Nelsen, Martin, 1990 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Item
Title
Nelsen, Martin, 1990 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Description
Discusses his feelings on being awarded the Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award and his friendship with Leon S. Peters. He talks about starting at Peerless Printing and eventually marrying the owner's daughter and buying the business. He discusses his education at Fresno High School and serving in the Army Air Corps at Hammer Field and Pinedale and talks about the changes that have taken place in Fresno over the years. He talks about his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and his participation in the Fresno Chamber of Commerce and Rotary and gives advice to young people just starting out in business.
Creator
Nelsen, Martin
Mehas, Dr. Peter G.
Relation
Leon S. Peters Legacy Collection
Coverage
Fresno, California
Date
2000
Format
Microsoft word 2003 document, 5 pages
Identifier
SCMS_lspl_00018
extracted text
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 1990, Martin Nelsen was the recipient of the most prestigious
award that is given in Fresno County, the Leon S. Peters Award. I would suspect,
Martin, this meant a great deal to you not only because you personally knew Lee, as
we affectionately called him, but also of your years of contribution to the
community. Not only in terms of your success as a business person, but to the
community as a whole. Comment a little about what it meant to you to be the
recipient of this award.
>>Martin Nelsen: Well first let me say, to receive any award with Lee Peters' name
on it was, meant just that little bit more than any other normal award would be. But
it was a great gratitude for me to receive it and I believe really that I was in the
right place at the right time. There were many people around me, working with me on
these projects that we accomplished and I just happened to be the lucky one. But I
cherish it to this day and having ridden with Leon on the Soararsis trips back in
the hills, Labor Day. Well, I, it really means a lot to me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When did you first meet Lee and we'll talk later on about some
of those trips up there because I understand that he fell off his horse a few times
too.
>>Martin Nelsen: When he fell off the horse, he didn't say he fell off, he got on
too far, he said. I met Lee when I was a young man working for my father-in-law at
Peerless Printers. The war was coming on and Lee at Valley Foundry was in defense
work. And he was manufacturing bells for the Navy. And each bell had to be inscribed
USN. And at Peerless Printers we had a piece of equipment, a vertical billing
machine that could do this sort of thing and my father-in-law contracted with Lee,
moved the equipment down to Valley Foundry on H Street and did this engraving at
night for him. And I was in there and out of there those days so that's when my
association with Lee started.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us a little bit about your business. Not only does the
Leon S. Peters Award stands for leadership in terms of community service, but it
stands also for excellence in business. How did you get started in your business and
->>Martin Nelsen: Well, I got started in my business at 14 years old. I was in
Washington Junior High School, and during the spring of the year, making smiles and
eyes at a little girl across the room. And come summy vacation, her mother called me
and asked me if I'd like to work for this girl's father at Peerless Printers for two
weeks. I jumped at the chance. That was really my first job. I did have a job at
delivering the Fresno Bee, the evening paper in those days. And I quit that job and
went to work for Peerless Printers full time for two weeks. At the end of two weeks,
my boss asked me if I would like to continue on for the rest of summer. I did. He
then asked me, at the end of the summer, if I'd like to work after school. And this
was the way it went until I was 19 years old and I married this girl. And today,
we've been married 40, 57 years and we bought the business in 1959 and operated it
for 32 years, sold it about 8, 9 years ago, and just a wonderful experience for me.
Really my only job I ever had was Peerless Printers and I was born and I died there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Now in terms of time period, I assumed you did go to Fresno
High School.
>>Martin Nelsen: I graduated Fresno High School 1941.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: A Warrior.
>>Martin Nelsen: And, that's right. And I graduated on Friday night and Monday
morning started Fresno State down the street three blocks, and continued there for a
year and a half and was drafted. And never did get back to college. My parents were
strict, were really disappointed that I didn't go back to school, but I was in love
with my work and I don't think I made a mistake, however, I will say at times I feel
that I wish I had a college education.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What branch of the service did you go into? Obviously you went
in at a very interesting time in our history.
>>Martin Nelsen: Yes, I did. And I it's a very interesting story. I was drafted in
Fresno and went to Monterey and there applied for Air Corps duty. I was flunked the
color blindness test and I could not go on with my flying activity that I thought I
wanted. They sent me to Texas for basic, to Florida for basic training and I was
there for three weeks, living in tents, or six weeks, excuse me. And I was living in
tents and got orders one day that a bunch of us were going to be put on a train. I
called my wife, told her that I was leaving and I would call her the minute I could,
that I didn't think I could ever get off that train until we stopped. Seven days
later we stopped at the Southern Pacific Station in Fresno, California. And the
train started backing up and I knew just then where we were going. We were going to
go out on East Tulare Street where the tracks were running and near Roosevelt High
School and diagonally out to Clovis Avenue and it stopped out there. And we walked
across the street to Hammer Field. And that's when I called my wife.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's an incredible...
>>Martin Nelsen: So I was home in Fresno and I was there for the three years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's an incredible story.
>>Martin Nelsen: Isn't that something?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah. Hammer Field. I remember that's when they had the bomber
squadron.
>>Martin Nelsen: Yes, I was attached to the signal corps, or I guess signal corps
attached to the air corps. And from Hammer Field, I was only there about three
months and they transferred me to Pinedale. So I moved across town.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure.
>>Martin Nelsen: And there I was for two and a half years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tom Brokaw speaks in his book of "The Great Generation..."
>>Martin Nelsen: I've read it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Which is your generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The generation that lived through the Depression.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Generation that fought the great war. In reading that book, I
notice there's a, a great many similarities to the Leon S. Peters recipients, most
of whom are of that generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: That could be. I've read that book and I really enjoyed it and I,
like Tom Brokaw, admire these people. Even though they're my peers, they were in the
action and I wasn't. I did serve my time. I did serve three and a half years, but
never... taken out of the business and so forth, taken out of your community life.
