Laval, Claude III, 1998 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Item
Title
Laval, Claude III, 1998 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Description
Talks about growing up in Fresno and working in the family business and developing that further. He discusses his family history in the Fresno area, and talks about his father's friendship with Leon S. Peters and being inspired by him and others to give back to the community. He discusses being given the Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award and being involved in community organizations such as the Fresno Business Council.
Creator
Laval, Claude III
Mehas, Dr. Peter G.
Relation
Leon S. Peters Legacy Collection
Coverage
Fresno, California
Date
2000
Format
Microsoft word 2003 document, 5 pages
Identifier
SCMS_lspl_00002
extracted text
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Ready. OK. 1997 Leon S. Peters recipient, Claude Laval the
third.
>>Claude Laval: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Claude, for the record, name, place of birth, and date of
birth.
>>Claude Laval: Alright. It's >>Claude Laval, and it is the third, and I was
born here in Fresno May 9, 1935.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us about growing up in Fresno. Your early childhood
days.
>>Claude Laval: Fresno was a, compared to present day, Fresno was, was real
small. I went to Heaton. Hattie Mae Hammett was the principal, and she ran a
tough ship. She later was on the city council, and she ran a tough ship there,
too. And you went to school with the same people you grew up with, and they went
to Heaton, then we went to Hamilton, then we went to Fresno High, and you stayed
with the same group. I, virtually all of the people we went to kindergarten with
we still see, and I married one of them. So I really still see them.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: [laughs] How did you get started in your business? What,
what drew you to your particular industry?
>>Claude Laval: Well, the business I'm in now is a, is a business that is built
around one of my father's inventions, and in 1972, he was angry with the people
who had licensed the patents, and so I took the summer of 1972 and drove around,
or I guess maybe it was the summer of 1971, drove around the country and visited
everybody who had ever bought one, and saw that there was an opportunity to
expand the business from what it was. It was really a, a filtration device that
was made for getting sand out of sprinklers, but most of our customers were
using it for other things. So based on that trip, we put together the
foundations of the business, and, and the business has continued to grow ever
since. But the foundation was his original invention of the separator, and then
eight or nine years ago, I bought back the rights to the camera business where
he made, he had invented a camera for taking pictures in, underground wells,
and, and so we have two of his many inventions back under the family control.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your father is legendary in this area, and the Laval
family, of course, is known throughout the [inaudible], central San Joaquin
Valley. Did your father, was he born in this area? When did he come?
>>Claude Laval: My father was born in Fresno. My grandfather moved here around
the turn of the century. Was a newspaper photographer and commercial
photographer. He came here to work for Dr. Rowell as a photographer who owned
the, I think it was "The Republican" newspaper at the time, and from that went
into the com, commercial photography business.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So hence then when we see the Pop Laval collection. That
was your grandfather >>Claude Laval: That's my grandfather.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your grandfather is, is well. What do you attribute the,
the overwhelming success of your business through the years?
>>Claude Laval: Well, >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Of course, because of the [crosstalk] >>Claude Laval: Luck I suppose. No. I think it's a, a good product, and we've
been able to put together a good team of people, and [inaudible], it is as much
as anything luck, but, but hard work, too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Clearly, the Leon S. Peters Award is one of the most
prestigious awards that, that is given in this, and clearly in central, central
California. You knew Leon Peters well. Your family knew him well. What did it
mean to, to >>Claude Laval the third to be recognized as the recipient of the
Leon S. Peters Award along with the Lew Eatons and the Bob Duncans, pillars of
our community?
>>Claude Laval: Well, you're right. I, I did know Leon well. They were, he and
Alice were very close friends of my parents, and when I was growing up, Fresno
was a fairly small place. So pretty much everybody was friendly, and they knew
each other. And so I saw a lot of Leon, and I saw what a remarkable both
business leader and community leader he was, and he did a tremendous job of
building a great business but was incredibly generous with his money and time,
and I mean, he's a great role model for anybody. And he, and he, you know, one
of the things that he did beyond his generosity was that he, he was a, a great
factor in, in blending the Armenians into the community as they are completely
integrated now, but they weren't when I was a child growing up. So it was
particularly meaningful to me to, to win an award that's in his name, and, and
of course, the people who had won it before are tremendous assets to the
community. Great leaders.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One of the things that the Leon S. Peters Award, amongst
being a successful businessman and a philanthropist, but also this sense of
community, in giving to the community. What got you going in community service,
I know, both you and your wife, I had the privilege of serving with your wife,
on the Valley Children’s Hospital board, but the Lavals, and you particularly
have been known for your generosity to charities and community involvement. What
triggers that?
>>Claude Laval: Well, we live here, and it's important that you not only give
back to the community, but you participate in making this a better place to
live, and in places where I think I can make a contribution, I've certainly
tried to do that. And, and I enjoy it besides that. I mean, I, I think it's the
right thing to do, but also it's something that I enjoy doing, so I, I like to
do it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Being a native Fresnan, you've lived through the years,
leadership of Mayor Hyde, Mayor Whitehurst, Sling’em Dunn, our Stanford discus
thrower. I mean, you've seen lots of councilmen come and go. What is your
perception of where do you think Fresno is going in terms of both politically
and economically as a, in thirty words or less?
>>Claude Laval: [laughter] Thirty words or less. Well, >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: No. [crosstalk]
>>Claude Laval: That's an area where I, I feel pretty strongly. I, I, I, I don't
think we have the political leadership now that we had once, and we need it
worse now than we needed it then, and you know, I don't know whether you went to
the EDC luncheon yesterday, and, and >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Dan Walters.
