, let me take
just a moment to say this, in our community we have been fortunate to have the
level and the volume of good health care that we have. In our hospitals and in
our associated facilities that support those hospitals, I don't think any other
community can touch or beat what we've done. For a community of this size to
have the facilities of Community, of Saint Agnes, of Children's and now we've
got the Veterans Hospital came in under another approach and then you have
Kaiser but really we've got great facilities. And I'm so glad we have them with
this influx of population that we have now, they're going to be needed and
they're going to be needed even more than they were in those days. So we're
really lucky here, thanks to guys like you too and Lee Peters and Russell Giffen
and Jack O'Neill and all the others that followed them in leadership in those
various institutions.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We're getting ready to enter the new millennium.
>>James B. Mayer: Uh huh.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And you've seen a lot in Fresno and you've been right at
the forefront, where do you see Fresno County going? Where do you see our city
going in the new millennium? Any concerns? Any ->>James B. Mayer: Oh sure I have concerns but it's just gonna go, go, go.
Despite some of the things that have happened that people feel kind of held
Fresno back or some of the negatives, Pete, this is a growing empire. And when
all of these new people who are coming in, despite the fact that a lot of them
are minorities, just as soon as they absorb a little bit more time and get their
feet on the ground and then if we can find the ways and the means through your
facilities of education, to help them get going, this is going to be a going
Jenny. Don't kid yourself. Sure, there's a lot of problems but look at all the
entities and the facilities and organizations that we have working today to
improve this community, that we didn't have 25 or 30 years ago. There's dozens
of them. You can hardly count them. And they're all working to improve the
quality of our education. And you know you've got a long way to go there yet,
we're not where we want to be in education but we're working toward better. Look
what's going on in the field of welfare and support for people? We've got to do
so many things in that area yet. Goodness gracious, we can't do it all. The
federal government, the state government, they're gonna have to lead the way in
a lot of things but we in the local community can take the tools that are
available, improve them, add to them and with energy and effort and work,
there's no question in my mind but what this is going to be a fantastic
metropolis as the time goes on. And if you and I were still gonna be around here
in 2020, you may be but [laughter] I'll be looking at it from another direction.
In 2020 I think we'd be amazed at the beauty we'll see. Oh I'm just as enthused
as I can be about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As you look back upon not only your professional career of
your time, what are some of the things you're most proud of? And I know you're a
modest man but in terms of this, what are the things that have given you a deep
sense of satisfaction to have been associated with or to have been a party to? I
know when we talk about Cal State University, Fresno, your alma mater, your name
is always there along with Earl and Bob Duncan as supporters of the University.
So many of the facilities, Jim Mayer is right there all the time but what are
some of the things that Jim Mayer is proud of to have been associated with?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh I think in the beginning it was we did a few things out at
Fresno State that had never been done before. I was always a Republican I guess
but I became classed as a liberal because I got the students to raise the
student body fee 50 cents a semester so that they could have a free doctor call,
two or three times a year because there were so many kids that lived away from
home to go to Fresno State. But that was a good thing. The other colleges came
along in the system and did the same thing and now you have a good health
program out there. But I was proud of that little move. And then I think some of
the things that we did in the city when I was working for the mayor's office. A
number of individual things that I was involved in and stimulated, that I feel
some pride for. But I don't know, Pete, and then in Producers, as I say you had
a strong, good, wonderful company that was behind you and just said go, go, do
the job. Sell the product. Get the service that we need to run the company but
at the same time let's help build this community and build this valley. And I
was just proud to be a part of that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What advice would you give to young people today that are
starting off in their career. They see some of the big salaries and they see
some of the successes and they want that instant gratification. What advice
would you give them, Jim?