But my army service, my service was relatively smooth and easy.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, I wasn't necessarily referring to the military aspect,
when we talk of the great generation. But the generation that really put the man on
the moon, took the risk, the entrepreneurial shift that had the courage to make
sacrifices and I truly believe our current generation is living off the equity of
that great generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: I think so, yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us a little bit about Fresno. What changes you've seen in
the years that you've been in Fresno? You've seen a lot.
>>Martin Nelsen: I was born and raised here.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What year?
>>Martin Nelsen: 1923. I'm 76 years old today. And I guess what I remember most, and
enjoyed most about Fresno as a child were the streetcars. And when was it? 1938,
‘39, they dug up the tracks and put buses in and so forth. And my dad remarked at
the time, "They're shipping all that iron to Japan to come back to us." But...
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And he was right.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right. But over the years, people cannot put Fresno down in
my presence. I, I'm a great booster of my hometown. I'm very critical of some of the
things that go on in our town, in our city hall and our county hall of record and
the courthouse and so forth. But I'm not running away from them. I'm critical to a
point where I want to see them changed and so I'm, people I know have said to me in
the past, "Oh, you're from Fresno. Well, golly it's hot there." And I said, "Yeah,
you know what? That's not the only good thing we've got though. We've got tremendous
schools. We've got a tremendous religious community. We've got tremendous industrial
community. It's just a great place. The heat is just one of the good things."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Martin, I've noticed one of the characteristics of almost
every one of the Leon Peters recipients is how modest all of you and how
unpretentious all of you are. But are there some things that you feel, in terms of
your career and family life that you feel real, real proud of? Of some of the things
that, now's the time, and I know it doesn't sound, I know you're reluctant to make
it sound like bragging but, I'd like future generations to know what things you
really feel good about, about whether it was in your business or in your personal
life.
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, in my personal life, we've had, we've had no tragedies, thank
God, and we've raised, my wife and I have raised three children that are doing well
today and are all married and have families of their own. We have eight
grandchildren; we have four great-grandchildren. I don't, I don't take credit for a
lot of that except give my wife the credit for our great being in this, in this
community and following the pattern that she's set out for us.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Not to eulogize you now, but everyone, sooner or later, is
going to have to face the inevitable and people are going to write things about
them, whether you're a president or a common person on the street. How would you
like people, when they speak of you in years to come, whether it's your family or
community? What would you like them to say about you?
>>Martin Nelsen: That's hard to say, Pete, you know, but I don't know. I think one
of my achievements that I'm very proud of was being very active in the Chamber of
Commerce, being president of that and my Rotary life has been very complete. I was a
district governor, before that a president and so forth. I'm presently, I have
retired from business but I'm interested in community work and I'm still doing work
on the Fresno Revitalization board and just recently retired from the Tourist and
Convention Bureau board. So I'm, I'm just a community-minded person and if I can
help and do something for my hometown in that, from that angle, just call on me. I'm
there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well let's talk just briefly then about the future. You've
seen and lived in the past and been a part of it. Where do you see Fresno going in
the new millennium? We're about, what, we're five months away from the year 2000
so...
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, I think the, we've got problems here. I'm really embarrassed
at times with the conduct of City Hall. Not picking on any one person but, the
combined assemblage there, there seems to be what, seven council people and a mayor
and they seems to have eight different agendas and I, they just don't cooperate,
they don't collaborate, and I think that's got to come. And I, that's what I would
like to see happen in this town. I just, it's just got to, got to take place.
Transportation is another thing that I've been very interested in over the years,
community wide. I'm, we're starting at the airport. The situation today of large
jets flying in out of Fresno is the same as it was 20-25 years ago. The companies
just can't afford to fly these jets on these short trips. But I think the regional
jet now that we're flying to Salt Lake, and we're flying to Phoenix, I think that's
going to be the answer and it's going to enhance our community. Local traffic
problems on the street I think can be improved with more left turn signals, more
synchronization of traffic signals. I think the air would be much purer in this town
if we didn't start and stop so much on these thoroughfares that we have. So, I think
the best is yet to come, and I think it's happening. The Chamber of Commerce, the
Fresno Business Council is certainly working hard and making inroads in
revitalization of downtown and I'm just so pleased to see all this happening down
here. And I hope I can live to the years that when this downtown flourishes like it,
without the streetcars, but like it did when I was a child.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, I think we'll see those streetcars again.
>>Martin Nelsen: Maybe so.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In its time. Any advice to young people starting off, going
into business, that lessons that you've learned that you'd like to sort of share
with them?
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, I don't, I, it's very simple. And that is to work hard. I've
always taught my own children to work hard, enjoy what they're doing, select
something that they want to do and then give it all they have. Keep the nose to the
grindstone, and don't want everything today. It will come in time. As now I'm
feeling, I'm having this come true now with myself. But work hard, keep your nose to
the grindstone and get a good education. I think education is the secret to most of
that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: They once asked Andrew Carnegie what was the key to success,
and Andrew Carnegie says, "Rise early, work hard, strike oil."
>>Martin Nelsen: Strike oil. That's one way to do it yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In sort of closing, I wouldn't be much of a teacher if I
didn't have an open-ended question. I've asked a lot of questions, but just
anything, any thoughts you'd like to share with us, on any area that I haven't asked
you that you'd sort of like to comment on.
>>Martin Nelsen: No, but, I'll go back to a point that I brought out. I'm really
embarrassed at times with the conflict at City Hall. And I just think this has got,
if this is not the way that Fresno was years ago. Sure, they had many arguments and
many disappointments but they all got together and they created a wonderful city and
created more for the rest of us and I think that the stadium now, for instance, I
think that's a very important thing, for Fresno. And I just hope that these people
will see their way to bring this about.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, we were fortunate, we saw, we had Mayor Selland we had
Mayor Hyde, even slingin’ Mayor Dunn, through the years provided leadership and
vision for this town and...
>>Martin Nelsen: I saw Ted Wills the other day, a friend of mine, and I said, "Ted,
if you were in office, we'd have the stadium." He said, "We'd been playing there 10
years ago."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You're absolutely right. I see him at the Grizzly games right
now. Well Martin, on behalf the not only the Valley Business Conference Committee
but if I could be so presumptuous, the citizens of Fresno, I want to first, wish you
Happy Birthday. Today, July 22nd...