>>Claude Laval: Talk to, heard Dan Walters describe how California is now
divided into basically three parts, and we're in the middle, and we're not
moving at the pace, the rest of the state, and, and I think in many ways that's
our own fault, and it's a lack of leadership, and it's a, it's a problem that
it's either going to get in the very near future going to get lots better or
lots worse, and, and this could be a terrible place, I think to live if we don't
do something about that leadership which relates mostly to the economic wellbeing of the, of the, of the community. We, we really need quality jobs here,
not just plain jobs, but quality jobs, and to take that, we need, to do that we
need a coordinated, probably regional effort, which given all the political
fiefdoms we have around here, is probably tough to do, but it's a Valley-wide
problem, not just a Fresno problem. Probably Fresno's better off than some of
the other parts of, of the Valley. But we have high unemployment, and the, the
situation's changed materially from years ago. I don't, I, maybe the
unemployment figures were originally driven by agriculture unemployment, but now
it's mostly built-in people [inaudible] unemployable people, people that need
training. People, the educational system's all part of that. We need people
prepared for jobs. I think the, the CART program is, is a fantastic step forward
in that regard, and as you know, I'm involved in the incubator, which is part of
that. But that won't work unless we have jobs for those people when they
graduate, and if we get high-tech graduates that can't get jobs here, they'll
all go to the Bay Area, and we'll be just as, and we'll be worse off than we are
now. That takes some political leadership to not worry about jurisdictions and
things, and, and take some action, and I, and I hope we're getting to that
because we certainly need to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You and others, and Dick Johanson, Bob Carter, all
members, charter members of the Fresno Business Council. And I know that's one
of the focuses of the Business Council. Job development, education, safety. Just
quickly, what, in terms of the Business Council, that's a very unique and
different group. It's not a political group.
>>Claude Laval: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: It's business people coming together. What was the
motivation for that?
>>Claude Laval: Well, many of us hadn't been very active in, in political
things. May have been active in charities and things, but not in political
things, and, and interested in really what was driving the, the community, and
it was pretty clear that somebody who didn't have a vested interest other than
just making this a better place to live needed to get involved. And, and Bob
Carter got, I think, 10 or 12 of us together in a conference room, and asked us
to put up $5,000 apiece and, and start that. And, and I think it's been great, a
great success because there are things that it's tough for anybody else to do,
but for a group of business people who really have no particular ax to grind,
it's easier to get things accomplished, and I think politicians tend to pay a
little more attention to us, and we have access to places that maybe some other
people wouldn't have access to. And we have an enormous number of employees who
pay taxes here. So it's important to them as well as to us, and, and I, I see
that as a long-term force in the community. I don't see that as a super Chamber
of Commerce. It's a different breed of cat.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And in its short tenure, it has had an impact already both
politically, economically on our community. Certainly, educationally with their
commissioning of the Future of Education Commission, it's going to bear fruit in
years to come.
>>Claude Laval: Yeah. I, I think one of the real things, there, is that we don't
necessarily, or we not necessarily, we hardly ever fund anything, but we can
call other people together. The same thing is true on this landscape of choice
on the Education Commission, and now the Education Committee is just about to
issue a new report, as you probably know >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah.
>>Claude Laval: And, and, and I think being able to call to question is part of
the problem with the lack of leadership here has been nobody called to question
because calling the question sometimes was a very unpopular thing to do. Now,
there's a group that can do it and has done it, and I, and I, and I enjoy
spending the time on it because I think it's worthwhile.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Knute Rockne once recorded and, and said when the great
scorekeeper records the, the final score, it, it matters not who wins or loses
but how the game is played. Certainly, you're, you're young, and you have many
more years, but, ultimately, when they record the, the score of >>Claude Laval
the third, what do you basically want people to say about you as a man, about
you as a, as a, as a Fresnan?
>>Claude Laval: Well, I would hope that they would that I played some role in
the success of the, of the area, and that I played the game fairly. Hope I don't
have to think about that [laughter] question too soon, but no. I, I, that isn't
certainly, that isn't motivation for anything I do. I, I, I just think that we
need to make this the very best place to live that we can, and we've got a lot
of work to do in that regard. So it's, it's important to do whatever you can.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And in your crystal ball, what do you see the future of
Fresno?
>>Claude Laval: Well, as I said earlier, I think this is the dividing point. I,
if we don't, you know, when you look at the statistics, at least the economic
statistics, the Central Valley and Appalachia are linked. It's hard for people
who live here and think of California as the golden place to think of themselves
in the same class as Appalachia, but we, we've, we've got to do something. If we
do that, and, and, and have good planning and, and, I don't mean warehouses are
going to be built necessarily, but just a good overall plan on how this
community could be, this could be, we could retain the, the incredible way of
life that is the best part of this, and still have a economic vitality so that
people made a decent living. And we had the culture amenities. You know, we have
the benefit; we have both the curse and the benefit of being away from the big
metropolitan areas in California. So we could be a great metropolitan area of
our own, but to do that, we've got to get on with it, and, and opportunities
like this come and go, and I think this is the opportunity, and I, and I hope
we're doing something about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good. Well, Claude, on behalf of the Fresno Chamber of
Commerce and the Valley Business Congress Committee, we congratulate you as the
recipient of the Leon S. Peters Award for lifetime, you and your family, of
achievement, for truly being what should personify native Fresnans, and. And I
could also just mention, when you mentioned Hattie Mae Hammett, I got to say
this. All of us Heaton graduates had one ear bigger than the other because
Hattie Mae used to grab us now, but you were a good boy, [laughs] and you never
->>Claude Laval: Oh.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Was the recipient of Hattie Mae's [laughs] >>Claude Laval: Oh, no. I, I, I can remember. Hattie Mae would stand you out
around the wading pool and tell whoever had done whatever she was upset about
confess. And I mean, she, she was, corporal punishment was, was her basic tenet.