>>James B. Mayer: Keep going after it but set aside a little bit of your time
and a little bit of your thinking and dedicate it to something other than
yourself and your own company or your own project or your own office or your own
business, something that involves other people in the community. I don't care
what it is. I don't care what facet of the community it involves or is
associated with. Do something. Do something outside and give some time, what
little money you can. You don't have to be a big giver to be important to the
whole program. Give a little bit, give a little bit of your time. Give a little
bit of your thinking, a little bit of your heart and as time goes on,
opportunity will come for you to give more and more and more. It just comes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Vince Lombardi, great Notre Dame football coach, being a
Trojan, Vince Lombardi once said that when the great scorekeeper records the
final score, it matters not who wins or loses but how the game is played. And
you have many, many good years ahead of you but how do you want the scorekeeper,
what do you want people to finally say about, how do you want them to record the
score of Jim Mayer?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh I don't think it's very important how they record it
really. I guess if they just say well he didn't owe anybody when he died and he
didn't step on anybody to get where he got, even if he didn't get too far and he
had a good time while he did it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well Jim, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce and many of
us in the community, we are eternally grateful. Your legacy lives on, not only
through the Community Hospital but through the students at Cal State University,
Fresno. It is people like Jim Mayer, Lew Eaton and Leon Peters that make this
community the kind of community we're all proud to be associated with. So our
sincere congratulations->>James B. Mayer: Well thank you, thank you.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: For a lifetime of dedication of public service.
>>James B. Mayer: Thank you for those nice words and thank you for doing what
you're doing, Pete. We appreciate it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Congratulations.
>>James B. Mayer: Okay.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
have the opportunity to have this interview. Jim, tell us about, well first of
all for the record, name, place of birth and date of birth.
>>James B. Mayer: Well the name is Jim Mayer, James B. Mayer. I was born in Los
Angeles but I was living in Corcoran, I mean my mother was living in Corcoran.
We went to Los Angeles, where I was born on January 13th, 1914; a couple of
years ago. Then we lived in Corcoran for a number of years and then later I came
up to Fresno.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When'd you come up to Fresno?
>>James B. Mayer: I came up 1933 to go to Fresno State.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So you're a Bulldog?
>>James B. Mayer: A Bulldog, right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you get started in your profession and what was it
like sort of growing up in this era, in the ‘30s?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh Pete, I think, I look back on it, it was a lot of fun. I
don't ever recall hurting much during those Depression years. I worked my way
through high school. I lost my father when I was 9. My mother died when I was a
baby. And I lived with some people, and then some distant relatives and then by
myself from 15 years on. But you know, I never found it that tough. I didn't
have anything but who cared about missing a meal now and then, which we did. So
you did all kinds of jobs, like you know, like you did when you were a kid and
you worked your way through school. I figured, I stayed out of school a couple
of years and I decided this is no business; I've got to get to college. And I
didn't have any money so I came up here to Fresno State. In those days they took
you pretty cheap if you were honest and had a clean shirt. And so I went through
Fresno State and graduated from there in 1937. That's where I got started in
Fresno.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And then how did you get started in your business? ‘Cause
I always remember you, when I think of Producers Cotton and those years when you
were Chief Executive.
>>James B. Mayer: Right well first before that, Pete, I had a real break. In
1936 and ‘37, I was student body president at Fresno State and in those
activities, related with the community, I met a number of the leaders downtown
and Frank Homan ran for mayor and he ran on a cleanup, reorganization type
campaign and Frank Homan was a wonderful gentlemen. A good mayor, honest man,
lots of good ideas, had been head of the school board, did a lot of things for
this community. But he didn't like to meet trains and to shake hands with the
governor and make speeches and he said, I've got to get me an assistant to do
that. So right out of college, just before I graduated, I [laughter] got
appointed Deputy Mayor of the City of Fresno. And then come to find out it
wasn't just shaking hands and starting conventions and so forth, he turned over
the administrative functions of the departments to me. And so I had the
administrative responsibilities for the police department, the fire department,
the parks, the playgrounds, the health department, the planning commission, all
those functions except the utilities, which were under the commissioner of
public works. So that's where I got my first real intro to Fresno because in
that office, obviously you met all of the leading businessmen, the public
officials and everything else in Fresno and it was a wonderful experience. I
don't know how good it was for the city to have me there that young but it was
certainly an exciting and wonderful experience for me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We oftentimes talk, those of us who were born and raised
in this area, about the pillars of the community and certainly Lew Eaton and Lee
Peters and Jim Mayer's name is always amongst them. You knew Lee firsthand, for
a long, long time.