>>Martin Nelsen: No, no I said my age...
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh forgive me. Okay, 76. But it'll be close as we come up over
here. But I would like to also express our appreciation for your contribution to the
quality of life in the city of Fresno and for your dedication to your community and
certainly when we look at the Leon S. Peters Award and what it stands for, you
personify all that is right about that award. And clearly are one of the most
deserving recipients of that award so congratulations.
>>Martin Nelsen: Thank you very much. And thank you for your time. I appreciate this
very much.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
award that is given in Fresno County, the Leon S. Peters Award. I would suspect,
Martin, this meant a great deal to you not only because you personally knew Lee, as
we affectionately called him, but also of your years of contribution to the
community. Not only in terms of your success as a business person, but to the
community as a whole. Comment a little about what it meant to you to be the
recipient of this award.
>>Martin Nelsen: Well first let me say, to receive any award with Lee Peters' name
on it was, meant just that little bit more than any other normal award would be. But
it was a great gratitude for me to receive it and I believe really that I was in the
right place at the right time. There were many people around me, working with me on
these projects that we accomplished and I just happened to be the lucky one. But I
cherish it to this day and having ridden with Leon on the Soararsis trips back in
the hills, Labor Day. Well, I, it really means a lot to me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When did you first meet Lee and we'll talk later on about some
of those trips up there because I understand that he fell off his horse a few times
too.
>>Martin Nelsen: When he fell off the horse, he didn't say he fell off, he got on
too far, he said. I met Lee when I was a young man working for my father-in-law at
Peerless Printers. The war was coming on and Lee at Valley Foundry was in defense
work. And he was manufacturing bells for the Navy. And each bell had to be inscribed
USN. And at Peerless Printers we had a piece of equipment, a vertical billing
machine that could do this sort of thing and my father-in-law contracted with Lee,
moved the equipment down to Valley Foundry on H Street and did this engraving at
night for him. And I was in there and out of there those days so that's when my
association with Lee started.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us a little bit about your business. Not only does the
Leon S. Peters Award stands for leadership in terms of community service, but it
stands also for excellence in business. How did you get started in your business and
->>Martin Nelsen: Well, I got started in my business at 14 years old. I was in
Washington Junior High School, and during the spring of the year, making smiles and
eyes at a little girl across the room. And come summy vacation, her mother called me
and asked me if I'd like to work for this girl's father at Peerless Printers for two
weeks. I jumped at the chance. That was really my first job. I did have a job at
delivering the Fresno Bee, the evening paper in those days. And I quit that job and
went to work for Peerless Printers full time for two weeks. At the end of two weeks,
my boss asked me if I would like to continue on for the rest of summer. I did. He
then asked me, at the end of the summer, if I'd like to work after school. And this
was the way it went until I was 19 years old and I married this girl. And today,
we've been married 40, 57 years and we bought the business in 1959 and operated it
for 32 years, sold it about 8, 9 years ago, and just a wonderful experience for me.
Really my only job I ever had was Peerless Printers and I was born and I died there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Now in terms of time period, I assumed you did go to Fresno
High School.
>>Martin Nelsen: I graduated Fresno High School 1941.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: A Warrior.
>>Martin Nelsen: And, that's right. And I graduated on Friday night and Monday
morning started Fresno State down the street three blocks, and continued there for a
year and a half and was drafted. And never did get back to college. My parents were
strict, were really disappointed that I didn't go back to school, but I was in love
with my work and I don't think I made a mistake, however, I will say at times I feel
that I wish I had a college education.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What branch of the service did you go into? Obviously you went
in at a very interesting time in our history.
>>Martin Nelsen: Yes, I did. And I it's a very interesting story. I was drafted in
Fresno and went to Monterey and there applied for Air Corps duty. I was flunked the
color blindness test and I could not go on with my flying activity that I thought I
wanted. They sent me to Texas for basic, to Florida for basic training and I was
there for three weeks, living in tents, or six weeks, excuse me. And I was living in
tents and got orders one day that a bunch of us were going to be put on a train. I
called my wife, told her that I was leaving and I would call her the minute I could,
that I didn't think I could ever get off that train until we stopped. Seven days
later we stopped at the Southern Pacific Station in Fresno, California. And the
train started backing up and I knew just then where we were going. We were going to
go out on East Tulare Street where the tracks were running and near Roosevelt High
School and diagonally out to Clovis Avenue and it stopped out there. And we walked
across the street to Hammer Field. And that's when I called my wife.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's an incredible...
>>Martin Nelsen: So I was home in Fresno and I was there for the three years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's an incredible story.
>>Martin Nelsen: Isn't that something?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah. Hammer Field. I remember that's when they had the bomber
squadron.
>>Martin Nelsen: Yes, I was attached to the signal corps, or I guess signal corps
attached to the air corps. And from Hammer Field, I was only there about three
months and they transferred me to Pinedale. So I moved across town.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure.
>>Martin Nelsen: And there I was for two and a half years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tom Brokaw speaks in his book of "The Great Generation..."
>>Martin Nelsen: I've read it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Which is your generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The generation that lived through the Depression.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Generation that fought the great war. In reading that book, I
notice there's a, a great many similarities to the Leon S. Peters recipients, most
of whom are of that generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: That could be. I've read that book and I really enjoyed it and I,
like Tom Brokaw, admire these people. Even though they're my peers, they were in the
action and I wasn't. I did serve my time. I did serve three and a half years, but
never... taken out of the business and so forth, taken out of your community life.
But my army service, my service was relatively smooth and easy.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, I wasn't necessarily referring to the military aspect,
when we talk of the great generation. But the generation that really put the man on
the moon, took the risk, the entrepreneurial shift that had the courage to make
sacrifices and I truly believe our current generation is living off the equity of
that great generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: I think so, yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us a little bit about Fresno. What changes you've seen in
the years that you've been in Fresno? You've seen a lot.