I, you know, capital punishment was close. So [laughter] >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's why she was so successful. Unfortunately, we can't
practice those same principles today we’d have better school system >>Claude Laval: I'm not too sure that you’re not right [crosstalk].
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, congratulations.
>>Claude Laval: Thank you.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
third.
>>Claude Laval: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Claude, for the record, name, place of birth, and date of
birth.
>>Claude Laval: Alright. It's >>Claude Laval, and it is the third, and I was
born here in Fresno May 9, 1935.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us about growing up in Fresno. Your early childhood
days.
>>Claude Laval: Fresno was a, compared to present day, Fresno was, was real
small. I went to Heaton. Hattie Mae Hammett was the principal, and she ran a
tough ship. She later was on the city council, and she ran a tough ship there,
too. And you went to school with the same people you grew up with, and they went
to Heaton, then we went to Hamilton, then we went to Fresno High, and you stayed
with the same group. I, virtually all of the people we went to kindergarten with
we still see, and I married one of them. So I really still see them.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: [laughs] How did you get started in your business? What,
what drew you to your particular industry?
>>Claude Laval: Well, the business I'm in now is a, is a business that is built
around one of my father's inventions, and in 1972, he was angry with the people
who had licensed the patents, and so I took the summer of 1972 and drove around,
or I guess maybe it was the summer of 1971, drove around the country and visited
everybody who had ever bought one, and saw that there was an opportunity to
expand the business from what it was. It was really a, a filtration device that
was made for getting sand out of sprinklers, but most of our customers were
using it for other things. So based on that trip, we put together the
foundations of the business, and, and the business has continued to grow ever
since. But the foundation was his original invention of the separator, and then
eight or nine years ago, I bought back the rights to the camera business where
he made, he had invented a camera for taking pictures in, underground wells,
and, and so we have two of his many inventions back under the family control.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your father is legendary in this area, and the Laval
family, of course, is known throughout the [inaudible], central San Joaquin
Valley. Did your father, was he born in this area? When did he come?
>>Claude Laval: My father was born in Fresno. My grandfather moved here around
the turn of the century. Was a newspaper photographer and commercial
photographer. He came here to work for Dr. Rowell as a photographer who owned
the, I think it was "The Republican" newspaper at the time, and from that went
into the com, commercial photography business.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So hence then when we see the Pop Laval collection. That
was your grandfather >>Claude Laval: That's my grandfather.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your grandfather is, is well. What do you attribute the,
the overwhelming success of your business through the years?
>>Claude Laval: Well, >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Of course, because of the [crosstalk] >>Claude Laval: Luck I suppose. No. I think it's a, a good product, and we've
been able to put together a good team of people, and [inaudible], it is as much
as anything luck, but, but hard work, too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Clearly, the Leon S. Peters Award is one of the most
prestigious awards that, that is given in this, and clearly in central, central
California. You knew Leon Peters well. Your family knew him well. What did it
mean to, to >>Claude Laval the third to be recognized as the recipient of the
Leon S. Peters Award along with the Lew Eatons and the Bob Duncans, pillars of
our community?
>>Claude Laval: Well, you're right. I, I did know Leon well. They were, he and
Alice were very close friends of my parents, and when I was growing up, Fresno
was a fairly small place. So pretty much everybody was friendly, and they knew
each other. And so I saw a lot of Leon, and I saw what a remarkable both
business leader and community leader he was, and he did a tremendous job of
building a great business but was incredibly generous with his money and time,
and I mean, he's a great role model for anybody. And he, and he, you know, one
of the things that he did beyond his generosity was that he, he was a, a great
factor in, in blending the Armenians into the community as they are completely
integrated now, but they weren't when I was a child growing up. So it was
particularly meaningful to me to, to win an award that's in his name, and, and
of course, the people who had won it before are tremendous assets to the
community. Great leaders.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One of the things that the Leon S. Peters Award, amongst
being a successful businessman and a philanthropist, but also this sense of
community, in giving to the community. What got you going in community service,
I know, both you and your wife, I had the privilege of serving with your wife,
on the Valley Children’s Hospital board, but the Lavals, and you particularly
have been known for your generosity to charities and community involvement. What
triggers that?
>>Claude Laval: Well, we live here, and it's important that you not only give
back to the community, but you participate in making this a better place to
live, and in places where I think I can make a contribution, I've certainly
tried to do that. And, and I enjoy it besides that. I mean, I, I think it's the
right thing to do, but also it's something that I enjoy doing, so I, I like to
do it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Being a native Fresnan, you've lived through the years,
leadership of Mayor Hyde, Mayor Whitehurst, Sling’em Dunn, our Stanford discus
thrower. I mean, you've seen lots of councilmen come and go. What is your
perception of where do you think Fresno is going in terms of both politically
and economically as a, in thirty words or less?
>>Claude Laval: [laughter] Thirty words or less. Well, >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: No. [crosstalk]
>>Claude Laval: That's an area where I, I feel pretty strongly. I, I, I, I don't
think we have the political leadership now that we had once, and we need it
worse now than we needed it then, and you know, I don't know whether you went to
the EDC luncheon yesterday, and, and >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Dan Walters.