>>James B. Mayer: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Can you describe for us a little bit about your
relationship with Lee and ->>James B. Mayer: Well my relationship with Lee came after the war. After I left
the city hall there was, in 1941 and then when Pearl Harbor came along I went
into the service and was in the war for the four years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What branch of the military?
>>James B. Mayer: I was in the Army Air Corps, ground officer. I spent all my
time over in the Pacific, three and a half years, but when I came back I went to
work for Producers Cotton Oil Company. And as you know, and a lot of other
people that were here back in those days know, Producers was a very strongly,
community oriented company. Not only in Fresno but everywhere where we had
offices. And two of the founders, Jack O'Neill and Harry Baker, who were good
friends of Lee Peters, and this is about the time that Lee began to come to the
fore. He'd just bought his company and he was really beginning to make his mark.
But Producers was always very lenient with their people. Not only in Fresno but
wherever we had plants, Arizona, Imperial Valley, Bakersfield, to become
involved in community affairs, believing in the concept that whether it's an
individual or a man, you have to make a contribution in funds and in time and in
effort and in leadership and in support to your community, if you want to amount
to anything. And Lee's company and Producers Cotton Oil and a number of the
other companies in those days, did those things, as they're doing again now
today. So that was the time that I became acquainted with Lee Peters. And he
brought me on a Community Hospital board in the late ‘60s. And then I went to,
no, in the late ‘50s it was, ‘50s. And then I went to Arizona for a few years
with Producers. And when I came back, I went back on the Community board. So my
first relationships with him were in business down there in that end of town and
then through community activities, primarily the Community Hospital.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tom Brokaw, in his book, The Greatest Generation, speaks
of your generation, the generation that went through the Depression, the
generation that fought the great war, the generation that put the man on the
moon, your generation made, and you alluded to that in the very beginning, you
were poor but you really didn't know you were poor. What was it about your
generation that was able to not only make enormous sacrifices and discipline but
future generations are literally living off the equity of that greatest
generation.
>>James B. Mayer: Well I guess you could say they're living off of whatever
equity we helped develop but each generation plows its own furrow, Pete, and I
don't think, I don’t think that those who came after the Depression and after
World War II are any less able or any less committed to the development of good
communities and good ways of life and solving all the problems that we have,
than we were in those days. I think, in fact they're more efficient and they're
better trained and they're better educated. There were fewer people. I can look
back in the early days in Fresno when I came here and there were maybe eight to
ten outstanding community leaders, like Lee Peters and Louie Slater and Jack
O'Neill and Russell Giffen and those names. And today if I tried to name off the
people that I think are important leaders in Fresno like yourself and a lot of
others, we'd have to spend another hour to list them all. So we're a much bigger
city. There are a lot more people. The University is three times, four, five,
six times as large as it was when I went there. Three times as large when you
went there, right? And so there are more people, more problems, which means more
opportunity but more potential leaders out there and more people that are doing
things.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Those people who know what the Leon Peters Award stands
for and clearly it is one of the most prestigious awards in the Central Valley
and I think it was most appropriate that the chamber made that recognition to
Leon. What did it mean to you to be the recipient of the Leon S. Peters Award,
personally?
>>James B. Mayer: Well I was flabbergasted when the announcement was made and I
followed Bob Duncan was number two and Lew Eaton was number one and I was number
three and to follow those two men who were a new generation of doers and leaders
in this community, following the older boys, [laughter] it was a real, real
thrill and a real honor and I accepted it humbly. Not because of what I had done
but because of what Lee Peters typified as the things that needed to be done in
this community and the opportunities were out there to do these things. And if
you were lucky and if you worked and if you got a little recognition, then I
guess you were subject to being honored occasionally, what some of us have been.