>>Martin Nelsen: I was born and raised here.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What year?
>>Martin Nelsen: 1923. I'm 76 years old today. And I guess what I remember most, and
enjoyed most about Fresno as a child were the streetcars. And when was it? 1938,
‘39, they dug up the tracks and put buses in and so forth. And my dad remarked at
the time, "They're shipping all that iron to Japan to come back to us." But...
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And he was right.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right. But over the years, people cannot put Fresno down in
my presence. I, I'm a great booster of my hometown. I'm very critical of some of the
things that go on in our town, in our city hall and our county hall of record and
the courthouse and so forth. But I'm not running away from them. I'm critical to a
point where I want to see them changed and so I'm, people I know have said to me in
the past, "Oh, you're from Fresno. Well, golly it's hot there." And I said, "Yeah,
you know what? That's not the only good thing we've got though. We've got tremendous
schools. We've got a tremendous religious community. We've got tremendous industrial
community. It's just a great place. The heat is just one of the good things."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Martin, I've noticed one of the characteristics of almost
every one of the Leon Peters recipients is how modest all of you and how
unpretentious all of you are. But are there some things that you feel, in terms of
your career and family life that you feel real, real proud of? Of some of the things
that, now's the time, and I know it doesn't sound, I know you're reluctant to make
it sound like bragging but, I'd like future generations to know what things you
really feel good about, about whether it was in your business or in your personal
life.
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, in my personal life, we've had, we've had no tragedies, thank
God, and we've raised, my wife and I have raised three children that are doing well
today and are all married and have families of their own. We have eight
grandchildren; we have four great-grandchildren. I don't, I don't take credit for a
lot of that except give my wife the credit for our great being in this, in this
community and following the pattern that she's set out for us.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Not to eulogize you now, but everyone, sooner or later, is
going to have to face the inevitable and people are going to write things about
them, whether you're a president or a common person on the street. How would you
like people, when they speak of you in years to come, whether it's your family or
community? What would you like them to say about you?
>>Martin Nelsen: That's hard to say, Pete, you know, but I don't know. I think one
of my achievements that I'm very proud of was being very active in the Chamber of
Commerce, being president of that and my Rotary life has been very complete. I was a
district governor, before that a president and so forth. I'm presently, I have
retired from business but I'm interested in community work and I'm still doing work
on the Fresno Revitalization board and just recently retired from the Tourist and
Convention Bureau board. So I'm, I'm just a community-minded person and if I can
help and do something for my hometown in that, from that angle, just call on me. I'm
there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well let's talk just briefly then about the future. You've
seen and lived in the past and been a part of it. Where do you see Fresno going in
the new millennium? We're about, what, we're five months away from the year 2000
so...
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, I think the, we've got problems here. I'm really embarrassed
at times with the conduct of City Hall. Not picking on any one person but, the
combined assemblage there, there seems to be what, seven council people and a mayor
and they seems to have eight different agendas and I, they just don't cooperate,
they don't collaborate, and I think that's got to come. And I, that's what I would
like to see happen in this town. I just, it's just got to, got to take place.
Transportation is another thing that I've been very interested in over the years,
community wide. I'm, we're starting at the airport. The situation today of large
jets flying in out of Fresno is the same as it was 20-25 years ago. The companies
just can't afford to fly these jets on these short trips. But I think the regional
jet now that we're flying to Salt Lake, and we're flying to Phoenix, I think that's
going to be the answer and it's going to enhance our community. Local traffic
problems on the street I think can be improved with more left turn signals, more
synchronization of traffic signals. I think the air would be much purer in this town
if we didn't start and stop so much on these thoroughfares that we have. So, I think
the best is yet to come, and I think it's happening. The Chamber of Commerce, the
Fresno Business Council is certainly working hard and making inroads in
revitalization of downtown and I'm just so pleased to see all this happening down
here. And I hope I can live to the years that when this downtown flourishes like it,
without the streetcars, but like it did when I was a child.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, I think we'll see those streetcars again.
>>Martin Nelsen: Maybe so.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In its time. Any advice to young people starting off, going
into business, that lessons that you've learned that you'd like to sort of share
with them?
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, I don't, I, it's very simple. And that is to work hard. I've
always taught my own children to work hard, enjoy what they're doing, select
something that they want to do and then give it all they have. Keep the nose to the
grindstone, and don't want everything today. It will come in time. As now I'm
feeling, I'm having this come true now with myself. But work hard, keep your nose to
the grindstone and get a good education. I think education is the secret to most of
that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: They once asked Andrew Carnegie what was the key to success,
and Andrew Carnegie says, "Rise early, work hard, strike oil."
>>Martin Nelsen: Strike oil. That's one way to do it yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In sort of closing, I wouldn't be much of a teacher if I
didn't have an open-ended question. I've asked a lot of questions, but just
anything, any thoughts you'd like to share with us, on any area that I haven't asked
you that you'd sort of like to comment on.
>>Martin Nelsen: No, but, I'll go back to a point that I brought out. I'm really
embarrassed at times with the conflict at City Hall. And I just think this has got,
if this is not the way that Fresno was years ago. Sure, they had many arguments and
many disappointments but they all got together and they created a wonderful city and
created more for the rest of us and I think that the stadium now, for instance, I
think that's a very important thing, for Fresno. And I just hope that these people
will see their way to bring this about.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, we were fortunate, we saw, we had Mayor Selland we had
Mayor Hyde, even slingin’ Mayor Dunn, through the years provided leadership and
vision for this town and...
>>Martin Nelsen: I saw Ted Wills the other day, a friend of mine, and I said, "Ted,
if you were in office, we'd have the stadium." He said, "We'd been playing there 10
years ago."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You're absolutely right. I see him at the Grizzly games right
now. Well Martin, on behalf the not only the Valley Business Conference Committee
but if I could be so presumptuous, the citizens of Fresno, I want to first, wish you
Happy Birthday. Today, July 22nd...
>>Martin Nelsen: No, no I said my age...