>>Claude Laval: Talk to, heard Dan Walters describe how California is now
divided into basically three parts, and we're in the middle, and we're not
moving at the pace, the rest of the state, and, and I think in many ways that's
our own fault, and it's a lack of leadership, and it's a, it's a problem that
it's either going to get in the very near future going to get lots better or
lots worse, and, and this could be a terrible place, I think to live if we don't
do something about that leadership which relates mostly to the economic wellbeing of the, of the, of the community. We, we really need quality jobs here,
not just plain jobs, but quality jobs, and to take that, we need, to do that we
need a coordinated, probably regional effort, which given all the political
fiefdoms we have around here, is probably tough to do, but it's a Valley-wide
problem, not just a Fresno problem. Probably Fresno's better off than some of
the other parts of, of the Valley. But we have high unemployment, and the, the
situation's changed materially from years ago. I don't, I, maybe the
unemployment figures were originally driven by agriculture unemployment, but now
it's mostly built-in people [inaudible] unemployable people, people that need
training. People, the educational system's all part of that. We need people
prepared for jobs. I think the, the CART program is, is a fantastic step forward
in that regard, and as you know, I'm involved in the incubator, which is part of
that. But that won't work unless we have jobs for those people when they
graduate, and if we get high-tech graduates that can't get jobs here, they'll
all go to the Bay Area, and we'll be just as, and we'll be worse off than we are
now. That takes some political leadership to not worry about jurisdictions and
things, and, and take some action, and I, and I hope we're getting to that
because we certainly need to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You and others, and Dick Johanson, Bob Carter, all
members, charter members of the Fresno Business Council. And I know that's one
of the focuses of the Business Council. Job development, education, safety. Just
quickly, what, in terms of the Business Council, that's a very unique and
different group. It's not a political group.
>>Claude Laval: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: It's business people coming together. What was the
motivation for that?
>>Claude Laval: Well, many of us hadn't been very active in, in political
things. May have been active in charities and things, but not in political
things, and, and interested in really what was driving the, the community, and
it was pretty clear that somebody who didn't have a vested interest other than
just making this a better place to live needed to get involved. And, and Bob
Carter got, I think, 10 or 12 of us together in a conference room, and asked us
to put up $5,000 apiece and, and start that. And, and I think it's been great, a
great success because there are things that it's tough for anybody else to do,
but for a group of business people who really have no particular ax to grind,
it's easier to get things accomplished, and I think politicians tend to pay a
little more attention to us, and we have access to places that maybe some other
people wouldn't have access to. And we have an enormous number of employees who
pay taxes here. So it's important to them as well as to us, and, and I, I see
that as a long-term force in the community. I don't see that as a super Chamber
of Commerce. It's a different breed of cat.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And in its short tenure, it has had an impact already both
politically, economically on our community. Certainly, educationally with their
commissioning of the Future of Education Commission, it's going to bear fruit in
years to come.
>>Claude Laval: Yeah. I, I think one of the real things, there, is that we don't
necessarily, or we not necessarily, we hardly ever fund anything, but we can
call other people together. The same thing is true on this landscape of choice
on the Education Commission, and now the Education Committee is just about to
issue a new report, as you probably know >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah.
>>Claude Laval: And, and, and I think being able to call to question is part of
the problem with the lack of leadership here has been nobody called to question
because calling the question sometimes was a very unpopular thing to do. Now,
there's a group that can do it and has done it, and I, and I, and I enjoy
spending the time on it because I think it's worthwhile.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Knute Rockne once recorded and, and said when the great
scorekeeper records the, the final score, it, it matters not who wins or loses
but how the game is played. Certainly, you're, you're young, and you have many
more years, but, ultimately, when they record the, the score of >>Claude Laval
the third, what do you basically want people to say about you as a man, about
you as a, as a, as a Fresnan?
>>Claude Laval: Well, I would hope that they would that I played some role in
the success of the, of the area, and that I played the game fairly. Hope I don't
have to think about that [laughter] question too soon, but no. I, I, that isn't
certainly, that isn't motivation for anything I do. I, I, I just think that we
need to make this the very best place to live that we can, and we've got a lot
of work to do in that regard. So it's, it's important to do whatever you can.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And in your crystal ball, what do you see the future of
Fresno?
>>Claude Laval: Well, as I said earlier, I think this is the dividing point. I,
if we don't, you know, when you look at the statistics, at least the economic
statistics, the Central Valley and Appalachia are linked. It's hard for people
who live here and think of California as the golden place to think of themselves
in the same class as Appalachia, but we, we've, we've got to do something. If we
do that, and, and, and have good planning and, and, I don't mean warehouses are
going to be built necessarily, but just a good overall plan on how this
community could be, this could be, we could retain the, the incredible way of
life that is the best part of this, and still have a economic vitality so that
people made a decent living. And we had the culture amenities. You know, we have
the benefit; we have both the curse and the benefit of being away from the big
metropolitan areas in California. So we could be a great metropolitan area of
our own, but to do that, we've got to get on with it, and, and opportunities
like this come and go, and I think this is the opportunity, and I, and I hope
we're doing something about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good. Well, Claude, on behalf of the Fresno Chamber of
Commerce and the Valley Business Congress Committee, we congratulate you as the
recipient of the Leon S. Peters Award for lifetime, you and your family, of
achievement, for truly being what should personify native Fresnans, and. And I
could also just mention, when you mentioned Hattie Mae Hammett, I got to say
this. All of us Heaton graduates had one ear bigger than the other because
Hattie Mae used to grab us now, but you were a good boy, [laughs] and you never
->>Claude Laval: Oh.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Was the recipient of Hattie Mae's [laughs] >>Claude Laval: Oh, no. I, I, I can remember. Hattie Mae would stand you out
around the wading pool and tell whoever had done whatever she was upset about
confess. And I mean, she, she was, corporal punishment was, was her basic tenet.
