Reeves, Samuel S., 2004 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Item
Title
Reeves, Samuel S., 2004 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Description
Talks about his early life helping his father in the cotton industry and traveling the country with him, going to college in North Carolina and meeting his wife. He talks about serving in the army in the Counter Intelligence Corps, moving to Memphis and getting started in the cotton business before relocating to Fresno, seeing opportunity in the San Joaquin Valley for cotton. He discusses the agricultural and political importance of the cotton industry, the future of industry in America and the trend towards technology and the importance of giving back to the community. He also talks about his impressions of Fresno's future and raising his daughters.
Creator
Reeves, Samuel S.
Mehas, Dr. Peter G.; Richter, Bud
Relation
Leon S. Peters Legacy Collection
Coverage
Fresno, California
Date
2/17/2004
Format
Microsoft word 2003 document, 10 pages
Identifier
SCMS_lspl_00016
extracted text
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sam Reeves 2004, Leon S. Peters recipient winner. Sam, first
of all, in behalf of the chamber I want to congratulate you for such a prestigious
award. You knew Leon Peters, at least you met and work with him. What did it mean to
Sam Reeves who's accomplished so many, many things but to be the recipient of this
award?
>>Sam Reeves: Oh, obviously, it's probably the outstanding award in the San Joaquin
Valley represents million and a half people, et cetera, et cetera. So that part is
I'm very gracious for. Having said that though Pete, in reality, I'm sort of a
poster child for hundreds and thousands of other people in Fresno County who are
just as deserving. You think of the Gerre Brennemans, the Jamie Evans, I can go on
and on of people that would be equally qualified. So these many people that deserve
this award.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Knowing you and your modesty, it's sincere and, you know,
you're not a native Fresnan. You came here sort of midway in your career. But yet,
to many people what you can contributed to the community, many people think you are
a native except for that little bit of that southern accent on occasion.
>>Sam Reeves: Yes, I grew up in south Fresno. No, no. In essence, obviously, I was
born in Thomaston, Georgia, small town, 8,000 people. It was a manufacturing town,
textural manufacturing. Lived there. Worked for--in a cotton gin where my father
started working, Pete, when I was 10 years old. Second World War was on and they
had--you had to reclaim the bagging for cotton bales. And so I sold bagging when I
was 10 years old, 10 cents a pattern, 30 cents an hour. It's big wages in those
days. And so I was--it was very enjoyable growing up in a small town.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, you know, people associate the cotton industry with Sam
Reeves, and it's a many, many people. How did you--tell us a little bit how you got
started and how did you work your way up?
>>Sam Reeves: My father was in and so I used to travel with him in the summertime.
My father was peripatetic in that he would follow the crop and he would go from the
Rio Grande Valley in Texas which started the cotton southeast in Mississippi Delta.
So in the summertime, I would often travel with him from the time I was 10, 11 years
old. I'd go with him. It was a wonderful chance because five months out of year he
was not at home. So it gave me a great chance to interact, to be one-on-one. It was-times that I still recall. I try to do that, Pete, also with my daughters. I used
to travel a lot, had four daughters. Now I would take them out of school and have
them travel with me because I think that when people, relationships evolve out of
shared experiences, they can be happy experiences or they can be sad experiences,
whatever. But even they surpass in many ways, family experience, because it's oneon-one. So I travel with my father. I got to know a lot about the cotton business.
And then, after going to the University of North Carolina and then going into the
army, and being involved in the army in special sports, mainly golf, and the CIC,
Counter Intelligence Corps. After that, then I moved to Memphis going to cotton
business.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I understand that something very significant happened while
you're at North Carolina that you live with for a long, long time, someone very,
very special that you met.
>>Sam Reeves: Right, right. That's where I met my future wife, Betsy. Betsy was at
Duke and they're big rivals but Duke and North Carolina as you know, about 10 to 12
miles it separates the two schools. And so I did meet Betsy there. We were married
and then towards the end of my career in the army and then we moved to Memphis where
I did learned--I went to learn the cotton business and then I went in business with
Billy Dunavant and Billy's father in August of 1960. Six months later, an untimely,
Mr. Dunavant died, senior, untimely death so there were two of us. I was 26 years
old, Billy was 28 years old. We were left to fend for ourselves in the cotton
business and that's how I kind of get started. And then a year later, 1961, I came
to Fresno. The reason you came to Fresno, Pete, was you could see that San Joaquin
Valley was really going to be the heart of--like a much of agriculture, but of
cotton. And if you want to have a presence, which we did worldwide, you had to come
to the San Joaquin Valley. And it's of finest cotton is grown in the world and you
need that and when you're selling all types of cotton to textile mills, you have to
have the ability to sell San Joaquin cottons. So that's what really the reason I
came to the San Joaquin Valley. The second thing is, the proximity to the Far East.
We knew that the Far East was going to grow and we see that today. We knew that
China was going to be the next great industrial nation if you would. In fact, we
were the first company that went into China after Mr. Kissinger and Nixon win in
1973. So when we started in '61, within 10 years we were the largest cotton
merchants in the world. And so we had a presence all over the world. So that's the
reason I traveled and it was easier out of California. But at the end of the day,
California and the San Joaquin Valley not unlike a lot of other things is the
uniqueness it has the most fertile and the most productive land in the whole world
is right in the San Joaquin Valley. I know we've said--we say over that and over,
Pete, but I can't say it enough. It's what--what is been giving here is truly
amazing. It is unique to the world.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Because of your experience in the industry, you also had
become and I'm not patronizing you, quite knowledgeable in the political world, both
at the national level and international level. And sometimes, you had an interesting
crystal ball that you proving me to be incorrect on about presidential elections.
Why that tie in between your industry and politics?
>>Sam Reeves: Well part of that is that the cotton business is--for better or worse,
connected politically. There're a lot of subsidies that are involved in cotton. So
you have to understand the flow of the political systems of the United States and
also the world, because again, the world is heavily politicized when it comes to
agriculture. We know what's happening in Europe now, that's a big contention now.
The WTO in the European countries, the subsidies, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Why is that? At the end of the day revolutions are about the shortages of food and
fiber. It goes back thousands of years and if you can't feed and clothe your people,
that's what revolutions are about. And so nations have a desire to be able to have
ample food and fiber for the peoples. It is even in modern times it's your host.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What is--if you look at agriculture, here in the San Joaquin
Valley and even on the national scene, what are those things that are threatening? I
mean you hear a lot of things now, well-intentioned people and environmental things,
water issues, from your prospective, what are the things that jeopardizing the thing
that's feedings us here in the San Joaquin Valley?
>>Sam Reeves: All those things are true, what you mean. Also, then you're also
seeking a high value for land. And sometimes it does not appear that agriculture is
the best and the highest use of the land. That was more people coming in. You need
land for--build houses, et cetera, et cetera. So the threat is the sheer growth of
America. And which tends to drive out some of the lands, some of the better land. It
is a very difficult subject, because people think that when you drive out the good
land, irrigated land, like in San Joaquin Valley, you just go pick up other land.
That's not true. It takes 3 acres for every acre that you displace in the San
Joaquin Valley. And the world basically, all the good land is already being farmed.
And so it is very naive to think there is 3 acres out there that they can farm. And
if you get inferior, now you're talking 6 acres. So it becomes a mathematical
problem when you take lands out of agriculture production. Very difficult question,
very difficult subject and one of the keys are water as you alluded to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One of things that most people recognized about the Leon S.
Peters Award, it stands more for just excellence in business and success.
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: It has a great deal to do with Leon Peters commitment to
community service, philanthropy, and then improving the quality of life for all the
citizens. What was that got you going because clearly, I can name a hundred things
in the central San Joaquin Valley where you and your wife most recently, of course,
your commitment to the Metropolitan Museum, the exploration science laboratory at
the Met and many, many other things. What is it that in Sam Reeves, in his
background that said, "You know, I can be a successful businessman but I care about
giving to the community?"
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah. And I think that basically that I'm a product of society and our
culture. And our culture, Judeo-Christian culture, is it if by actions, by taking
actions, you can create a better tomorrow. I bet most people--many people in America
believe that. And therefore you can change tomorrow. So I think part of it is more
faith-based which many of us in America have.
And that's what America was formed on and instills our strength. So I think a lot of
it comes from that. I think also that our culture is also about that each person
makes a difference, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness that those three are the
core of America. So I believe that we're not fatalistic type of culture. And so you
believe that if you do certain things and that you give, tomorrow will be better.
And I think that permeates our whole sides. I don't think, Pete, I'm much different
than a lot of other people. Again, I think and--this is not--I sincerely believe
that I represent literally hundreds and hundreds of people in this--in the Fresno
County, who believe exactly the same thing, who give just as much and that involved.
I do believe that some of the things that Betsy and I are concerned with is
knowledge. I believe that knowledge is a difference between poverty and richness.
And I'm not speaking richness so much in monetary value, but it's in richness. 75
years ago for instance, between--the productivity between one person in a poor
country and a rich nation, poor nation and a rich nation--was 5 to 1. Today, 75
years later, it's 390 to 1. So you have to have this knowledge that is--is going to
create growth in America. And so I think one of the things I want to do is be
involved in that. And that's where Betsy is worried about, technology and we do it.
In fact, let's talk about technologies a little bit. The world now is more of a
knowledge-based in a borderless world. We see for instance, a high school results in
19th in math. We're behind Czechoslovakia, Slavonia. These countries, like the South
Korea is number one in everything. Now sooner or later that catches you. And so,
that somehow we have to augment that and we have to try to help these students to
understand the importance of education. You spent your life and you've given so
wonderfully in this area. And yet today, 25 percent I'm told the Hispanics drop out
of high school, 13 percent of the blacks, 7 percent of the whites drop out of high
school. It's something that America must do something about. And you are the epitome
of people trying to do and understand this much better than I do.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah. We're going to be competitive in that. We're just
simply, as Sir Edward Heath once told me, he said, "Pete, if you don't have the
brain trust, if you don't have--you're committed to becoming the third world nation
because you simply will not be able to compete." And that's absolutely right. And it
starts right here in our own community. And that is why these business partnerships,
education is too important to leave simply to the educator. I mean, all that--
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah. I think Churchill told us 50 years ago, empires of the future
will be empires of the mind. And I believe that. And so we've got to do something
particular in the area since we’ve moved from a agriculture base to a manufacturing
base to a service base, and now what I like to describe as is, is we’ve moved to a,
more or less, a data base. In other words, the technology now is zeros and ones and
ATCGs, the genomics. So we've moved now even to a code, our fourth enterprise or
transition, America is now, a code. And everything now is basically in those two
codes, zeros and ones, and the genomic code. And so we have to, to compete and
continue to raise the water level. America has got to understand this in that area.