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh forgive me. Okay, 76. But it'll be close as we come up over
here. But I would like to also express our appreciation for your contribution to the
quality of life in the city of Fresno and for your dedication to your community and
certainly when we look at the Leon S. Peters Award and what it stands for, you
personify all that is right about that award. And clearly are one of the most
deserving recipients of that award so congratulations.
>>Martin Nelsen: Thank you very much. And thank you for your time. I appreciate this
very much.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 1990, Martin Nelsen was the recipient of the most prestigious
award that is given in Fresno County, the Leon S. Peters Award. I would suspect,
Martin, this meant a great deal to you not only because you personally knew Lee, as
we affectionately called him, but also of your years of contribution to the
community. Not only in terms of your success as a business person, but to the
community as a whole. Comment a little about what it meant to you to be the
recipient of this award.
>>Martin Nelsen: Well first let me say, to receive any award with Lee Peters' name
on it was, meant just that little bit more than any other normal award would be. But
it was a great gratitude for me to receive it and I believe really that I was in the
right place at the right time. There were many people around me, working with me on
these projects that we accomplished and I just happened to be the lucky one. But I
cherish it to this day and having ridden with Leon on the Soararsis trips back in
the hills, Labor Day. Well, I, it really means a lot to me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When did you first meet Lee and we'll talk later on about some
of those trips up there because I understand that he fell off his horse a few times
too.
>>Martin Nelsen: When he fell off the horse, he didn't say he fell off, he got on
too far, he said. I met Lee when I was a young man working for my father-in-law at
Peerless Printers. The war was coming on and Lee at Valley Foundry was in defense
work. And he was manufacturing bells for the Navy. And each bell had to be inscribed
USN. And at Peerless Printers we had a piece of equipment, a vertical billing
machine that could do this sort of thing and my father-in-law contracted with Lee,
moved the equipment down to Valley Foundry on H Street and did this engraving at
night for him. And I was in there and out of there those days so that's when my
association with Lee started.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us a little bit about your business. Not only does the
Leon S. Peters Award stands for leadership in terms of community service, but it
stands also for excellence in business. How did you get started in your business and
->>Martin Nelsen: Well, I got started in my business at 14 years old. I was in
Washington Junior High School, and during the spring of the year, making smiles and
eyes at a little girl across the room. And come summy vacation, her mother called me
and asked me if I'd like to work for this girl's father at Peerless Printers for two
weeks. I jumped at the chance. That was really my first job. I did have a job at
delivering the Fresno Bee, the evening paper in those days. And I quit that job and
went to work for Peerless Printers full time for two weeks. At the end of two weeks,
my boss asked me if I would like to continue on for the rest of summer. I did. He
then asked me, at the end of the summer, if I'd like to work after school. And this
was the way it went until I was 19 years old and I married this girl. And today,
we've been married 40, 57 years and we bought the business in 1959 and operated it
for 32 years, sold it about 8, 9 years ago, and just a wonderful experience for me.
Really my only job I ever had was Peerless Printers and I was born and I died there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Now in terms of time period, I assumed you did go to Fresno
High School.
>>Martin Nelsen: I graduated Fresno High School 1941.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: A Warrior.
>>Martin Nelsen: And, that's right. And I graduated on Friday night and Monday
morning started Fresno State down the street three blocks, and continued there for a
year and a half and was drafted. And never did get back to college. My parents were
strict, were really disappointed that I didn't go back to school, but I was in love
with my work and I don't think I made a mistake, however, I will say at times I feel
that I wish I had a college education.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What branch of the service did you go into? Obviously you went
in at a very interesting time in our history.
>>Martin Nelsen: Yes, I did. And I it's a very interesting story. I was drafted in
Fresno and went to Monterey and there applied for Air Corps duty. I was flunked the
color blindness test and I could not go on with my flying activity that I thought I
wanted. They sent me to Texas for basic, to Florida for basic training and I was
there for three weeks, living in tents, or six weeks, excuse me. And I was living in
tents and got orders one day that a bunch of us were going to be put on a train. I
called my wife, told her that I was leaving and I would call her the minute I could,
that I didn't think I could ever get off that train until we stopped. Seven days
later we stopped at the Southern Pacific Station in Fresno, California. And the
train started backing up and I knew just then where we were going. We were going to
go out on East Tulare Street where the tracks were running and near Roosevelt High
School and diagonally out to Clovis Avenue and it stopped out there. And we walked
across the street to Hammer Field. And that's when I called my wife.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's an incredible...
>>Martin Nelsen: So I was home in Fresno and I was there for the three years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's an incredible story.
>>Martin Nelsen: Isn't that something?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah. Hammer Field. I remember that's when they had the bomber
squadron.
>>Martin Nelsen: Yes, I was attached to the signal corps, or I guess signal corps
attached to the air corps. And from Hammer Field, I was only there about three
months and they transferred me to Pinedale. So I moved across town.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure.
>>Martin Nelsen: And there I was for two and a half years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tom Brokaw speaks in his book of "The Great Generation..."
>>Martin Nelsen: I've read it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Which is your generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The generation that lived through the Depression.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Generation that fought the great war. In reading that book, I
notice there's a, a great many similarities to the Leon S. Peters recipients, most
of whom are of that generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: That could be. I've read that book and I really enjoyed it and I,
like Tom Brokaw, admire these people. Even though they're my peers, they were in the
action and I wasn't. I did serve my time. I did serve three and a half years, but
never... taken out of the business and so forth, taken out of your community life.
But my army service, my service was relatively smooth and easy.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, I wasn't necessarily referring to the military aspect,
when we talk of the great generation. But the generation that really put the man on
the moon, took the risk, the entrepreneurial shift that had the courage to make
sacrifices and I truly believe our current generation is living off the equity of
that great generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: I think so, yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us a little bit about Fresno. What changes you've seen in
the years that you've been in Fresno? You've seen a lot.
>>Martin Nelsen: I was born and raised here.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What year?
>>Martin Nelsen: 1923. I'm 76 years old today. And I guess what I remember most, and
enjoyed most about Fresno as a child were the streetcars. And when was it? 1938,
‘39, they dug up the tracks and put buses in and so forth. And my dad remarked at
the time, "They're shipping all that iron to Japan to come back to us." But...