I, you know, capital punishment was close. So [laughter] >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's why she was so successful. Unfortunately, we can't
practice those same principles today we’d have better school system >>Claude Laval: I'm not too sure that you’re not right [crosstalk].
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, congratulations.
>>Claude Laval: Thank you.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Ready. OK. 1997 Leon S. Peters recipient, Claude Laval the
third.
>>Claude Laval: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Claude, for the record, name, place of birth, and date of
birth.
>>Claude Laval: Alright. It's >>Claude Laval, and it is the third, and I was
born here in Fresno May 9, 1935.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us about growing up in Fresno. Your early childhood
days.
>>Claude Laval: Fresno was a, compared to present day, Fresno was, was real
small. I went to Heaton. Hattie Mae Hammett was the principal, and she ran a
tough ship. She later was on the city council, and she ran a tough ship there,
too. And you went to school with the same people you grew up with, and they went
to Heaton, then we went to Hamilton, then we went to Fresno High, and you stayed
with the same group. I, virtually all of the people we went to kindergarten with
we still see, and I married one of them. So I really still see them.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: [laughs] How did you get started in your business? What,
what drew you to your particular industry?
>>Claude Laval: Well, the business I'm in now is a, is a business that is built
around one of my father's inventions, and in 1972, he was angry with the people
who had licensed the patents, and so I took the summer of 1972 and drove around,
or I guess maybe it was the summer of 1971, drove around the country and visited
everybody who had ever bought one, and saw that there was an opportunity to
expand the business from what it was. It was really a, a filtration device that
was made for getting sand out of sprinklers, but most of our customers were
using it for other things. So based on that trip, we put together the
foundations of the business, and, and the business has continued to grow ever
since. But the foundation was his original invention of the separator, and then
eight or nine years ago, I bought back the rights to the camera business where
he made, he had invented a camera for taking pictures in, underground wells,
and, and so we have two of his many inventions back under the family control.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your father is legendary in this area, and the Laval
family, of course, is known throughout the [inaudible], central San Joaquin
Valley. Did your father, was he born in this area? When did he come?
>>Claude Laval: My father was born in Fresno. My grandfather moved here around
the turn of the century. Was a newspaper photographer and commercial
photographer. He came here to work for Dr. Rowell as a photographer who owned
the, I think it was "The Republican" newspaper at the time, and from that went
into the com, commercial photography business.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So hence then when we see the Pop Laval collection. That
was your grandfather >>Claude Laval: That's my grandfather.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your grandfather is, is well. What do you attribute the,
the overwhelming success of your business through the years?
>>Claude Laval: Well, >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Of course, because of the [crosstalk] >>Claude Laval: Luck I suppose. No. I think it's a, a good product, and we've
been able to put together a good team of people, and [inaudible], it is as much
as anything luck, but, but hard work, too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Clearly, the Leon S. Peters Award is one of the most
prestigious awards that, that is given in this, and clearly in central, central
California. You knew Leon Peters well. Your family knew him well. What did it
mean to, to >>Claude Laval the third to be recognized as the recipient of the
Leon S. Peters Award along with the Lew Eatons and the Bob Duncans, pillars of
our community?
>>Claude Laval: Well, you're right. I, I did know Leon well. They were, he and
Alice were very close friends of my parents, and when I was growing up, Fresno
was a fairly small place. So pretty much everybody was friendly, and they knew
each other. And so I saw a lot of Leon, and I saw what a remarkable both
business leader and community leader he was, and he did a tremendous job of
building a great business but was incredibly generous with his money and time,
and I mean, he's a great role model for anybody. And he, and he, you know, one
of the things that he did beyond his generosity was that he, he was a, a great
factor in, in blending the Armenians into the community as they are completely
integrated now, but they weren't when I was a child growing up. So it was
particularly meaningful to me to, to win an award that's in his name, and, and
of course, the people who had won it before are tremendous assets to the
community. Great leaders.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One of the things that the Leon S. Peters Award, amongst
being a successful businessman and a philanthropist, but also this sense of
community, in giving to the community. What got you going in community service,
I know, both you and your wife, I had the privilege of serving with your wife,
on the Valley Children’s Hospital board, but the Lavals, and you particularly
have been known for your generosity to charities and community involvement. What
triggers that?
>>Claude Laval: Well, we live here, and it's important that you not only give
back to the community, but you participate in making this a better place to
live, and in places where I think I can make a contribution, I've certainly
tried to do that. And, and I enjoy it besides that. I mean, I, I think it's the
right thing to do, but also it's something that I enjoy doing, so I, I like to
do it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Being a native Fresnan, you've lived through the years,
leadership of Mayor Hyde, Mayor Whitehurst, Sling’em Dunn, our Stanford discus
thrower. I mean, you've seen lots of councilmen come and go. What is your
perception of where do you think Fresno is going in terms of both politically
and economically as a, in thirty words or less?
>>Claude Laval: [laughter] Thirty words or less. Well, >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: No. [crosstalk]
>>Claude Laval: That's an area where I, I feel pretty strongly. I, I, I, I don't
think we have the political leadership now that we had once, and we need it
worse now than we needed it then, and you know, I don't know whether you went to
the EDC luncheon yesterday, and, and >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Dan Walters.