And so I'm very big in that area as Betsy is.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Talking to say futures business students at the Leon S. Peters
School of Business. And you have young people who are aspiring to become the Sam
Reeves successful on their business in their community. Starting that now,
obviously, things have changed. Before if you had strong hands and draw well but the
market is becoming increasingly more competitive. What advice would give these young
students about to graduate from the university, enter the world of work?
>>Sam Reeves: Let's pick up. It has a changed just as I alluded to. Leon Peters,
let's use him for example. He started out in agriculture. Saw that manufacturing was
a place. He kind of moved into service a little bit. And now we have these codes
that I'm speaking of. So you got to choose careers along those lines. But at the end
of the day, Pete, what drives people to be successful I think is enthusiasm, energy,
just enjoying interacting, trying to see how the world works, travel, do all these
things and have a curiosity. And I don't think that, again, I talk about the
knowledge-based. Knowledge is not only academia but it's also practicality and
there's a balance in there. And so I'm a great believer that for young people today
that as long as they have this enthusiasm and really enjoy, how does the world work
and they will make it. And I think also that you even have a balance in your life. I
think there are five aspects of life. I think that there is a mental and you can use
your hand as a mental, the physical, the family and the social, the occupation and
the spiritual. And I think that the hand works very well with all those fingers
operative and in balance and in harmony. If you lose one of the fingers, it still
works pretty well. But if you lose the thumb, it's certainly not going to work quite
as well. And I think that's the genesis and the basis of the Judeo-Christian ethics,
and so I would encourage people try to get a balance and lead your life not, Pete,
as a layer cake in stripes but as a marble cake. Blend it all together, that
everything overlaps, your personal life interacts with your occupation and try to
get it so that your physical interacts with your mental, all these things interact.
Wonderful, the young people today, I must say this. I'm very bullish on the young
people today. I think that they're marvelous, particular the world over. I think we
are going to see a rising level all over the world, the competition will be greater,
as I travel you see it everyday. That's good. The world is better for sure in all my
travel. The day than it was when I first sort of travel in 50 years--and that's
wonderful, but the young people they're wonderful.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Speaking of balance in life, you found some balance besides
giving to the community in your business and your family. Obviously, let's talk a
little bit something that's near your heart, is golf. And there're not many people
and I know you would never say it, again, as modest as you are but you played with
Tiger Woods, you played over in the Pebble Beach and other places as well. What
about this passion for golf that you have?
>>Sam Reeves: Well, I think that's part of just kind of like business. Again, is
trying to balance. What I want to do, Pete, is I want to see in life is I want to
participate. I want to understand what it’s like. And when you play at Pebble Beach,
in fact, it's coming up in ten days and I'm trying to figure out, tweak it and see
how I'm going to do and all that I'll probably play with Jose Maria Olazabal this
year and I was talking this morning with Freddie Couples we’ll play together and
everything and trying to see how. So it's the only sport that you can play, Pete,
alongside the greatest players in the world and where you’re literally competing
alongside so you can see how do they react. What emotions they go through? What can
I learn from that? This past year playing in the Dunhill Cup with Adam Scott, the
new kid is the 18th in the world, the greatest. He just turned 23, and Adam and I
are great friends, just to watch and see and to be there and to see what it's like.
It's a--and again, it's a learning experience now. Because you want to--there's a
balance of trying to do your very best and yet not trying to be so tense that you
get. But I've always, again, played golf, love golf, played in school and in the
army. And it's--again, is a way to test yourself. It's a way to understand courage.
It's a discipline. It's a great discipline. It takes--It's so frustrating and->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Humbling.
>>Sam Reeves: --very humbling. And so then what happens is you again have to have
the passion to get up the next day and say, "Okay, I'm going to try it again and see
what happens."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Let's talk about what are those other fingers on the hand, the
spiritual. I know that--as long as I have known you, you're not been one wanting to
go out and preach your religion but you lived it. It's a very clear sign where Sam
Reeves coming from when you approach your office and you see this magnificent statue
which is a great deal. Not to get real personal with you, but spiritual. I know you
belong to First Pres and they've done a lot for our community as well. But I want
young people to know how important regardless of what their religious believe is,
how important, how that interacts with your decision making? Because the ethics of
government, people are worried about Exxon, they're worried about corporate ethics.
How does the spiritual role help in that area?
>>Sam Reeves: I think that, first of all, I do believe in the God of creation. I did
not understand this until I was in my 30s. I think it takes too much faith to
believe that we were just created out of a black hole. So I do believe in the God of
creation. From there, I believed that people then have to make their choice of how
they want to live their life and God touches people in all different ways. And
heavens forbid that I try to tell anyone else how to live their lives. I do think
it's a personal relationship. But I also think that there are truths in life, Pete,
that are absolute. They're absolutes. And I think there's a--today, there's an
addition of choices with the subtraction of absolutes. And so I think many people
lose their way because they don't have absolutes to refer to. And so at the end of
the day, I believed in a God of creation. And I believe that God is an inclusive
God. I think that Christianity is only faith that is inclusive. You think about some
of the other faiths and I'm not criticizing other faiths, but many of those are
exclusive whereas I believe the genesis of Christ was inclusive.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Have you seen Fresno now? We consider you now a Fresnan after
so many years. What are the things that--I know it's always dangerous to crystalball.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But what are the things that as you see in Fresno's future
that we should be sensitive and cognitive of what's going on in Fresno? What forces
are at work here?
>>Sam Reeves: Sure. And it's easy to criticize. I happen to believed that--again,
that there's enough people here that are continuing to make a difference and I'm not
near as embarrass about Fresno as maybe some other people. Obviously, I would love
it. Out of this technology or the museum or someone, that connects Bill Gates comes
and sets up here in Fresno and we have life happily ever after because we do have an
unemployment problem. And that's debilitating because that reduces people's hope.
And so we do have the problem there. And we have several problems such as that. But
I think that somehow, Pete, that there's enough courageous people here that are
working on it and that--and if people, again, have the faith of what America is all
about that it would continue to grow. Just think how much better Fresno is today.
Let's take Leon Peters. Can you imagine the persecution that Leon went through? I
happen know Leon. One of the first people I met when I came to Fresno was Leon
because the house that Betsy and I rented back up to Alice and Leon's house and the
Coopers’ house. And so out--that was one of the first people I met. But--And I had
never known, had never heard the word Armenian. To me it was foreign. I didn't know
where I came from the South and everything and then people said, "Oh, he's an
Armenian." I said, "Well, yes." I thought that was some--But you think of what the
persecution that he endured and how he himself helped overcome things like that. I
would think that any city would despair for Leon Peters. Can you imagine having the
Leon Peters of the world and the--shall we say the quintessential citizen if you
would, would be a Leon Peters. And so this Leon Peters out here, the Leon Peters all
through Fresno County. So I'm not near as embarrassed about Fresno, as maybe some of
other people. But I would like some more business to come in and a lot more jobs and
things like--but it will happen. It will happen.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The last area is I know God has blessed you with just a
magnificent family.
>>Sam Reeves: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Talented--of course I'm partial to your wife, she's been a
schoolteacher that she is, but a wonderful woman and your daughter. Let's talk a
little bit about your family.
>>Sam Reeves: Okay, there are four girls who--everyone who--almost well up when I
think it. But anybody who knows me knows that I love the four girls.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I know.
>>Sam Reeves: I talk to them constantly. They've all married. They all have--except
the baby hasn't--doesn’t have children, but there're eight grandchildren. And as I
say, I traveled with the girls a lot and spend a lot of time with the girls. I
encouraged them, Pete, to do three things while they were in college. Number one, I
encouraged them to work in Washington for summer and New York on Wall Street for
summer and then live in a country with a foreign language. So they would have to
learn and speak the foreign language for some. Things like that I would encouraged
them, to prepare them for the--what I considered a borderless world as I referred
to. So again, we--I see the girls a lot, talk to the girls a lot. One lived in China
as you recall for months, speaks Chinese, taught English as a second language there.
This was right before Tiananmen Square, had a sense that something was going on and
to show you what China is going to be, continue to be a great nation. When she was
there, she would teach for three hours once a week. People would ride their bicycles
for 25 miles. It costs 5 dollars--wages then were 30 dollars a month. They would pay
5 dollars to learn English as second language. And can you imagine America for us
willing to pay just for three hours a week to try to learn another language and
contribute in almost 15 to 20 percent of your monthly wage as to travel, learn and
get a way. That is the reason. That's the genesis. That's the core. That's the
driver if you would of why China it continues to grow, its citizens like that. And
so, I love the girls.
>>Sam Reeves:
I love the girls.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Last--I know, that's why forgive me because I knew how dear
they are your daughters and your wife.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Sam Reeves:
And Betsy.
>> Dr. Peter Mehas:
Well, of course.
>>Sam Reeves: And Betsy.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure. I love the girls. And that's it. And that's it. That's it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Last question, the legendary Knute Rockne, Notre Dame, used to
tell his team that when the great scorekeeper records the score in the great
scoreboard, it matters not whether you won or lost but how you played the game.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How do you want people to record the score of Sam Reeves when
all is said and done, what do you want them to say about Sam?