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And he was right.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right. But over the years, people cannot put Fresno down in
my presence. I, I'm a great booster of my hometown. I'm very critical of some of the
things that go on in our town, in our city hall and our county hall of record and
the courthouse and so forth. But I'm not running away from them. I'm critical to a
point where I want to see them changed and so I'm, people I know have said to me in
the past, "Oh, you're from Fresno. Well, golly it's hot there." And I said, "Yeah,
you know what? That's not the only good thing we've got though. We've got tremendous
schools. We've got a tremendous religious community. We've got tremendous industrial
community. It's just a great place. The heat is just one of the good things."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Martin, I've noticed one of the characteristics of almost
every one of the Leon Peters recipients is how modest all of you and how
unpretentious all of you are. But are there some things that you feel, in terms of
your career and family life that you feel real, real proud of? Of some of the things
that, now's the time, and I know it doesn't sound, I know you're reluctant to make
it sound like bragging but, I'd like future generations to know what things you
really feel good about, about whether it was in your business or in your personal
life.
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, in my personal life, we've had, we've had no tragedies, thank
God, and we've raised, my wife and I have raised three children that are doing well
today and are all married and have families of their own. We have eight
grandchildren; we have four great-grandchildren. I don't, I don't take credit for a
lot of that except give my wife the credit for our great being in this, in this
community and following the pattern that she's set out for us.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Not to eulogize you now, but everyone, sooner or later, is
going to have to face the inevitable and people are going to write things about
them, whether you're a president or a common person on the street. How would you
like people, when they speak of you in years to come, whether it's your family or
community? What would you like them to say about you?
>>Martin Nelsen: That's hard to say, Pete, you know, but I don't know. I think one
of my achievements that I'm very proud of was being very active in the Chamber of
Commerce, being president of that and my Rotary life has been very complete. I was a
district governor, before that a president and so forth. I'm presently, I have
retired from business but I'm interested in community work and I'm still doing work
on the Fresno Revitalization board and just recently retired from the Tourist and
Convention Bureau board. So I'm, I'm just a community-minded person and if I can
help and do something for my hometown in that, from that angle, just call on me. I'm
there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well let's talk just briefly then about the future. You've
seen and lived in the past and been a part of it. Where do you see Fresno going in
the new millennium? We're about, what, we're five months away from the year 2000
so...
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, I think the, we've got problems here. I'm really embarrassed
at times with the conduct of City Hall. Not picking on any one person but, the
combined assemblage there, there seems to be what, seven council people and a mayor
and they seems to have eight different agendas and I, they just don't cooperate,
they don't collaborate, and I think that's got to come. And I, that's what I would
like to see happen in this town. I just, it's just got to, got to take place.
Transportation is another thing that I've been very interested in over the years,
community wide. I'm, we're starting at the airport. The situation today of large
jets flying in out of Fresno is the same as it was 20-25 years ago. The companies
just can't afford to fly these jets on these short trips. But I think the regional
jet now that we're flying to Salt Lake, and we're flying to Phoenix, I think that's
going to be the answer and it's going to enhance our community. Local traffic
problems on the street I think can be improved with more left turn signals, more
synchronization of traffic signals. I think the air would be much purer in this town
if we didn't start and stop so much on these thoroughfares that we have. So, I think
the best is yet to come, and I think it's happening. The Chamber of Commerce, the
Fresno Business Council is certainly working hard and making inroads in
revitalization of downtown and I'm just so pleased to see all this happening down
here. And I hope I can live to the years that when this downtown flourishes like it,
without the streetcars, but like it did when I was a child.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, I think we'll see those streetcars again.
>>Martin Nelsen: Maybe so.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In its time. Any advice to young people starting off, going
into business, that lessons that you've learned that you'd like to sort of share
with them?
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, I don't, I, it's very simple. And that is to work hard. I've
always taught my own children to work hard, enjoy what they're doing, select
something that they want to do and then give it all they have. Keep the nose to the
grindstone, and don't want everything today. It will come in time. As now I'm
feeling, I'm having this come true now with myself. But work hard, keep your nose to
the grindstone and get a good education. I think education is the secret to most of
that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: They once asked Andrew Carnegie what was the key to success,
and Andrew Carnegie says, "Rise early, work hard, strike oil."
>>Martin Nelsen: Strike oil. That's one way to do it yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In sort of closing, I wouldn't be much of a teacher if I
didn't have an open-ended question. I've asked a lot of questions, but just
anything, any thoughts you'd like to share with us, on any area that I haven't asked
you that you'd sort of like to comment on.
>>Martin Nelsen: No, but, I'll go back to a point that I brought out. I'm really
embarrassed at times with the conflict at City Hall. And I just think this has got,
if this is not the way that Fresno was years ago. Sure, they had many arguments and
many disappointments but they all got together and they created a wonderful city and
created more for the rest of us and I think that the stadium now, for instance, I
think that's a very important thing, for Fresno. And I just hope that these people
will see their way to bring this about.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, we were fortunate, we saw, we had Mayor Selland we had
Mayor Hyde, even slingin’ Mayor Dunn, through the years provided leadership and
vision for this town and...
>>Martin Nelsen: I saw Ted Wills the other day, a friend of mine, and I said, "Ted,
if you were in office, we'd have the stadium." He said, "We'd been playing there 10
years ago."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You're absolutely right. I see him at the Grizzly games right
now. Well Martin, on behalf the not only the Valley Business Conference Committee
but if I could be so presumptuous, the citizens of Fresno, I want to first, wish you
Happy Birthday. Today, July 22nd...
>>Martin Nelsen: No, no I said my age...
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh forgive me. Okay, 76. But it'll be close as we come up over
here. But I would like to also express our appreciation for your contribution to the
quality of life in the city of Fresno and for your dedication to your community and
certainly when we look at the Leon S. Peters Award and what it stands for, you
personify all that is right about that award. And clearly are one of the most
deserving recipients of that award so congratulations.