>>Claude Laval: Talk to, heard Dan Walters describe how California is now
divided into basically three parts, and we're in the middle, and we're not
moving at the pace, the rest of the state, and, and I think in many ways that's
our own fault, and it's a lack of leadership, and it's a, it's a problem that
it's either going to get in the very near future going to get lots better or
lots worse, and, and this could be a terrible place, I think to live if we don't
do something about that leadership which relates mostly to the economic wellbeing of the, of the, of the community. We, we really need quality jobs here,
not just plain jobs, but quality jobs, and to take that, we need, to do that we
need a coordinated, probably regional effort, which given all the political
fiefdoms we have around here, is probably tough to do, but it's a Valley-wide
problem, not just a Fresno problem. Probably Fresno's better off than some of
the other parts of, of the Valley. But we have high unemployment, and the, the
situation's changed materially from years ago. I don't, I, maybe the
unemployment figures were originally driven by agriculture unemployment, but now
it's mostly built-in people [inaudible] unemployable people, people that need
training. People, the educational system's all part of that. We need people
prepared for jobs. I think the, the CART program is, is a fantastic step forward
in that regard, and as you know, I'm involved in the incubator, which is part of
that. But that won't work unless we have jobs for those people when they
graduate, and if we get high-tech graduates that can't get jobs here, they'll
all go to the Bay Area, and we'll be just as, and we'll be worse off than we are
now. That takes some political leadership to not worry about jurisdictions and
things, and, and take some action, and I, and I hope we're getting to that
because we certainly need to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You and others, and Dick Johanson, Bob Carter, all
members, charter members of the Fresno Business Council. And I know that's one
of the focuses of the Business Council. Job development, education, safety. Just
quickly, what, in terms of the Business Council, that's a very unique and
different group. It's not a political group.
>>Claude Laval: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: It's business people coming together. What was the
motivation for that?
>>Claude Laval: Well, many of us hadn't been very active in, in political
things. May have been active in charities and things, but not in political
things, and, and interested in really what was driving the, the community, and
it was pretty clear that somebody who didn't have a vested interest other than
just making this a better place to live needed to get involved. And, and Bob
Carter got, I think, 10 or 12 of us together in a conference room, and asked us
to put up $5,000 apiece and, and start that. And, and I think it's been great, a
great success because there are things that it's tough for anybody else to do,
but for a group of business people who really have no particular ax to grind,
it's easier to get things accomplished, and I think politicians tend to pay a
little more attention to us, and we have access to places that maybe some other
people wouldn't have access to. And we have an enormous number of employees who
pay taxes here. So it's important to them as well as to us, and, and I, I see
that as a long-term force in the community. I don't see that as a super Chamber
of Commerce. It's a different breed of cat.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And in its short tenure, it has had an impact already both
politically, economically on our community. Certainly, educationally with their
commissioning of the Future of Education Commission, it's going to bear fruit in
years to come.
>>Claude Laval: Yeah. I, I think one of the real things, there, is that we don't
necessarily, or we not necessarily, we hardly ever fund anything, but we can
call other people together. The same thing is true on this landscape of choice
on the Education Commission, and now the Education Committee is just about to
issue a new report, as you probably know >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah.
>>Claude Laval: And, and, and I think being able to call to question is part of
the problem with the lack of leadership here has been nobody called to question
because calling the question sometimes was a very unpopular thing to do. Now,
there's a group that can do it and has done it, and I, and I, and I enjoy
spending the time on it because I think it's worthwhile.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Knute Rockne once recorded and, and said when the great
scorekeeper records the, the final score, it, it matters not who wins or loses
but how the game is played. Certainly, you're, you're young, and you have many
more years, but, ultimately, when they record the, the score of >>Claude Laval
the third, what do you basically want people to say about you as a man, about
you as a, as a, as a Fresnan?
>>Claude Laval: Well, I would hope that they would that I played some role in
the success of the, of the area, and that I played the game fairly. Hope I don't
have to think about that [laughter] question too soon, but no. I, I, that isn't
certainly, that isn't motivation for anything I do. I, I, I just think that we
need to make this the very best place to live that we can, and we've got a lot
of work to do in that regard. So it's, it's important to do whatever you can.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And in your crystal ball, what do you see the future of
Fresno?
>>Claude Laval: Well, as I said earlier, I think this is the dividing point. I,
if we don't, you know, when you look at the statistics, at least the economic
statistics, the Central Valley and Appalachia are linked. It's hard for people
who live here and think of California as the golden place to think of themselves
in the same class as Appalachia, but we, we've, we've got to do something. If we
do that, and, and, and have good planning and, and, I don't mean warehouses are
going to be built necessarily, but just a good overall plan on how this
community could be, this could be, we could retain the, the incredible way of
life that is the best part of this, and still have a economic vitality so that
people made a decent living. And we had the culture amenities. You know, we have
the benefit; we have both the curse and the benefit of being away from the big
metropolitan areas in California. So we could be a great metropolitan area of
our own, but to do that, we've got to get on with it, and, and opportunities
like this come and go, and I think this is the opportunity, and I, and I hope
we're doing something about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good. Well, Claude, on behalf of the Fresno Chamber of
Commerce and the Valley Business Congress Committee, we congratulate you as the
recipient of the Leon S. Peters Award for lifetime, you and your family, of
achievement, for truly being what should personify native Fresnans, and. And I
could also just mention, when you mentioned Hattie Mae Hammett, I got to say
this. All of us Heaton graduates had one ear bigger than the other because
Hattie Mae used to grab us now, but you were a good boy, [laughs] and you never
->>Claude Laval: Oh.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Was the recipient of Hattie Mae's [laughs] >>Claude Laval: Oh, no. I, I, I can remember. Hattie Mae would stand you out
around the wading pool and tell whoever had done whatever she was upset about
confess. And I mean, she, she was, corporal punishment was, was her basic tenet.