>>Sam Reeves: I think I’ll let others judge that. But I do know that I've been
extremely blessed and this may sound presumptuous, but if I came back in another
life I just as soon come back as Sam Reeves. It's been a wonderful life. I have
thoroughly enjoyed it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well Sam, again, on behalf of the chamber, I want to
congratulate you for being the 2004 Leon S. Peters recipient. And I know that awards
don't mean a lot to you and you've had many, many awards. But you clearly embodied
and embraced all the principle of the Leon S. Peters, the successful businessman,
successful father, philanthropist, and a generally a custodian and steward of our
community. So we thank you not only as the chamber but as a citizen of Fresno.
>>Sam Reeves:
Thank you
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Thank you for making the life better for our children.
>>Sam Reeves: Thank you. Thank you so much, Pete.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
of all, in behalf of the chamber I want to congratulate you for such a prestigious
award. You knew Leon Peters, at least you met and work with him. What did it mean to
Sam Reeves who's accomplished so many, many things but to be the recipient of this
award?
>>Sam Reeves: Oh, obviously, it's probably the outstanding award in the San Joaquin
Valley represents million and a half people, et cetera, et cetera. So that part is
I'm very gracious for. Having said that though Pete, in reality, I'm sort of a
poster child for hundreds and thousands of other people in Fresno County who are
just as deserving. You think of the Gerre Brennemans, the Jamie Evans, I can go on
and on of people that would be equally qualified. So these many people that deserve
this award.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Knowing you and your modesty, it's sincere and, you know,
you're not a native Fresnan. You came here sort of midway in your career. But yet,
to many people what you can contributed to the community, many people think you are
a native except for that little bit of that southern accent on occasion.
>>Sam Reeves: Yes, I grew up in south Fresno. No, no. In essence, obviously, I was
born in Thomaston, Georgia, small town, 8,000 people. It was a manufacturing town,
textural manufacturing. Lived there. Worked for--in a cotton gin where my father
started working, Pete, when I was 10 years old. Second World War was on and they
had--you had to reclaim the bagging for cotton bales. And so I sold bagging when I
was 10 years old, 10 cents a pattern, 30 cents an hour. It's big wages in those
days. And so I was--it was very enjoyable growing up in a small town.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, you know, people associate the cotton industry with Sam
Reeves, and it's a many, many people. How did you--tell us a little bit how you got
started and how did you work your way up?
>>Sam Reeves: My father was in and so I used to travel with him in the summertime.
My father was peripatetic in that he would follow the crop and he would go from the
Rio Grande Valley in Texas which started the cotton southeast in Mississippi Delta.
So in the summertime, I would often travel with him from the time I was 10, 11 years
old. I'd go with him. It was a wonderful chance because five months out of year he
was not at home. So it gave me a great chance to interact, to be one-on-one. It was-times that I still recall. I try to do that, Pete, also with my daughters. I used
to travel a lot, had four daughters. Now I would take them out of school and have
them travel with me because I think that when people, relationships evolve out of
shared experiences, they can be happy experiences or they can be sad experiences,
whatever. But even they surpass in many ways, family experience, because it's oneon-one. So I travel with my father. I got to know a lot about the cotton business.
And then, after going to the University of North Carolina and then going into the
army, and being involved in the army in special sports, mainly golf, and the CIC,
Counter Intelligence Corps. After that, then I moved to Memphis going to cotton
business.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I understand that something very significant happened while
you're at North Carolina that you live with for a long, long time, someone very,
very special that you met.
>>Sam Reeves: Right, right. That's where I met my future wife, Betsy. Betsy was at
Duke and they're big rivals but Duke and North Carolina as you know, about 10 to 12
miles it separates the two schools. And so I did meet Betsy there. We were married
and then towards the end of my career in the army and then we moved to Memphis where
I did learned--I went to learn the cotton business and then I went in business with
Billy Dunavant and Billy's father in August of 1960. Six months later, an untimely,
Mr. Dunavant died, senior, untimely death so there were two of us. I was 26 years
old, Billy was 28 years old. We were left to fend for ourselves in the cotton
business and that's how I kind of get started. And then a year later, 1961, I came
to Fresno. The reason you came to Fresno, Pete, was you could see that San Joaquin
Valley was really going to be the heart of--like a much of agriculture, but of
cotton. And if you want to have a presence, which we did worldwide, you had to come
to the San Joaquin Valley. And it's of finest cotton is grown in the world and you
need that and when you're selling all types of cotton to textile mills, you have to
have the ability to sell San Joaquin cottons. So that's what really the reason I
came to the San Joaquin Valley. The second thing is, the proximity to the Far East.
We knew that the Far East was going to grow and we see that today. We knew that
China was going to be the next great industrial nation if you would. In fact, we
were the first company that went into China after Mr. Kissinger and Nixon win in
1973. So when we started in '61, within 10 years we were the largest cotton
merchants in the world. And so we had a presence all over the world. So that's the
reason I traveled and it was easier out of California. But at the end of the day,
California and the San Joaquin Valley not unlike a lot of other things is the
uniqueness it has the most fertile and the most productive land in the whole world
is right in the San Joaquin Valley. I know we've said--we say over that and over,
Pete, but I can't say it enough. It's what--what is been giving here is truly
amazing. It is unique to the world.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Because of your experience in the industry, you also had
become and I'm not patronizing you, quite knowledgeable in the political world, both
at the national level and international level. And sometimes, you had an interesting
crystal ball that you proving me to be incorrect on about presidential elections.
Why that tie in between your industry and politics?
>>Sam Reeves: Well part of that is that the cotton business is--for better or worse,
connected politically. There're a lot of subsidies that are involved in cotton. So
you have to understand the flow of the political systems of the United States and
also the world, because again, the world is heavily politicized when it comes to
agriculture. We know what's happening in Europe now, that's a big contention now.
The WTO in the European countries, the subsidies, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Why is that? At the end of the day revolutions are about the shortages of food and
fiber. It goes back thousands of years and if you can't feed and clothe your people,
that's what revolutions are about. And so nations have a desire to be able to have
ample food and fiber for the peoples. It is even in modern times it's your host.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What is--if you look at agriculture, here in the San Joaquin
Valley and even on the national scene, what are those things that are threatening? I
mean you hear a lot of things now, well-intentioned people and environmental things,
water issues, from your prospective, what are the things that jeopardizing the thing
that's feedings us here in the San Joaquin Valley?
>>Sam Reeves: All those things are true, what you mean. Also, then you're also
seeking a high value for land. And sometimes it does not appear that agriculture is
the best and the highest use of the land. That was more people coming in. You need
land for--build houses, et cetera, et cetera. So the threat is the sheer growth of
America. And which tends to drive out some of the lands, some of the better land. It
is a very difficult subject, because people think that when you drive out the good
land, irrigated land, like in San Joaquin Valley, you just go pick up other land.
That's not true. It takes 3 acres for every acre that you displace in the San
Joaquin Valley. And the world basically, all the good land is already being farmed.
And so it is very naive to think there is 3 acres out there that they can farm. And
if you get inferior, now you're talking 6 acres. So it becomes a mathematical
problem when you take lands out of agriculture production. Very difficult question,
very difficult subject and one of the keys are water as you alluded to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One of things that most people recognized about the Leon S.
Peters Award, it stands more for just excellence in business and success.
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: It has a great deal to do with Leon Peters commitment to
community service, philanthropy, and then improving the quality of life for all the
citizens. What was that got you going because clearly, I can name a hundred things
in the central San Joaquin Valley where you and your wife most recently, of course,
your commitment to the Metropolitan Museum, the exploration science laboratory at
the Met and many, many other things. What is it that in Sam Reeves, in his
background that said, "You know, I can be a successful businessman but I care about
giving to the community?"
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah. And I think that basically that I'm a product of society and our
culture. And our culture, Judeo-Christian culture, is it if by actions, by taking
actions, you can create a better tomorrow. I bet most people--many people in America
believe that. And therefore you can change tomorrow. So I think part of it is more
faith-based which many of us in America have.
And that's what America was formed on and instills our strength. So I think a lot of
it comes from that. I think also that our culture is also about that each person
makes a difference, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness that those three are the
core of America. So I believe that we're not fatalistic type of culture. And so you
believe that if you do certain things and that you give, tomorrow will be better.
And I think that permeates our whole sides. I don't think, Pete, I'm much different
than a lot of other people. Again, I think and--this is not--I sincerely believe
that I represent literally hundreds and hundreds of people in this--in the Fresno
County, who believe exactly the same thing, who give just as much and that involved.
I do believe that some of the things that Betsy and I are concerned with is
knowledge. I believe that knowledge is a difference between poverty and richness.
And I'm not speaking richness so much in monetary value, but it's in richness. 75
years ago for instance, between--the productivity between one person in a poor
country and a rich nation, poor nation and a rich nation--was 5 to 1. Today, 75
years later, it's 390 to 1. So you have to have this knowledge that is--is going to
create growth in America. And so I think one of the things I want to do is be
involved in that. And that's where Betsy is worried about, technology and we do it.
In fact, let's talk about technologies a little bit. The world now is more of a
knowledge-based in a borderless world. We see for instance, a high school results in
19th in math. We're behind Czechoslovakia, Slavonia. These countries, like the South
Korea is number one in everything. Now sooner or later that catches you. And so,
that somehow we have to augment that and we have to try to help these students to
understand the importance of education. You spent your life and you've given so
wonderfully in this area. And yet today, 25 percent I'm told the Hispanics drop out
of high school, 13 percent of the blacks, 7 percent of the whites drop out of high
school. It's something that America must do something about. And you are the epitome
of people trying to do and understand this much better than I do.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah. We're going to be competitive in that. We're just
simply, as Sir Edward Heath once told me, he said, "Pete, if you don't have the
brain trust, if you don't have--you're committed to becoming the third world nation
because you simply will not be able to compete." And that's absolutely right. And it
starts right here in our own community. And that is why these business partnerships,
education is too important to leave simply to the educator. I mean, all that--
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah. I think Churchill told us 50 years ago, empires of the future
will be empires of the mind. And I believe that. And so we've got to do something
particular in the area since we’ve moved from a agriculture base to a manufacturing
base to a service base, and now what I like to describe as is, is we’ve moved to a,
more or less, a data base. In other words, the technology now is zeros and ones and
ATCGs, the genomics. So we've moved now even to a code, our fourth enterprise or
transition, America is now, a code. And everything now is basically in those two
codes, zeros and ones, and the genomic code. And so we have to, to compete and
continue to raise the water level. America has got to understand this in that area.