>>Martin Nelsen: Thank you very much. And thank you for your time. I appreciate this
very much.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
award that is given in Fresno County, the Leon S. Peters Award. I would suspect,
Martin, this meant a great deal to you not only because you personally knew Lee, as
we affectionately called him, but also of your years of contribution to the
community. Not only in terms of your success as a business person, but to the
community as a whole. Comment a little about what it meant to you to be the
recipient of this award.
>>Martin Nelsen: Well first let me say, to receive any award with Lee Peters' name
on it was, meant just that little bit more than any other normal award would be. But
it was a great gratitude for me to receive it and I believe really that I was in the
right place at the right time. There were many people around me, working with me on
these projects that we accomplished and I just happened to be the lucky one. But I
cherish it to this day and having ridden with Leon on the Soararsis trips back in
the hills, Labor Day. Well, I, it really means a lot to me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When did you first meet Lee and we'll talk later on about some
of those trips up there because I understand that he fell off his horse a few times
too.
>>Martin Nelsen: When he fell off the horse, he didn't say he fell off, he got on
too far, he said. I met Lee when I was a young man working for my father-in-law at
Peerless Printers. The war was coming on and Lee at Valley Foundry was in defense
work. And he was manufacturing bells for the Navy. And each bell had to be inscribed
USN. And at Peerless Printers we had a piece of equipment, a vertical billing
machine that could do this sort of thing and my father-in-law contracted with Lee,
moved the equipment down to Valley Foundry on H Street and did this engraving at
night for him. And I was in there and out of there those days so that's when my
association with Lee started.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us a little bit about your business. Not only does the
Leon S. Peters Award stands for leadership in terms of community service, but it
stands also for excellence in business. How did you get started in your business and
->>Martin Nelsen: Well, I got started in my business at 14 years old. I was in
Washington Junior High School, and during the spring of the year, making smiles and
eyes at a little girl across the room. And come summy vacation, her mother called me
and asked me if I'd like to work for this girl's father at Peerless Printers for two
weeks. I jumped at the chance. That was really my first job. I did have a job at
delivering the Fresno Bee, the evening paper in those days. And I quit that job and
went to work for Peerless Printers full time for two weeks. At the end of two weeks,
my boss asked me if I would like to continue on for the rest of summer. I did. He
then asked me, at the end of the summer, if I'd like to work after school. And this
was the way it went until I was 19 years old and I married this girl. And today,
we've been married 40, 57 years and we bought the business in 1959 and operated it
for 32 years, sold it about 8, 9 years ago, and just a wonderful experience for me.
Really my only job I ever had was Peerless Printers and I was born and I died there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Now in terms of time period, I assumed you did go to Fresno
High School.
>>Martin Nelsen: I graduated Fresno High School 1941.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: A Warrior.
>>Martin Nelsen: And, that's right. And I graduated on Friday night and Monday
morning started Fresno State down the street three blocks, and continued there for a
year and a half and was drafted. And never did get back to college. My parents were
strict, were really disappointed that I didn't go back to school, but I was in love
with my work and I don't think I made a mistake, however, I will say at times I feel
that I wish I had a college education.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What branch of the service did you go into? Obviously you went
in at a very interesting time in our history.
>>Martin Nelsen: Yes, I did. And I it's a very interesting story. I was drafted in
Fresno and went to Monterey and there applied for Air Corps duty. I was flunked the
color blindness test and I could not go on with my flying activity that I thought I
wanted. They sent me to Texas for basic, to Florida for basic training and I was
there for three weeks, living in tents, or six weeks, excuse me. And I was living in
tents and got orders one day that a bunch of us were going to be put on a train. I
called my wife, told her that I was leaving and I would call her the minute I could,
that I didn't think I could ever get off that train until we stopped. Seven days
later we stopped at the Southern Pacific Station in Fresno, California. And the
train started backing up and I knew just then where we were going. We were going to
go out on East Tulare Street where the tracks were running and near Roosevelt High
School and diagonally out to Clovis Avenue and it stopped out there. And we walked
across the street to Hammer Field. And that's when I called my wife.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's an incredible...
>>Martin Nelsen: So I was home in Fresno and I was there for the three years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That's an incredible story.
>>Martin Nelsen: Isn't that something?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah. Hammer Field. I remember that's when they had the bomber
squadron.
>>Martin Nelsen: Yes, I was attached to the signal corps, or I guess signal corps
attached to the air corps. And from Hammer Field, I was only there about three
months and they transferred me to Pinedale. So I moved across town.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure.
>>Martin Nelsen: And there I was for two and a half years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tom Brokaw speaks in his book of "The Great Generation..."
>>Martin Nelsen: I've read it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Which is your generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The generation that lived through the Depression.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Generation that fought the great war. In reading that book, I
notice there's a, a great many similarities to the Leon S. Peters recipients, most
of whom are of that generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: That could be. I've read that book and I really enjoyed it and I,
like Tom Brokaw, admire these people. Even though they're my peers, they were in the
action and I wasn't. I did serve my time. I did serve three and a half years, but
never... taken out of the business and so forth, taken out of your community life.
But my army service, my service was relatively smooth and easy.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, I wasn't necessarily referring to the military aspect,
when we talk of the great generation. But the generation that really put the man on
the moon, took the risk, the entrepreneurial shift that had the courage to make
sacrifices and I truly believe our current generation is living off the equity of
that great generation.
>>Martin Nelsen: I think so, yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell us a little bit about Fresno. What changes you've seen in
the years that you've been in Fresno? You've seen a lot.
>>Martin Nelsen: I was born and raised here.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What year?
>>Martin Nelsen: 1923. I'm 76 years old today. And I guess what I remember most, and
enjoyed most about Fresno as a child were the streetcars. And when was it? 1938,
‘39, they dug up the tracks and put buses in and so forth. And my dad remarked at
the time, "They're shipping all that iron to Japan to come back to us." But...
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And he was right.