I, you know, capital punishment was close. So [laughter] >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's why she was so successful. Unfortunately, we can't
practice those same principles today we’d have better school system >>Claude Laval: I'm not too sure that you’re not right [crosstalk].
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, congratulations.
>>Claude Laval: Thank you.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
third.
>>Claude Laval: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Claude, for the record, name, place of birth, and date of
birth.
>>Claude Laval: Alright. It's >>Claude Laval, and it is the third, and I was
born here in Fresno May 9, 1935.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us about growing up in Fresno. Your early childhood
days.
>>Claude Laval: Fresno was a, compared to present day, Fresno was, was real
small. I went to Heaton. Hattie Mae Hammett was the principal, and she ran a
tough ship. She later was on the city council, and she ran a tough ship there,
too. And you went to school with the same people you grew up with, and they went
to Heaton, then we went to Hamilton, then we went to Fresno High, and you stayed
with the same group. I, virtually all of the people we went to kindergarten with
we still see, and I married one of them. So I really still see them.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: [laughs] How did you get started in your business? What,
what drew you to your particular industry?
>>Claude Laval: Well, the business I'm in now is a, is a business that is built
around one of my father's inventions, and in 1972, he was angry with the people
who had licensed the patents, and so I took the summer of 1972 and drove around,
or I guess maybe it was the summer of 1971, drove around the country and visited
everybody who had ever bought one, and saw that there was an opportunity to
expand the business from what it was. It was really a, a filtration device that
was made for getting sand out of sprinklers, but most of our customers were
using it for other things. So based on that trip, we put together the
foundations of the business, and, and the business has continued to grow ever
since. But the foundation was his original invention of the separator, and then
eight or nine years ago, I bought back the rights to the camera business where
he made, he had invented a camera for taking pictures in, underground wells,
and, and so we have two of his many inventions back under the family control.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your father is legendary in this area, and the Laval
family, of course, is known throughout the [inaudible], central San Joaquin
Valley. Did your father, was he born in this area? When did he come?
>>Claude Laval: My father was born in Fresno. My grandfather moved here around
the turn of the century. Was a newspaper photographer and commercial
photographer. He came here to work for Dr. Rowell as a photographer who owned
the, I think it was "The Republican" newspaper at the time, and from that went
into the com, commercial photography business.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So hence then when we see the Pop Laval collection. That
was your grandfather >>Claude Laval: That's my grandfather.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your grandfather is, is well. What do you attribute the,
the overwhelming success of your business through the years?
>>Claude Laval: Well, >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Of course, because of the [crosstalk] >>Claude Laval: Luck I suppose. No. I think it's a, a good product, and we've
been able to put together a good team of people, and [inaudible], it is as much
as anything luck, but, but hard work, too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Clearly, the Leon S. Peters Award is one of the most
prestigious awards that, that is given in this, and clearly in central, central
California. You knew Leon Peters well. Your family knew him well. What did it
mean to, to >>Claude Laval the third to be recognized as the recipient of the
Leon S. Peters Award along with the Lew Eatons and the Bob Duncans, pillars of
our community?
>>Claude Laval: Well, you're right. I, I did know Leon well. They were, he and
Alice were very close friends of my parents, and when I was growing up, Fresno
was a fairly small place. So pretty much everybody was friendly, and they knew
each other. And so I saw a lot of Leon, and I saw what a remarkable both
business leader and community leader he was, and he did a tremendous job of
building a great business but was incredibly generous with his money and time,
and I mean, he's a great role model for anybody. And he, and he, you know, one
of the things that he did beyond his generosity was that he, he was a, a great
factor in, in blending the Armenians into the community as they are completely
integrated now, but they weren't when I was a child growing up. So it was
particularly meaningful to me to, to win an award that's in his name, and, and
of course, the people who had won it before are tremendous assets to the
community. Great leaders.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One of the things that the Leon S. Peters Award, amongst
being a successful businessman and a philanthropist, but also this sense of
community, in giving to the community. What got you going in community service,
I know, both you and your wife, I had the privilege of serving with your wife,
on the Valley Children’s Hospital board, but the Lavals, and you particularly
have been known for your generosity to charities and community involvement. What
triggers that?
>>Claude Laval: Well, we live here, and it's important that you not only give
back to the community, but you participate in making this a better place to
live, and in places where I think I can make a contribution, I've certainly
tried to do that. And, and I enjoy it besides that. I mean, I, I think it's the
right thing to do, but also it's something that I enjoy doing, so I, I like to
do it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Being a native Fresnan, you've lived through the years,
leadership of Mayor Hyde, Mayor Whitehurst, Sling’em Dunn, our Stanford discus
thrower. I mean, you've seen lots of councilmen come and go. What is your
perception of where do you think Fresno is going in terms of both politically
and economically as a, in thirty words or less?
>>Claude Laval: [laughter] Thirty words or less. Well, >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: No. [crosstalk]
>>Claude Laval: That's an area where I, I feel pretty strongly. I, I, I, I don't
think we have the political leadership now that we had once, and we need it
worse now than we needed it then, and you know, I don't know whether you went to
the EDC luncheon yesterday, and, and >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Dan Walters.