And so I'm very big in that area as Betsy is.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Talking to say futures business students at the Leon S. Peters
School of Business. And you have young people who are aspiring to become the Sam
Reeves successful on their business in their community. Starting that now,
obviously, things have changed. Before if you had strong hands and draw well but the
market is becoming increasingly more competitive. What advice would give these young
students about to graduate from the university, enter the world of work?
>>Sam Reeves: Let's pick up. It has a changed just as I alluded to. Leon Peters,
let's use him for example. He started out in agriculture. Saw that manufacturing was
a place. He kind of moved into service a little bit. And now we have these codes
that I'm speaking of. So you got to choose careers along those lines. But at the end
of the day, Pete, what drives people to be successful I think is enthusiasm, energy,
just enjoying interacting, trying to see how the world works, travel, do all these
things and have a curiosity. And I don't think that, again, I talk about the
knowledge-based. Knowledge is not only academia but it's also practicality and
there's a balance in there. And so I'm a great believer that for young people today
that as long as they have this enthusiasm and really enjoy, how does the world work
and they will make it. And I think also that you even have a balance in your life. I
think there are five aspects of life. I think that there is a mental and you can use
your hand as a mental, the physical, the family and the social, the occupation and
the spiritual. And I think that the hand works very well with all those fingers
operative and in balance and in harmony. If you lose one of the fingers, it still
works pretty well. But if you lose the thumb, it's certainly not going to work quite
as well. And I think that's the genesis and the basis of the Judeo-Christian ethics,
and so I would encourage people try to get a balance and lead your life not, Pete,
as a layer cake in stripes but as a marble cake. Blend it all together, that
everything overlaps, your personal life interacts with your occupation and try to
get it so that your physical interacts with your mental, all these things interact.
Wonderful, the young people today, I must say this. I'm very bullish on the young
people today. I think that they're marvelous, particular the world over. I think we
are going to see a rising level all over the world, the competition will be greater,
as I travel you see it everyday. That's good. The world is better for sure in all my
travel. The day than it was when I first sort of travel in 50 years--and that's
wonderful, but the young people they're wonderful.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Speaking of balance in life, you found some balance besides
giving to the community in your business and your family. Obviously, let's talk a
little bit something that's near your heart, is golf. And there're not many people
and I know you would never say it, again, as modest as you are but you played with
Tiger Woods, you played over in the Pebble Beach and other places as well. What
about this passion for golf that you have?
>>Sam Reeves: Well, I think that's part of just kind of like business. Again, is
trying to balance. What I want to do, Pete, is I want to see in life is I want to
participate. I want to understand what it’s like. And when you play at Pebble Beach,
in fact, it's coming up in ten days and I'm trying to figure out, tweak it and see
how I'm going to do and all that I'll probably play with Jose Maria Olazabal this
year and I was talking this morning with Freddie Couples we’ll play together and
everything and trying to see how. So it's the only sport that you can play, Pete,
alongside the greatest players in the world and where you’re literally competing
alongside so you can see how do they react. What emotions they go through? What can
I learn from that? This past year playing in the Dunhill Cup with Adam Scott, the
new kid is the 18th in the world, the greatest. He just turned 23, and Adam and I
are great friends, just to watch and see and to be there and to see what it's like.
It's a--and again, it's a learning experience now. Because you want to--there's a
balance of trying to do your very best and yet not trying to be so tense that you
get. But I've always, again, played golf, love golf, played in school and in the
army. And it's--again, is a way to test yourself. It's a way to understand courage.
It's a discipline. It's a great discipline. It takes--It's so frustrating and->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Humbling.
>>Sam Reeves: --very humbling. And so then what happens is you again have to have
the passion to get up the next day and say, "Okay, I'm going to try it again and see
what happens."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Let's talk about what are those other fingers on the hand, the
spiritual. I know that--as long as I have known you, you're not been one wanting to
go out and preach your religion but you lived it. It's a very clear sign where Sam
Reeves coming from when you approach your office and you see this magnificent statue
which is a great deal. Not to get real personal with you, but spiritual. I know you
belong to First Pres and they've done a lot for our community as well. But I want
young people to know how important regardless of what their religious believe is,
how important, how that interacts with your decision making? Because the ethics of
government, people are worried about Exxon, they're worried about corporate ethics.
How does the spiritual role help in that area?
>>Sam Reeves: I think that, first of all, I do believe in the God of creation. I did
not understand this until I was in my 30s. I think it takes too much faith to
believe that we were just created out of a black hole. So I do believe in the God of
creation. From there, I believed that people then have to make their choice of how
they want to live their life and God touches people in all different ways. And
heavens forbid that I try to tell anyone else how to live their lives. I do think
it's a personal relationship. But I also think that there are truths in life, Pete,
that are absolute. They're absolutes. And I think there's a--today, there's an
addition of choices with the subtraction of absolutes. And so I think many people
lose their way because they don't have absolutes to refer to. And so at the end of
the day, I believed in a God of creation. And I believe that God is an inclusive
God. I think that Christianity is only faith that is inclusive. You think about some
of the other faiths and I'm not criticizing other faiths, but many of those are
exclusive whereas I believe the genesis of Christ was inclusive.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Have you seen Fresno now? We consider you now a Fresnan after
so many years. What are the things that--I know it's always dangerous to crystalball.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But what are the things that as you see in Fresno's future
that we should be sensitive and cognitive of what's going on in Fresno? What forces
are at work here?
>>Sam Reeves: Sure. And it's easy to criticize. I happen to believed that--again,
that there's enough people here that are continuing to make a difference and I'm not
near as embarrass about Fresno as maybe some other people. Obviously, I would love
it. Out of this technology or the museum or someone, that connects Bill Gates comes
and sets up here in Fresno and we have life happily ever after because we do have an
unemployment problem. And that's debilitating because that reduces people's hope.
And so we do have the problem there. And we have several problems such as that. But
I think that somehow, Pete, that there's enough courageous people here that are
working on it and that--and if people, again, have the faith of what America is all
about that it would continue to grow. Just think how much better Fresno is today.
Let's take Leon Peters. Can you imagine the persecution that Leon went through? I
happen know Leon. One of the first people I met when I came to Fresno was Leon
because the house that Betsy and I rented back up to Alice and Leon's house and the
Coopers’ house. And so out--that was one of the first people I met. But--And I had
never known, had never heard the word Armenian. To me it was foreign. I didn't know
where I came from the South and everything and then people said, "Oh, he's an
Armenian." I said, "Well, yes." I thought that was some--But you think of what the
persecution that he endured and how he himself helped overcome things like that. I
would think that any city would despair for Leon Peters. Can you imagine having the
Leon Peters of the world and the--shall we say the quintessential citizen if you
would, would be a Leon Peters. And so this Leon Peters out here, the Leon Peters all
through Fresno County. So I'm not near as embarrassed about Fresno, as maybe some of
other people. But I would like some more business to come in and a lot more jobs and
things like--but it will happen. It will happen.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The last area is I know God has blessed you with just a
magnificent family.
>>Sam Reeves: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Talented--of course I'm partial to your wife, she's been a
schoolteacher that she is, but a wonderful woman and your daughter. Let's talk a
little bit about your family.
>>Sam Reeves: Okay, there are four girls who--everyone who--almost well up when I
think it. But anybody who knows me knows that I love the four girls.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I know.
>>Sam Reeves: I talk to them constantly. They've all married. They all have--except
the baby hasn't--doesn’t have children, but there're eight grandchildren. And as I
say, I traveled with the girls a lot and spend a lot of time with the girls. I
encouraged them, Pete, to do three things while they were in college. Number one, I
encouraged them to work in Washington for summer and New York on Wall Street for
summer and then live in a country with a foreign language. So they would have to
learn and speak the foreign language for some. Things like that I would encouraged
them, to prepare them for the--what I considered a borderless world as I referred
to. So again, we--I see the girls a lot, talk to the girls a lot. One lived in China
as you recall for months, speaks Chinese, taught English as a second language there.
This was right before Tiananmen Square, had a sense that something was going on and
to show you what China is going to be, continue to be a great nation. When she was
there, she would teach for three hours once a week. People would ride their bicycles
for 25 miles. It costs 5 dollars--wages then were 30 dollars a month. They would pay
5 dollars to learn English as second language. And can you imagine America for us
willing to pay just for three hours a week to try to learn another language and
contribute in almost 15 to 20 percent of your monthly wage as to travel, learn and
get a way. That is the reason. That's the genesis. That's the core. That's the
driver if you would of why China it continues to grow, its citizens like that. And
so, I love the girls.
>>Sam Reeves:
I love the girls.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Last--I know, that's why forgive me because I knew how dear
they are your daughters and your wife.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Sam Reeves:
And Betsy.
>> Dr. Peter Mehas:
Well, of course.
>>Sam Reeves: And Betsy.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure. I love the girls. And that's it. And that's it. That's it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Last question, the legendary Knute Rockne, Notre Dame, used to
tell his team that when the great scorekeeper records the score in the great
scoreboard, it matters not whether you won or lost but how you played the game.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How do you want people to record the score of Sam Reeves when
all is said and done, what do you want them to say about Sam?
>>Sam Reeves: I think I’ll let others judge that. But I do know that I've been
extremely blessed and this may sound presumptuous, but if I came back in another
life I just as soon come back as Sam Reeves. It's been a wonderful life. I have
thoroughly enjoyed it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well Sam, again, on behalf of the chamber, I want to
congratulate you for being the 2004 Leon S. Peters recipient. And I know that awards
don't mean a lot to you and you've had many, many awards. But you clearly embodied
and embraced all the principle of the Leon S. Peters, the successful businessman,
successful father, philanthropist, and a generally a custodian and steward of our
community. So we thank you not only as the chamber but as a citizen of Fresno.