But it was a very humbling and deep honor to receive that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As we all know ->>James B. Mayer: Not just, excuse me, not just because of Lee Peters’ name,
which is enough in itself but because of what Lee typified as a person who made
continual contributions of effort and funds and experience and knowledge to the
growth of the community, not just businesswise but in education and in health
and in all the facets that we have to have in our welfare programs. He was
involved in all of those.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you get started in terms of, everybody
acknowledges you were clearly a successful businessman but this concept of
giving back to the community. I agree with you with your earlier statements, we
have a lot of bright, well trained people but one of the things that concerns me
is sometimes people get so busy that giving spirit to the community, what
nurtured that giving attitude in your life?
>>James B. Mayer: I don't know what nurtured it. I think it, I think it's a
result of environment, an atmosphere that you're in as well as anything else. I
remember that it was a great effort at Fresno State to get you involved in
things and Frank Thomas, who was president of Fresno State in those years, was a
wonderful individual to take the time to enthuse individual students as well as
collectively, to get involved and to do something for your university. Do
something besides just go to class and sit in the union and have a Coke. Of
course most of us had to go out and work too you know but I think he created the
first of that environment. And then for me, the four years I spent under Frank
Homan, I saw that what he'd done and what the men who rallied around him to help
him, what they had done in the community and it was just a way of life. You
know, you just absorbed it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When I look at Community Hospital, Saint Agnes Hospital, I
immediately think of Jim Mayer. I immediately think of Earl Smittcamp. When I
was the president of Valley Children's Hospital, both Community, the wives and
the city fathers were really the parents of Children's hospital.
>>James B. Mayer: Right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What got you involved and certainly you look back with
pride during your tenure on the board and still you're involved with the
hospital, goodness gracious, it's expanded.
>>James B. Mayer: Oh my so it has. And of course when just before, at the time I
went on the board, Lee was developing the new drive that built the big addition
back there in those days. And then he stimulated the merger of Clovis and Fresno
and then he resigned from the chairmanship and got me put in the spot and so we
just carried on his program and we developed the merger with Sierra. We
developed the foundation and we developed some of the outlying facilities. And
then after that happened, then came the big push. That was just the foundation,
oh and I built the Clovis hospital. That was just getting the foundation going.
As Lee used to say, you have to have a foundation before you can make a building
rise to amount to anything. But what they're doing today and what Saint Agnes is
doing today and what Valley Children’s is doing today, and Pete, let me take
just a moment to say this, in our community we have been fortunate to have the
level and the volume of good health care that we have. In our hospitals and in
our associated facilities that support those hospitals, I don't think any other
community can touch or beat what we've done. For a community of this size to
have the facilities of Community, of Saint Agnes, of Children's and now we've
got the Veterans Hospital came in under another approach and then you have
Kaiser but really we've got great facilities. And I'm so glad we have them with
this influx of population that we have now, they're going to be needed and
they're going to be needed even more than they were in those days. So we're
really lucky here, thanks to guys like you too and Lee Peters and Russell Giffen
and Jack O'Neill and all the others that followed them in leadership in those
various institutions.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We're getting ready to enter the new millennium.
>>James B. Mayer: Uh huh.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And you've seen a lot in Fresno and you've been right at
the forefront, where do you see Fresno County going? Where do you see our city
going in the new millennium? Any concerns? Any ->>James B. Mayer: Oh sure I have concerns but it's just gonna go, go, go.