>>Martin Nelsen: That's right. But over the years, people cannot put Fresno down in
my presence. I, I'm a great booster of my hometown. I'm very critical of some of the
things that go on in our town, in our city hall and our county hall of record and
the courthouse and so forth. But I'm not running away from them. I'm critical to a
point where I want to see them changed and so I'm, people I know have said to me in
the past, "Oh, you're from Fresno. Well, golly it's hot there." And I said, "Yeah,
you know what? That's not the only good thing we've got though. We've got tremendous
schools. We've got a tremendous religious community. We've got tremendous industrial
community. It's just a great place. The heat is just one of the good things."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Martin, I've noticed one of the characteristics of almost
every one of the Leon Peters recipients is how modest all of you and how
unpretentious all of you are. But are there some things that you feel, in terms of
your career and family life that you feel real, real proud of? Of some of the things
that, now's the time, and I know it doesn't sound, I know you're reluctant to make
it sound like bragging but, I'd like future generations to know what things you
really feel good about, about whether it was in your business or in your personal
life.
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, in my personal life, we've had, we've had no tragedies, thank
God, and we've raised, my wife and I have raised three children that are doing well
today and are all married and have families of their own. We have eight
grandchildren; we have four great-grandchildren. I don't, I don't take credit for a
lot of that except give my wife the credit for our great being in this, in this
community and following the pattern that she's set out for us.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Not to eulogize you now, but everyone, sooner or later, is
going to have to face the inevitable and people are going to write things about
them, whether you're a president or a common person on the street. How would you
like people, when they speak of you in years to come, whether it's your family or
community? What would you like them to say about you?
>>Martin Nelsen: That's hard to say, Pete, you know, but I don't know. I think one
of my achievements that I'm very proud of was being very active in the Chamber of
Commerce, being president of that and my Rotary life has been very complete. I was a
district governor, before that a president and so forth. I'm presently, I have
retired from business but I'm interested in community work and I'm still doing work
on the Fresno Revitalization board and just recently retired from the Tourist and
Convention Bureau board. So I'm, I'm just a community-minded person and if I can
help and do something for my hometown in that, from that angle, just call on me. I'm
there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well let's talk just briefly then about the future. You've
seen and lived in the past and been a part of it. Where do you see Fresno going in
the new millennium? We're about, what, we're five months away from the year 2000
so...
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, I think the, we've got problems here. I'm really embarrassed
at times with the conduct of City Hall. Not picking on any one person but, the
combined assemblage there, there seems to be what, seven council people and a mayor
and they seems to have eight different agendas and I, they just don't cooperate,
they don't collaborate, and I think that's got to come. And I, that's what I would
like to see happen in this town. I just, it's just got to, got to take place.
Transportation is another thing that I've been very interested in over the years,
community wide. I'm, we're starting at the airport. The situation today of large
jets flying in out of Fresno is the same as it was 20-25 years ago. The companies
just can't afford to fly these jets on these short trips. But I think the regional
jet now that we're flying to Salt Lake, and we're flying to Phoenix, I think that's
going to be the answer and it's going to enhance our community. Local traffic
problems on the street I think can be improved with more left turn signals, more
synchronization of traffic signals. I think the air would be much purer in this town
if we didn't start and stop so much on these thoroughfares that we have. So, I think
the best is yet to come, and I think it's happening. The Chamber of Commerce, the
Fresno Business Council is certainly working hard and making inroads in
revitalization of downtown and I'm just so pleased to see all this happening down
here. And I hope I can live to the years that when this downtown flourishes like it,
without the streetcars, but like it did when I was a child.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, I think we'll see those streetcars again.
>>Martin Nelsen: Maybe so.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In its time. Any advice to young people starting off, going
into business, that lessons that you've learned that you'd like to sort of share
with them?
>>Martin Nelsen: Well, I don't, I, it's very simple. And that is to work hard. I've
always taught my own children to work hard, enjoy what they're doing, select
something that they want to do and then give it all they have. Keep the nose to the
grindstone, and don't want everything today. It will come in time. As now I'm
feeling, I'm having this come true now with myself. But work hard, keep your nose to
the grindstone and get a good education. I think education is the secret to most of
that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: They once asked Andrew Carnegie what was the key to success,
and Andrew Carnegie says, "Rise early, work hard, strike oil."
>>Martin Nelsen: Strike oil. That's one way to do it yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In sort of closing, I wouldn't be much of a teacher if I
didn't have an open-ended question. I've asked a lot of questions, but just
anything, any thoughts you'd like to share with us, on any area that I haven't asked
you that you'd sort of like to comment on.
>>Martin Nelsen: No, but, I'll go back to a point that I brought out. I'm really
embarrassed at times with the conflict at City Hall. And I just think this has got,
if this is not the way that Fresno was years ago. Sure, they had many arguments and
many disappointments but they all got together and they created a wonderful city and
created more for the rest of us and I think that the stadium now, for instance, I
think that's a very important thing, for Fresno. And I just hope that these people
will see their way to bring this about.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, we were fortunate, we saw, we had Mayor Selland we had
Mayor Hyde, even slingin’ Mayor Dunn, through the years provided leadership and
vision for this town and...
>>Martin Nelsen: I saw Ted Wills the other day, a friend of mine, and I said, "Ted,
if you were in office, we'd have the stadium." He said, "We'd been playing there 10
years ago."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You're absolutely right. I see him at the Grizzly games right
now. Well Martin, on behalf the not only the Valley Business Conference Committee
but if I could be so presumptuous, the citizens of Fresno, I want to first, wish you
Happy Birthday. Today, July 22nd...
>>Martin Nelsen: No, no I said my age...
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh forgive me. Okay, 76. But it'll be close as we come up over
here. But I would like to also express our appreciation for your contribution to the
quality of life in the city of Fresno and for your dedication to your community and
certainly when we look at the Leon S. Peters Award and what it stands for, you
personify all that is right about that award. And clearly are one of the most
deserving recipients of that award so congratulations.
>>Martin Nelsen: Thank you very much. And thank you for your time. I appreciate this
very much.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Good.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====