>>Sam Reeves:
Thank you
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Thank you for making the life better for our children.
>>Sam Reeves: Thank you. Thank you so much, Pete.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sam Reeves 2004, Leon S. Peters recipient winner. Sam, first
of all, in behalf of the chamber I want to congratulate you for such a prestigious
award. You knew Leon Peters, at least you met and work with him. What did it mean to
Sam Reeves who's accomplished so many, many things but to be the recipient of this
award?
>>Sam Reeves: Oh, obviously, it's probably the outstanding award in the San Joaquin
Valley represents million and a half people, et cetera, et cetera. So that part is
I'm very gracious for. Having said that though Pete, in reality, I'm sort of a
poster child for hundreds and thousands of other people in Fresno County who are
just as deserving. You think of the Gerre Brennemans, the Jamie Evans, I can go on
and on of people that would be equally qualified. So these many people that deserve
this award.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Knowing you and your modesty, it's sincere and, you know,
you're not a native Fresnan. You came here sort of midway in your career. But yet,
to many people what you can contributed to the community, many people think you are
a native except for that little bit of that southern accent on occasion.
>>Sam Reeves: Yes, I grew up in south Fresno. No, no. In essence, obviously, I was
born in Thomaston, Georgia, small town, 8,000 people. It was a manufacturing town,
textural manufacturing. Lived there. Worked for--in a cotton gin where my father
started working, Pete, when I was 10 years old. Second World War was on and they
had--you had to reclaim the bagging for cotton bales. And so I sold bagging when I
was 10 years old, 10 cents a pattern, 30 cents an hour. It's big wages in those
days. And so I was--it was very enjoyable growing up in a small town.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, you know, people associate the cotton industry with Sam
Reeves, and it's a many, many people. How did you--tell us a little bit how you got
started and how did you work your way up?
>>Sam Reeves: My father was in and so I used to travel with him in the summertime.
My father was peripatetic in that he would follow the crop and he would go from the
Rio Grande Valley in Texas which started the cotton southeast in Mississippi Delta.
So in the summertime, I would often travel with him from the time I was 10, 11 years
old. I'd go with him. It was a wonderful chance because five months out of year he
was not at home. So it gave me a great chance to interact, to be one-on-one. It was-times that I still recall. I try to do that, Pete, also with my daughters. I used
to travel a lot, had four daughters. Now I would take them out of school and have
them travel with me because I think that when people, relationships evolve out of
shared experiences, they can be happy experiences or they can be sad experiences,
whatever. But even they surpass in many ways, family experience, because it's oneon-one. So I travel with my father. I got to know a lot about the cotton business.
And then, after going to the University of North Carolina and then going into the
army, and being involved in the army in special sports, mainly golf, and the CIC,
Counter Intelligence Corps. After that, then I moved to Memphis going to cotton
business.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I understand that something very significant happened while
you're at North Carolina that you live with for a long, long time, someone very,
very special that you met.
>>Sam Reeves: Right, right. That's where I met my future wife, Betsy. Betsy was at
Duke and they're big rivals but Duke and North Carolina as you know, about 10 to 12
miles it separates the two schools. And so I did meet Betsy there. We were married
and then towards the end of my career in the army and then we moved to Memphis where
I did learned--I went to learn the cotton business and then I went in business with
Billy Dunavant and Billy's father in August of 1960. Six months later, an untimely,
Mr. Dunavant died, senior, untimely death so there were two of us. I was 26 years
old, Billy was 28 years old. We were left to fend for ourselves in the cotton
business and that's how I kind of get started. And then a year later, 1961, I came
to Fresno. The reason you came to Fresno, Pete, was you could see that San Joaquin
Valley was really going to be the heart of--like a much of agriculture, but of
cotton. And if you want to have a presence, which we did worldwide, you had to come
to the San Joaquin Valley. And it's of finest cotton is grown in the world and you
need that and when you're selling all types of cotton to textile mills, you have to
have the ability to sell San Joaquin cottons. So that's what really the reason I
came to the San Joaquin Valley. The second thing is, the proximity to the Far East.
We knew that the Far East was going to grow and we see that today. We knew that
China was going to be the next great industrial nation if you would. In fact, we
were the first company that went into China after Mr. Kissinger and Nixon win in
1973. So when we started in '61, within 10 years we were the largest cotton
merchants in the world. And so we had a presence all over the world. So that's the
reason I traveled and it was easier out of California. But at the end of the day,
California and the San Joaquin Valley not unlike a lot of other things is the
uniqueness it has the most fertile and the most productive land in the whole world
is right in the San Joaquin Valley. I know we've said--we say over that and over,
Pete, but I can't say it enough. It's what--what is been giving here is truly
amazing. It is unique to the world.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Because of your experience in the industry, you also had
become and I'm not patronizing you, quite knowledgeable in the political world, both
at the national level and international level. And sometimes, you had an interesting
crystal ball that you proving me to be incorrect on about presidential elections.
Why that tie in between your industry and politics?
>>Sam Reeves: Well part of that is that the cotton business is--for better or worse,
connected politically. There're a lot of subsidies that are involved in cotton. So
you have to understand the flow of the political systems of the United States and
also the world, because again, the world is heavily politicized when it comes to
agriculture. We know what's happening in Europe now, that's a big contention now.
The WTO in the European countries, the subsidies, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Why is that? At the end of the day revolutions are about the shortages of food and
fiber. It goes back thousands of years and if you can't feed and clothe your people,
that's what revolutions are about. And so nations have a desire to be able to have
ample food and fiber for the peoples. It is even in modern times it's your host.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What is--if you look at agriculture, here in the San Joaquin
Valley and even on the national scene, what are those things that are threatening? I
mean you hear a lot of things now, well-intentioned people and environmental things,
water issues, from your prospective, what are the things that jeopardizing the thing
that's feedings us here in the San Joaquin Valley?
>>Sam Reeves: All those things are true, what you mean. Also, then you're also
seeking a high value for land. And sometimes it does not appear that agriculture is
the best and the highest use of the land. That was more people coming in. You need
land for--build houses, et cetera, et cetera. So the threat is the sheer growth of
America. And which tends to drive out some of the lands, some of the better land. It
is a very difficult subject, because people think that when you drive out the good
land, irrigated land, like in San Joaquin Valley, you just go pick up other land.
That's not true. It takes 3 acres for every acre that you displace in the San
Joaquin Valley. And the world basically, all the good land is already being farmed.
And so it is very naive to think there is 3 acres out there that they can farm. And
if you get inferior, now you're talking 6 acres. So it becomes a mathematical
problem when you take lands out of agriculture production. Very difficult question,
very difficult subject and one of the keys are water as you alluded to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One of things that most people recognized about the Leon S.
Peters Award, it stands more for just excellence in business and success.
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: It has a great deal to do with Leon Peters commitment to
community service, philanthropy, and then improving the quality of life for all the
citizens. What was that got you going because clearly, I can name a hundred things
in the central San Joaquin Valley where you and your wife most recently, of course,
your commitment to the Metropolitan Museum, the exploration science laboratory at
the Met and many, many other things. What is it that in Sam Reeves, in his
background that said, "You know, I can be a successful businessman but I care about
giving to the community?"
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah. And I think that basically that I'm a product of society and our
culture. And our culture, Judeo-Christian culture, is it if by actions, by taking
actions, you can create a better tomorrow. I bet most people--many people in America
believe that. And therefore you can change tomorrow. So I think part of it is more
faith-based which many of us in America have.
And that's what America was formed on and instills our strength. So I think a lot of
it comes from that. I think also that our culture is also about that each person
makes a difference, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness that those three are the
core of America. So I believe that we're not fatalistic type of culture. And so you
believe that if you do certain things and that you give, tomorrow will be better.
And I think that permeates our whole sides. I don't think, Pete, I'm much different
than a lot of other people. Again, I think and--this is not--I sincerely believe
that I represent literally hundreds and hundreds of people in this--in the Fresno
County, who believe exactly the same thing, who give just as much and that involved.
I do believe that some of the things that Betsy and I are concerned with is
knowledge. I believe that knowledge is a difference between poverty and richness.
And I'm not speaking richness so much in monetary value, but it's in richness. 75
years ago for instance, between--the productivity between one person in a poor
country and a rich nation, poor nation and a rich nation--was 5 to 1. Today, 75
years later, it's 390 to 1. So you have to have this knowledge that is--is going to
create growth in America. And so I think one of the things I want to do is be
involved in that. And that's where Betsy is worried about, technology and we do it.
In fact, let's talk about technologies a little bit. The world now is more of a
knowledge-based in a borderless world. We see for instance, a high school results in
19th in math. We're behind Czechoslovakia, Slavonia. These countries, like the South
Korea is number one in everything. Now sooner or later that catches you. And so,
that somehow we have to augment that and we have to try to help these students to
understand the importance of education. You spent your life and you've given so
wonderfully in this area. And yet today, 25 percent I'm told the Hispanics drop out
of high school, 13 percent of the blacks, 7 percent of the whites drop out of high
school. It's something that America must do something about. And you are the epitome
of people trying to do and understand this much better than I do.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah. We're going to be competitive in that. We're just
simply, as Sir Edward Heath once told me, he said, "Pete, if you don't have the
brain trust, if you don't have--you're committed to becoming the third world nation
because you simply will not be able to compete." And that's absolutely right. And it
starts right here in our own community. And that is why these business partnerships,
education is too important to leave simply to the educator. I mean, all that--
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah. I think Churchill told us 50 years ago, empires of the future
will be empires of the mind. And I believe that. And so we've got to do something
particular in the area since we’ve moved from a agriculture base to a manufacturing
base to a service base, and now what I like to describe as is, is we’ve moved to a,
more or less, a data base. In other words, the technology now is zeros and ones and
ATCGs, the genomics. So we've moved now even to a code, our fourth enterprise or
transition, America is now, a code. And everything now is basically in those two
codes, zeros and ones, and the genomic code. And so we have to, to compete and
continue to raise the water level. America has got to understand this in that area.