Despite some of the things that have happened that people feel kind of held
Fresno back or some of the negatives, Pete, this is a growing empire. And when
all of these new people who are coming in, despite the fact that a lot of them
are minorities, just as soon as they absorb a little bit more time and get their
feet on the ground and then if we can find the ways and the means through your
facilities of education, to help them get going, this is going to be a going
Jenny. Don't kid yourself. Sure, there's a lot of problems but look at all the
entities and the facilities and organizations that we have working today to
improve this community, that we didn't have 25 or 30 years ago. There's dozens
of them. You can hardly count them. And they're all working to improve the
quality of our education. And you know you've got a long way to go there yet,
we're not where we want to be in education but we're working toward better. Look
what's going on in the field of welfare and support for people? We've got to do
so many things in that area yet. Goodness gracious, we can't do it all. The
federal government, the state government, they're gonna have to lead the way in
a lot of things but we in the local community can take the tools that are
available, improve them, add to them and with energy and effort and work,
there's no question in my mind but what this is going to be a fantastic
metropolis as the time goes on. And if you and I were still gonna be around here
in 2020, you may be but [laughter] I'll be looking at it from another direction.
In 2020 I think we'd be amazed at the beauty we'll see. Oh I'm just as enthused
as I can be about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As you look back upon not only your professional career of
your time, what are some of the things you're most proud of? And I know you're a
modest man but in terms of this, what are the things that have given you a deep
sense of satisfaction to have been associated with or to have been a party to? I
know when we talk about Cal State University, Fresno, your alma mater, your name
is always there along with Earl and Bob Duncan as supporters of the University.
So many of the facilities, Jim Mayer is right there all the time but what are
some of the things that Jim Mayer is proud of to have been associated with?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh I think in the beginning it was we did a few things out at
Fresno State that had never been done before. I was always a Republican I guess
but I became classed as a liberal because I got the students to raise the
student body fee 50 cents a semester so that they could have a free doctor call,
two or three times a year because there were so many kids that lived away from
home to go to Fresno State. But that was a good thing. The other colleges came
along in the system and did the same thing and now you have a good health
program out there. But I was proud of that little move. And then I think some of
the things that we did in the city when I was working for the mayor's office. A
number of individual things that I was involved in and stimulated, that I feel
some pride for. But I don't know, Pete, and then in Producers, as I say you had
a strong, good, wonderful company that was behind you and just said go, go, do
the job. Sell the product. Get the service that we need to run the company but
at the same time let's help build this community and build this valley. And I
was just proud to be a part of that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What advice would you give to young people today that are
starting off in their career. They see some of the big salaries and they see
some of the successes and they want that instant gratification. What advice
would you give them, Jim?
>>James B. Mayer: Keep going after it but set aside a little bit of your time
and a little bit of your thinking and dedicate it to something other than
yourself and your own company or your own project or your own office or your own
business, something that involves other people in the community. I don't care
what it is. I don't care what facet of the community it involves or is
associated with. Do something. Do something outside and give some time, what
little money you can. You don't have to be a big giver to be important to the
whole program. Give a little bit, give a little bit of your time. Give a little
bit of your thinking, a little bit of your heart and as time goes on,
opportunity will come for you to give more and more and more. It just comes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Vince Lombardi, great Notre Dame football coach, being a
Trojan, Vince Lombardi once said that when the great scorekeeper records the
final score, it matters not who wins or loses but how the game is played. And
you have many, many good years ahead of you but how do you want the scorekeeper,
what do you want people to finally say about, how do you want them to record the
score of Jim Mayer?
>>James B. Mayer: Oh I don't think it's very important how they record it
really. I guess if they just say well he didn't owe anybody when he died and he
didn't step on anybody to get where he got, even if he didn't get too far and he
had a good time while he did it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well Jim, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce and many of
us in the community, we are eternally grateful. Your legacy lives on, not only
through the Community Hospital but through the students at Cal State University,
Fresno. It is people like Jim Mayer, Lew Eaton and Leon Peters that make this
community the kind of community we're all proud to be associated with. So our
sincere congratulations->>James B. Mayer: Well thank you, thank you.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: For a lifetime of dedication of public service.
>>James B. Mayer: Thank you for those nice words and thank you for doing what
you're doing, Pete. We appreciate it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Congratulations.
>>James B. Mayer: Okay.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good.
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