>>Claude Laval: Talk to, heard Dan Walters describe how California is now
divided into basically three parts, and we're in the middle, and we're not
moving at the pace, the rest of the state, and, and I think in many ways that's
our own fault, and it's a lack of leadership, and it's a, it's a problem that
it's either going to get in the very near future going to get lots better or
lots worse, and, and this could be a terrible place, I think to live if we don't
do something about that leadership which relates mostly to the economic wellbeing of the, of the, of the community. We, we really need quality jobs here,
not just plain jobs, but quality jobs, and to take that, we need, to do that we
need a coordinated, probably regional effort, which given all the political
fiefdoms we have around here, is probably tough to do, but it's a Valley-wide
problem, not just a Fresno problem. Probably Fresno's better off than some of
the other parts of, of the Valley. But we have high unemployment, and the, the
situation's changed materially from years ago. I don't, I, maybe the
unemployment figures were originally driven by agriculture unemployment, but now
it's mostly built-in people [inaudible] unemployable people, people that need
training. People, the educational system's all part of that. We need people
prepared for jobs. I think the, the CART program is, is a fantastic step forward
in that regard, and as you know, I'm involved in the incubator, which is part of
that. But that won't work unless we have jobs for those people when they
graduate, and if we get high-tech graduates that can't get jobs here, they'll
all go to the Bay Area, and we'll be just as, and we'll be worse off than we are
now. That takes some political leadership to not worry about jurisdictions and
things, and, and take some action, and I, and I hope we're getting to that
because we certainly need to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You and others, and Dick Johanson, Bob Carter, all
members, charter members of the Fresno Business Council. And I know that's one
of the focuses of the Business Council. Job development, education, safety. Just
quickly, what, in terms of the Business Council, that's a very unique and
different group. It's not a political group.
>>Claude Laval: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: It's business people coming together. What was the
motivation for that?
>>Claude Laval: Well, many of us hadn't been very active in, in political
things. May have been active in charities and things, but not in political
things, and, and interested in really what was driving the, the community, and
it was pretty clear that somebody who didn't have a vested interest other than
just making this a better place to live needed to get involved. And, and Bob
Carter got, I think, 10 or 12 of us together in a conference room, and asked us
to put up $5,000 apiece and, and start that. And, and I think it's been great, a
great success because there are things that it's tough for anybody else to do,
but for a group of business people who really have no particular ax to grind,
it's easier to get things accomplished, and I think politicians tend to pay a
little more attention to us, and we have access to places that maybe some other
people wouldn't have access to. And we have an enormous number of employees who
pay taxes here. So it's important to them as well as to us, and, and I, I see
that as a long-term force in the community. I don't see that as a super Chamber
of Commerce. It's a different breed of cat.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And in its short tenure, it has had an impact already both
politically, economically on our community. Certainly, educationally with their
commissioning of the Future of Education Commission, it's going to bear fruit in
years to come.
>>Claude Laval: Yeah. I, I think one of the real things, there, is that we don't
necessarily, or we not necessarily, we hardly ever fund anything, but we can
call other people together. The same thing is true on this landscape of choice
on the Education Commission, and now the Education Committee is just about to
issue a new report, as you probably know >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah.
>>Claude Laval: And, and, and I think being able to call to question is part of
the problem with the lack of leadership here has been nobody called to question
because calling the question sometimes was a very unpopular thing to do. Now,
there's a group that can do it and has done it, and I, and I, and I enjoy
spending the time on it because I think it's worthwhile.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Knute Rockne once recorded and, and said when the great
scorekeeper records the, the final score, it, it matters not who wins or loses
but how the game is played. Certainly, you're, you're young, and you have many
more years, but, ultimately, when they record the, the score of >>Claude Laval
the third, what do you basically want people to say about you as a man, about
you as a, as a, as a Fresnan?
>>Claude Laval: Well, I would hope that they would that I played some role in
the success of the, of the area, and that I played the game fairly. Hope I don't
have to think about that [laughter] question too soon, but no. I, I, that isn't
certainly, that isn't motivation for anything I do. I, I, I just think that we
need to make this the very best place to live that we can, and we've got a lot
of work to do in that regard. So it's, it's important to do whatever you can.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And in your crystal ball, what do you see the future of
Fresno?
>>Claude Laval: Well, as I said earlier, I think this is the dividing point. I,
if we don't, you know, when you look at the statistics, at least the economic
statistics, the Central Valley and Appalachia are linked. It's hard for people
who live here and think of California as the golden place to think of themselves
in the same class as Appalachia, but we, we've, we've got to do something. If we
do that, and, and, and have good planning and, and, I don't mean warehouses are
going to be built necessarily, but just a good overall plan on how this
community could be, this could be, we could retain the, the incredible way of
life that is the best part of this, and still have a economic vitality so that
people made a decent living. And we had the culture amenities. You know, we have
the benefit; we have both the curse and the benefit of being away from the big
metropolitan areas in California. So we could be a great metropolitan area of
our own, but to do that, we've got to get on with it, and, and opportunities
like this come and go, and I think this is the opportunity, and I, and I hope
we're doing something about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good. Well, Claude, on behalf of the Fresno Chamber of
Commerce and the Valley Business Congress Committee, we congratulate you as the
recipient of the Leon S. Peters Award for lifetime, you and your family, of
achievement, for truly being what should personify native Fresnans, and. And I
could also just mention, when you mentioned Hattie Mae Hammett, I got to say
this. All of us Heaton graduates had one ear bigger than the other because
Hattie Mae used to grab us now, but you were a good boy, [laughs] and you never
->>Claude Laval: Oh.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Was the recipient of Hattie Mae's [laughs] >>Claude Laval: Oh, no. I, I, I can remember. Hattie Mae would stand you out
around the wading pool and tell whoever had done whatever she was upset about
confess. And I mean, she, she was, corporal punishment was, was her basic tenet.
I, you know, capital punishment was close. So [laughter] >>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's why she was so successful. Unfortunately, we can't
practice those same principles today we’d have better school system >>Claude Laval: I'm not too sure that you’re not right [crosstalk].
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, congratulations.
>>Claude Laval: Thank you.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====