And so I'm very big in that area as Betsy is.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Talking to say futures business students at the Leon S. Peters
School of Business. And you have young people who are aspiring to become the Sam
Reeves successful on their business in their community. Starting that now,
obviously, things have changed. Before if you had strong hands and draw well but the
market is becoming increasingly more competitive. What advice would give these young
students about to graduate from the university, enter the world of work?
>>Sam Reeves: Let's pick up. It has a changed just as I alluded to. Leon Peters,
let's use him for example. He started out in agriculture. Saw that manufacturing was
a place. He kind of moved into service a little bit. And now we have these codes
that I'm speaking of. So you got to choose careers along those lines. But at the end
of the day, Pete, what drives people to be successful I think is enthusiasm, energy,
just enjoying interacting, trying to see how the world works, travel, do all these
things and have a curiosity. And I don't think that, again, I talk about the
knowledge-based. Knowledge is not only academia but it's also practicality and
there's a balance in there. And so I'm a great believer that for young people today
that as long as they have this enthusiasm and really enjoy, how does the world work
and they will make it. And I think also that you even have a balance in your life. I
think there are five aspects of life. I think that there is a mental and you can use
your hand as a mental, the physical, the family and the social, the occupation and
the spiritual. And I think that the hand works very well with all those fingers
operative and in balance and in harmony. If you lose one of the fingers, it still
works pretty well. But if you lose the thumb, it's certainly not going to work quite
as well. And I think that's the genesis and the basis of the Judeo-Christian ethics,
and so I would encourage people try to get a balance and lead your life not, Pete,
as a layer cake in stripes but as a marble cake. Blend it all together, that
everything overlaps, your personal life interacts with your occupation and try to
get it so that your physical interacts with your mental, all these things interact.
Wonderful, the young people today, I must say this. I'm very bullish on the young
people today. I think that they're marvelous, particular the world over. I think we
are going to see a rising level all over the world, the competition will be greater,
as I travel you see it everyday. That's good. The world is better for sure in all my
travel. The day than it was when I first sort of travel in 50 years--and that's
wonderful, but the young people they're wonderful.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Speaking of balance in life, you found some balance besides
giving to the community in your business and your family. Obviously, let's talk a
little bit something that's near your heart, is golf. And there're not many people
and I know you would never say it, again, as modest as you are but you played with
Tiger Woods, you played over in the Pebble Beach and other places as well. What
about this passion for golf that you have?
>>Sam Reeves: Well, I think that's part of just kind of like business. Again, is
trying to balance. What I want to do, Pete, is I want to see in life is I want to
participate. I want to understand what it’s like. And when you play at Pebble Beach,
in fact, it's coming up in ten days and I'm trying to figure out, tweak it and see
how I'm going to do and all that I'll probably play with Jose Maria Olazabal this
year and I was talking this morning with Freddie Couples we’ll play together and
everything and trying to see how. So it's the only sport that you can play, Pete,
alongside the greatest players in the world and where you’re literally competing
alongside so you can see how do they react. What emotions they go through? What can
I learn from that? This past year playing in the Dunhill Cup with Adam Scott, the
new kid is the 18th in the world, the greatest. He just turned 23, and Adam and I
are great friends, just to watch and see and to be there and to see what it's like.
It's a--and again, it's a learning experience now. Because you want to--there's a
balance of trying to do your very best and yet not trying to be so tense that you
get. But I've always, again, played golf, love golf, played in school and in the
army. And it's--again, is a way to test yourself. It's a way to understand courage.
It's a discipline. It's a great discipline. It takes--It's so frustrating and->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Humbling.
>>Sam Reeves: --very humbling. And so then what happens is you again have to have
the passion to get up the next day and say, "Okay, I'm going to try it again and see
what happens."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Let's talk about what are those other fingers on the hand, the
spiritual. I know that--as long as I have known you, you're not been one wanting to
go out and preach your religion but you lived it. It's a very clear sign where Sam
Reeves coming from when you approach your office and you see this magnificent statue
which is a great deal. Not to get real personal with you, but spiritual. I know you
belong to First Pres and they've done a lot for our community as well. But I want
young people to know how important regardless of what their religious believe is,
how important, how that interacts with your decision making? Because the ethics of
government, people are worried about Exxon, they're worried about corporate ethics.
How does the spiritual role help in that area?
>>Sam Reeves: I think that, first of all, I do believe in the God of creation. I did
not understand this until I was in my 30s. I think it takes too much faith to
believe that we were just created out of a black hole. So I do believe in the God of
creation. From there, I believed that people then have to make their choice of how
they want to live their life and God touches people in all different ways. And
heavens forbid that I try to tell anyone else how to live their lives. I do think
it's a personal relationship. But I also think that there are truths in life, Pete,
that are absolute. They're absolutes. And I think there's a--today, there's an
addition of choices with the subtraction of absolutes. And so I think many people
lose their way because they don't have absolutes to refer to. And so at the end of
the day, I believed in a God of creation. And I believe that God is an inclusive
God. I think that Christianity is only faith that is inclusive. You think about some
of the other faiths and I'm not criticizing other faiths, but many of those are
exclusive whereas I believe the genesis of Christ was inclusive.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Have you seen Fresno now? We consider you now a Fresnan after
so many years. What are the things that--I know it's always dangerous to crystalball.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But what are the things that as you see in Fresno's future
that we should be sensitive and cognitive of what's going on in Fresno? What forces
are at work here?
>>Sam Reeves: Sure. And it's easy to criticize. I happen to believed that--again,
that there's enough people here that are continuing to make a difference and I'm not
near as embarrass about Fresno as maybe some other people. Obviously, I would love
it. Out of this technology or the museum or someone, that connects Bill Gates comes
and sets up here in Fresno and we have life happily ever after because we do have an
unemployment problem. And that's debilitating because that reduces people's hope.
And so we do have the problem there. And we have several problems such as that. But
I think that somehow, Pete, that there's enough courageous people here that are
working on it and that--and if people, again, have the faith of what America is all
about that it would continue to grow. Just think how much better Fresno is today.
Let's take Leon Peters. Can you imagine the persecution that Leon went through? I
happen know Leon. One of the first people I met when I came to Fresno was Leon
because the house that Betsy and I rented back up to Alice and Leon's house and the
Coopers’ house. And so out--that was one of the first people I met. But--And I had
never known, had never heard the word Armenian. To me it was foreign. I didn't know
where I came from the South and everything and then people said, "Oh, he's an
Armenian." I said, "Well, yes." I thought that was some--But you think of what the
persecution that he endured and how he himself helped overcome things like that. I
would think that any city would despair for Leon Peters. Can you imagine having the
Leon Peters of the world and the--shall we say the quintessential citizen if you
would, would be a Leon Peters. And so this Leon Peters out here, the Leon Peters all
through Fresno County. So I'm not near as embarrassed about Fresno, as maybe some of
other people. But I would like some more business to come in and a lot more jobs and
things like--but it will happen. It will happen.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The last area is I know God has blessed you with just a
magnificent family.
>>Sam Reeves: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Talented--of course I'm partial to your wife, she's been a
schoolteacher that she is, but a wonderful woman and your daughter. Let's talk a
little bit about your family.
>>Sam Reeves: Okay, there are four girls who--everyone who--almost well up when I
think it. But anybody who knows me knows that I love the four girls.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I know.
>>Sam Reeves: I talk to them constantly. They've all married. They all have--except
the baby hasn't--doesn’t have children, but there're eight grandchildren. And as I
say, I traveled with the girls a lot and spend a lot of time with the girls. I
encouraged them, Pete, to do three things while they were in college. Number one, I
encouraged them to work in Washington for summer and New York on Wall Street for
summer and then live in a country with a foreign language. So they would have to
learn and speak the foreign language for some. Things like that I would encouraged
them, to prepare them for the--what I considered a borderless world as I referred
to. So again, we--I see the girls a lot, talk to the girls a lot. One lived in China
as you recall for months, speaks Chinese, taught English as a second language there.
This was right before Tiananmen Square, had a sense that something was going on and
to show you what China is going to be, continue to be a great nation. When she was
there, she would teach for three hours once a week. People would ride their bicycles
for 25 miles. It costs 5 dollars--wages then were 30 dollars a month. They would pay
5 dollars to learn English as second language. And can you imagine America for us
willing to pay just for three hours a week to try to learn another language and
contribute in almost 15 to 20 percent of your monthly wage as to travel, learn and
get a way. That is the reason. That's the genesis. That's the core. That's the
driver if you would of why China it continues to grow, its citizens like that. And
so, I love the girls.
>>Sam Reeves:
I love the girls.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Last--I know, that's why forgive me because I knew how dear
they are your daughters and your wife.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Sam Reeves:
And Betsy.
>> Dr. Peter Mehas:
Well, of course.
>>Sam Reeves: And Betsy.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure. I love the girls. And that's it. And that's it. That's it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Last question, the legendary Knute Rockne, Notre Dame, used to
tell his team that when the great scorekeeper records the score in the great
scoreboard, it matters not whether you won or lost but how you played the game.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How do you want people to record the score of Sam Reeves when
all is said and done, what do you want them to say about Sam?
>>Sam Reeves: I think I’ll let others judge that. But I do know that I've been
extremely blessed and this may sound presumptuous, but if I came back in another
life I just as soon come back as Sam Reeves. It's been a wonderful life. I have
thoroughly enjoyed it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well Sam, again, on behalf of the chamber, I want to
congratulate you for being the 2004 Leon S. Peters recipient. And I know that awards
don't mean a lot to you and you've had many, many awards. But you clearly embodied
and embraced all the principle of the Leon S. Peters, the successful businessman,
successful father, philanthropist, and a generally a custodian and steward of our
community. So we thank you not only as the chamber but as a citizen of Fresno.
