Contents
In
1888 Rogers Printing began by publishing a weekly newspaper, The Ravenna
Times. Today, Tom Rogers (BS’88) carries on the family business overseeing
a 100,000 square foot facility that uses an average of three semi-trailer
loads of paper a day.
Rogers’
great-grandfather who founded the company would feel right at home in
the company’s room-sized display of vintage printing equipment—at
least the hand-set press part. These days, most of the company’s
business is conducted electronically. “Work that used to take weeks
now takes days,” Tom says, “or hours.”
Organization
as much as technology allows Rogers Printing to specialize in printing
large orders of news-letters and other publications and then customizing
them for specific groups. In the company’s imprint center, Tom points
to a current job being prepared for shipment. “This run may have
200,000 pieces,” he says, “but 150 different versions.”
Key to
such an operation is personnel—11 of the company’s 125 employees
are Ferris alumni. “I don’t know that it’s been by design,”
Tom says of the large number of Ferris grads. “They just seem to
have been the most qualified.”
Tom is
only the most recent Rogers family member and Ferris alumnus to head the
company. Although retired from actively running the company, Tom’s
father, Ralph Rogers (AAF’57), still holds the title of company chairman.
Rogers
Printing no longer publishes a local paper, but some things never change.
An ad in that first Ravenna Times read, “We are Nicely Fixed for
Job Printing.” Not many advertising claims hold up after 113 years.