>>Sam Reeves:
Thank you
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Thank you for making the life better for our children.
>>Sam Reeves: Thank you. Thank you so much, Pete.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
of all, in behalf of the chamber I want to congratulate you for such a prestigious
award. You knew Leon Peters, at least you met and work with him. What did it mean to
Sam Reeves who's accomplished so many, many things but to be the recipient of this
award?
>>Sam Reeves: Oh, obviously, it's probably the outstanding award in the San Joaquin
Valley represents million and a half people, et cetera, et cetera. So that part is
I'm very gracious for. Having said that though Pete, in reality, I'm sort of a
poster child for hundreds and thousands of other people in Fresno County who are
just as deserving. You think of the Gerre Brennemans, the Jamie Evans, I can go on
and on of people that would be equally qualified. So these many people that deserve
this award.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Knowing you and your modesty, it's sincere and, you know,
you're not a native Fresnan. You came here sort of midway in your career. But yet,
to many people what you can contributed to the community, many people think you are
a native except for that little bit of that southern accent on occasion.
>>Sam Reeves: Yes, I grew up in south Fresno. No, no. In essence, obviously, I was
born in Thomaston, Georgia, small town, 8,000 people. It was a manufacturing town,
textural manufacturing. Lived there. Worked for--in a cotton gin where my father
started working, Pete, when I was 10 years old. Second World War was on and they
had--you had to reclaim the bagging for cotton bales. And so I sold bagging when I
was 10 years old, 10 cents a pattern, 30 cents an hour. It's big wages in those
days. And so I was--it was very enjoyable growing up in a small town.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, you know, people associate the cotton industry with Sam
Reeves, and it's a many, many people. How did you--tell us a little bit how you got
started and how did you work your way up?
>>Sam Reeves: My father was in and so I used to travel with him in the summertime.
My father was peripatetic in that he would follow the crop and he would go from the
Rio Grande Valley in Texas which started the cotton southeast in Mississippi Delta.
So in the summertime, I would often travel with him from the time I was 10, 11 years
old. I'd go with him. It was a wonderful chance because five months out of year he
was not at home. So it gave me a great chance to interact, to be one-on-one. It was-times that I still recall. I try to do that, Pete, also with my daughters. I used
to travel a lot, had four daughters. Now I would take them out of school and have
them travel with me because I think that when people, relationships evolve out of
shared experiences, they can be happy experiences or they can be sad experiences,
whatever. But even they surpass in many ways, family experience, because it's oneon-one. So I travel with my father. I got to know a lot about the cotton business.
And then, after going to the University of North Carolina and then going into the
army, and being involved in the army in special sports, mainly golf, and the CIC,
Counter Intelligence Corps. After that, then I moved to Memphis going to cotton
business.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I understand that something very significant happened while
you're at North Carolina that you live with for a long, long time, someone very,
very special that you met.
>>Sam Reeves: Right, right. That's where I met my future wife, Betsy. Betsy was at
Duke and they're big rivals but Duke and North Carolina as you know, about 10 to 12
miles it separates the two schools. And so I did meet Betsy there. We were married
and then towards the end of my career in the army and then we moved to Memphis where
I did learned--I went to learn the cotton business and then I went in business with
Billy Dunavant and Billy's father in August of 1960. Six months later, an untimely,
Mr. Dunavant died, senior, untimely death so there were two of us. I was 26 years
old, Billy was 28 years old. We were left to fend for ourselves in the cotton
business and that's how I kind of get started. And then a year later, 1961, I came
to Fresno. The reason you came to Fresno, Pete, was you could see that San Joaquin
Valley was really going to be the heart of--like a much of agriculture, but of
cotton. And if you want to have a presence, which we did worldwide, you had to come
to the San Joaquin Valley. And it's of finest cotton is grown in the world and you
need that and when you're selling all types of cotton to textile mills, you have to
have the ability to sell San Joaquin cottons. So that's what really the reason I
came to the San Joaquin Valley. The second thing is, the proximity to the Far East.
We knew that the Far East was going to grow and we see that today. We knew that
China was going to be the next great industrial nation if you would. In fact, we
were the first company that went into China after Mr. Kissinger and Nixon win in
1973. So when we started in '61, within 10 years we were the largest cotton
merchants in the world. And so we had a presence all over the world. So that's the
reason I traveled and it was easier out of California. But at the end of the day,
California and the San Joaquin Valley not unlike a lot of other things is the
uniqueness it has the most fertile and the most productive land in the whole world
is right in the San Joaquin Valley. I know we've said--we say over that and over,
Pete, but I can't say it enough. It's what--what is been giving here is truly
amazing. It is unique to the world.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Because of your experience in the industry, you also had
become and I'm not patronizing you, quite knowledgeable in the political world, both
at the national level and international level. And sometimes, you had an interesting
crystal ball that you proving me to be incorrect on about presidential elections.
Why that tie in between your industry and politics?
>>Sam Reeves: Well part of that is that the cotton business is--for better or worse,
connected politically. There're a lot of subsidies that are involved in cotton. So
you have to understand the flow of the political systems of the United States and
also the world, because again, the world is heavily politicized when it comes to
agriculture. We know what's happening in Europe now, that's a big contention now.
The WTO in the European countries, the subsidies, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Why is that? At the end of the day revolutions are about the shortages of food and
fiber. It goes back thousands of years and if you can't feed and clothe your people,
that's what revolutions are about. And so nations have a desire to be able to have
ample food and fiber for the peoples. It is even in modern times it's your host.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What is--if you look at agriculture, here in the San Joaquin
Valley and even on the national scene, what are those things that are threatening? I
mean you hear a lot of things now, well-intentioned people and environmental things,
water issues, from your prospective, what are the things that jeopardizing the thing
that's feedings us here in the San Joaquin Valley?
>>Sam Reeves: All those things are true, what you mean. Also, then you're also
seeking a high value for land. And sometimes it does not appear that agriculture is
the best and the highest use of the land. That was more people coming in. You need
land for--build houses, et cetera, et cetera. So the threat is the sheer growth of
America. And which tends to drive out some of the lands, some of the better land. It
is a very difficult subject, because people think that when you drive out the good
land, irrigated land, like in San Joaquin Valley, you just go pick up other land.
That's not true. It takes 3 acres for every acre that you displace in the San
Joaquin Valley. And the world basically, all the good land is already being farmed.
And so it is very naive to think there is 3 acres out there that they can farm. And
if you get inferior, now you're talking 6 acres. So it becomes a mathematical
problem when you take lands out of agriculture production. Very difficult question,
very difficult subject and one of the keys are water as you alluded to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One of things that most people recognized about the Leon S.
Peters Award, it stands more for just excellence in business and success.
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: It has a great deal to do with Leon Peters commitment to
community service, philanthropy, and then improving the quality of life for all the
citizens. What was that got you going because clearly, I can name a hundred things
in the central San Joaquin Valley where you and your wife most recently, of course,
your commitment to the Metropolitan Museum, the exploration science laboratory at
the Met and many, many other things. What is it that in Sam Reeves, in his
background that said, "You know, I can be a successful businessman but I care about
giving to the community?"
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah. And I think that basically that I'm a product of society and our
culture. And our culture, Judeo-Christian culture, is it if by actions, by taking
actions, you can create a better tomorrow. I bet most people--many people in America
believe that. And therefore you can change tomorrow. So I think part of it is more
faith-based which many of us in America have.
And that's what America was formed on and instills our strength. So I think a lot of
it comes from that. I think also that our culture is also about that each person
makes a difference, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness that those three are the
core of America. So I believe that we're not fatalistic type of culture. And so you
believe that if you do certain things and that you give, tomorrow will be better.
And I think that permeates our whole sides. I don't think, Pete, I'm much different
than a lot of other people. Again, I think and--this is not--I sincerely believe
that I represent literally hundreds and hundreds of people in this--in the Fresno
County, who believe exactly the same thing, who give just as much and that involved.
I do believe that some of the things that Betsy and I are concerned with is
knowledge. I believe that knowledge is a difference between poverty and richness.
And I'm not speaking richness so much in monetary value, but it's in richness. 75
years ago for instance, between--the productivity between one person in a poor
country and a rich nation, poor nation and a rich nation--was 5 to 1. Today, 75
years later, it's 390 to 1. So you have to have this knowledge that is--is going to
create growth in America. And so I think one of the things I want to do is be
involved in that. And that's where Betsy is worried about, technology and we do it.
In fact, let's talk about technologies a little bit. The world now is more of a
knowledge-based in a borderless world. We see for instance, a high school results in
19th in math. We're behind Czechoslovakia, Slavonia. These countries, like the South
Korea is number one in everything. Now sooner or later that catches you. And so,
that somehow we have to augment that and we have to try to help these students to
understand the importance of education. You spent your life and you've given so
wonderfully in this area. And yet today, 25 percent I'm told the Hispanics drop out
of high school, 13 percent of the blacks, 7 percent of the whites drop out of high
school. It's something that America must do something about. And you are the epitome
of people trying to do and understand this much better than I do.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah. We're going to be competitive in that. We're just
simply, as Sir Edward Heath once told me, he said, "Pete, if you don't have the
brain trust, if you don't have--you're committed to becoming the third world nation
because you simply will not be able to compete." And that's absolutely right. And it
starts right here in our own community. And that is why these business partnerships,
education is too important to leave simply to the educator. I mean, all that--
>>Sam Reeves: Yeah. I think Churchill told us 50 years ago, empires of the future
will be empires of the mind. And I believe that. And so we've got to do something
particular in the area since we’ve moved from a agriculture base to a manufacturing
base to a service base, and now what I like to describe as is, is we’ve moved to a,
more or less, a data base. In other words, the technology now is zeros and ones and
ATCGs, the genomics. So we've moved now even to a code, our fourth enterprise or
transition, America is now, a code. And everything now is basically in those two
codes, zeros and ones, and the genomic code. And so we have to, to compete and
continue to raise the water level. America has got to understand this in that area.
And so I'm very big in that area as Betsy is.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Talking to say futures business students at the Leon S. Peters
School of Business. And you have young people who are aspiring to become the Sam
Reeves successful on their business in their community. Starting that now,
obviously, things have changed. Before if you had strong hands and draw well but the
market is becoming increasingly more competitive. What advice would give these young
students about to graduate from the university, enter the world of work?
>>Sam Reeves: Let's pick up. It has a changed just as I alluded to. Leon Peters,
let's use him for example. He started out in agriculture. Saw that manufacturing was
a place. He kind of moved into service a little bit. And now we have these codes
that I'm speaking of. So you got to choose careers along those lines. But at the end
of the day, Pete, what drives people to be successful I think is enthusiasm, energy,
just enjoying interacting, trying to see how the world works, travel, do all these
things and have a curiosity. And I don't think that, again, I talk about the
knowledge-based. Knowledge is not only academia but it's also practicality and
there's a balance in there. And so I'm a great believer that for young people today
that as long as they have this enthusiasm and really enjoy, how does the world work
and they will make it. And I think also that you even have a balance in your life. I
think there are five aspects of life. I think that there is a mental and you can use
your hand as a mental, the physical, the family and the social, the occupation and
the spiritual. And I think that the hand works very well with all those fingers
operative and in balance and in harmony. If you lose one of the fingers, it still
works pretty well. But if you lose the thumb, it's certainly not going to work quite
as well. And I think that's the genesis and the basis of the Judeo-Christian ethics,
and so I would encourage people try to get a balance and lead your life not, Pete,
as a layer cake in stripes but as a marble cake. Blend it all together, that
everything overlaps, your personal life interacts with your occupation and try to
get it so that your physical interacts with your mental, all these things interact.
Wonderful, the young people today, I must say this. I'm very bullish on the young
people today. I think that they're marvelous, particular the world over. I think we
are going to see a rising level all over the world, the competition will be greater,
as I travel you see it everyday. That's good. The world is better for sure in all my
travel. The day than it was when I first sort of travel in 50 years--and that's
wonderful, but the young people they're wonderful.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Speaking of balance in life, you found some balance besides
giving to the community in your business and your family. Obviously, let's talk a
little bit something that's near your heart, is golf. And there're not many people
and I know you would never say it, again, as modest as you are but you played with
Tiger Woods, you played over in the Pebble Beach and other places as well. What
about this passion for golf that you have?
>>Sam Reeves: Well, I think that's part of just kind of like business. Again, is
trying to balance. What I want to do, Pete, is I want to see in life is I want to
participate. I want to understand what it’s like. And when you play at Pebble Beach,
in fact, it's coming up in ten days and I'm trying to figure out, tweak it and see
how I'm going to do and all that I'll probably play with Jose Maria Olazabal this
year and I was talking this morning with Freddie Couples we’ll play together and
everything and trying to see how. So it's the only sport that you can play, Pete,
alongside the greatest players in the world and where you’re literally competing
alongside so you can see how do they react. What emotions they go through? What can
I learn from that? This past year playing in the Dunhill Cup with Adam Scott, the
new kid is the 18th in the world, the greatest. He just turned 23, and Adam and I
are great friends, just to watch and see and to be there and to see what it's like.
It's a--and again, it's a learning experience now. Because you want to--there's a
balance of trying to do your very best and yet not trying to be so tense that you
get. But I've always, again, played golf, love golf, played in school and in the
army. And it's--again, is a way to test yourself. It's a way to understand courage.
It's a discipline. It's a great discipline. It takes--It's so frustrating and->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Humbling.
>>Sam Reeves: --very humbling. And so then what happens is you again have to have
the passion to get up the next day and say, "Okay, I'm going to try it again and see
what happens."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Let's talk about what are those other fingers on the hand, the
spiritual. I know that--as long as I have known you, you're not been one wanting to
go out and preach your religion but you lived it. It's a very clear sign where Sam
Reeves coming from when you approach your office and you see this magnificent statue
which is a great deal. Not to get real personal with you, but spiritual. I know you
belong to First Pres and they've done a lot for our community as well. But I want
young people to know how important regardless of what their religious believe is,
how important, how that interacts with your decision making? Because the ethics of
government, people are worried about Exxon, they're worried about corporate ethics.
How does the spiritual role help in that area?
>>Sam Reeves: I think that, first of all, I do believe in the God of creation. I did
not understand this until I was in my 30s. I think it takes too much faith to
believe that we were just created out of a black hole. So I do believe in the God of
creation. From there, I believed that people then have to make their choice of how
they want to live their life and God touches people in all different ways. And
heavens forbid that I try to tell anyone else how to live their lives. I do think
it's a personal relationship. But I also think that there are truths in life, Pete,
that are absolute. They're absolutes. And I think there's a--today, there's an
addition of choices with the subtraction of absolutes. And so I think many people
lose their way because they don't have absolutes to refer to. And so at the end of
the day, I believed in a God of creation. And I believe that God is an inclusive
God. I think that Christianity is only faith that is inclusive. You think about some
of the other faiths and I'm not criticizing other faiths, but many of those are
exclusive whereas I believe the genesis of Christ was inclusive.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Have you seen Fresno now? We consider you now a Fresnan after
so many years. What are the things that--I know it's always dangerous to crystalball.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But what are the things that as you see in Fresno's future
that we should be sensitive and cognitive of what's going on in Fresno? What forces
are at work here?
>>Sam Reeves: Sure. And it's easy to criticize. I happen to believed that--again,
that there's enough people here that are continuing to make a difference and I'm not
near as embarrass about Fresno as maybe some other people. Obviously, I would love
it. Out of this technology or the museum or someone, that connects Bill Gates comes
and sets up here in Fresno and we have life happily ever after because we do have an
unemployment problem. And that's debilitating because that reduces people's hope.
And so we do have the problem there. And we have several problems such as that. But
I think that somehow, Pete, that there's enough courageous people here that are
working on it and that--and if people, again, have the faith of what America is all
about that it would continue to grow. Just think how much better Fresno is today.
Let's take Leon Peters. Can you imagine the persecution that Leon went through? I
happen know Leon. One of the first people I met when I came to Fresno was Leon
because the house that Betsy and I rented back up to Alice and Leon's house and the
Coopers’ house. And so out--that was one of the first people I met. But--And I had
never known, had never heard the word Armenian. To me it was foreign. I didn't know
where I came from the South and everything and then people said, "Oh, he's an
Armenian." I said, "Well, yes." I thought that was some--But you think of what the
persecution that he endured and how he himself helped overcome things like that. I
would think that any city would despair for Leon Peters. Can you imagine having the
Leon Peters of the world and the--shall we say the quintessential citizen if you
would, would be a Leon Peters. And so this Leon Peters out here, the Leon Peters all
through Fresno County. So I'm not near as embarrassed about Fresno, as maybe some of
other people. But I would like some more business to come in and a lot more jobs and
things like--but it will happen. It will happen.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The last area is I know God has blessed you with just a
magnificent family.
>>Sam Reeves: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Talented--of course I'm partial to your wife, she's been a
schoolteacher that she is, but a wonderful woman and your daughter. Let's talk a
little bit about your family.
>>Sam Reeves: Okay, there are four girls who--everyone who--almost well up when I
think it. But anybody who knows me knows that I love the four girls.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I know.
>>Sam Reeves: I talk to them constantly. They've all married. They all have--except
the baby hasn't--doesn’t have children, but there're eight grandchildren. And as I
say, I traveled with the girls a lot and spend a lot of time with the girls. I
encouraged them, Pete, to do three things while they were in college. Number one, I
encouraged them to work in Washington for summer and New York on Wall Street for
summer and then live in a country with a foreign language. So they would have to
learn and speak the foreign language for some. Things like that I would encouraged
them, to prepare them for the--what I considered a borderless world as I referred
to. So again, we--I see the girls a lot, talk to the girls a lot. One lived in China
as you recall for months, speaks Chinese, taught English as a second language there.
This was right before Tiananmen Square, had a sense that something was going on and
to show you what China is going to be, continue to be a great nation. When she was
there, she would teach for three hours once a week. People would ride their bicycles
for 25 miles. It costs 5 dollars--wages then were 30 dollars a month. They would pay
5 dollars to learn English as second language. And can you imagine America for us
willing to pay just for three hours a week to try to learn another language and
contribute in almost 15 to 20 percent of your monthly wage as to travel, learn and
get a way. That is the reason. That's the genesis. That's the core. That's the
driver if you would of why China it continues to grow, its citizens like that. And
so, I love the girls.
>>Sam Reeves:
I love the girls.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Last--I know, that's why forgive me because I knew how dear
they are your daughters and your wife.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Sam Reeves:
And Betsy.
>> Dr. Peter Mehas:
Well, of course.
>>Sam Reeves: And Betsy.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure. I love the girls. And that's it. And that's it. That's it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Last question, the legendary Knute Rockne, Notre Dame, used to
tell his team that when the great scorekeeper records the score in the great
scoreboard, it matters not whether you won or lost but how you played the game.
>>Sam Reeves: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How do you want people to record the score of Sam Reeves when
all is said and done, what do you want them to say about Sam?
>>Sam Reeves: I think I’ll let others judge that. But I do know that I've been
extremely blessed and this may sound presumptuous, but if I came back in another
life I just as soon come back as Sam Reeves. It's been a wonderful life. I have
thoroughly enjoyed it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well Sam, again, on behalf of the chamber, I want to
congratulate you for being the 2004 Leon S. Peters recipient. And I know that awards
don't mean a lot to you and you've had many, many awards. But you clearly embodied
and embraced all the principle of the Leon S. Peters, the successful businessman,
successful father, philanthropist, and a generally a custodian and steward of our
community. So we thank you not only as the chamber but as a citizen of Fresno.
>>Sam Reeves:
Thank you
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Thank you for making the life better for our children.
>>Sam Reeves: Thank you. Thank you so much, Pete.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====