One’s a logger. One’s a barber. One’s in beer sales. One’s a pastor. Then there’s the funeral director with a sly sense of humor.

All inspired by dear ol’ dad.

On Father’s Day, readers share stories on how, and why, they followed dad’s footsteps into the family trade.

‘Hey Bill!’

Paul Samson worked as a longtime Lewiston police officer. Eric Samson is a patrol deputy at the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office.

“I had friends that their fathers were doctors — I was always proud my father was a cop,” said Eric Samson, 40.

He liked the camaraderie among officers. He noticed early on that his dad enjoyed his job. Not everybody does.

“Everywhere we went as a kid, he knew somebody,” Samson said. “I remember people would say to him, ‘Hey, Paul!’ and he’d (always) say, ‘Hey, Bill!'”

One day Eric finally asked, what gives?

“‘It gets to the point you forget people’s names,’ his father said. “(So) everybody was named Bill.”

Six years side by side

Kirk Butterfield learned from dad Albion that being an electrician meant good money and steady work, so he started taking the right classes in high school.

“I could ask him questions if I was stuck on things,” said Kirk Butterfield, 54, of New Sharon.

For six years, their career paths crossed at Forster’s Manufacturing in Wilton.

“Dad would always say, ‘There may not be enough work for two but there will always be enough work for one,'” Butterfield said. “He kept me busy.”

The last straw

In 1927 Adelard Landry was working as a lumberjack at a Rumford logging camp when the camp owner declared someone had to be barber.

When no one volunteered, the owner ordered the men to draw straws.

Landry ended up with the short straw. “‘Here’s a pair of scissors — go to town,'” said Moe Landry, Adelard’s son.

And so he did.

Adelard would own a barber shop on Oak Street in Lewiston for 35 years. Moe, 69, grew up there.

After a brief stint in a shoe mill, Moe, too, picked up clippers. He’s cut hair for 52 years, the last 23 of which daughter Cathy Brownrigg has cut alongside him at Moe’s Styling Center. Cathy’s daughter, Casey, is interested in the business.

“We’re probably going into four generations because of that short straw,” Moe said.

A real ‘go-getter’

Rocky Guild started cutting meat with his father Ashley Guild when Rocky was 10 years old. When he grew up, Rocky started his own meat shop.

Ashley later worked at a hardware store. Rocky, 61, bought that store, Guild’s Country Hardware in Livermore, with his wife. He says he admired everything about his dad.

“He was a go-getter,” Rocky Guild said. “Always kept busy doing something, and a real good person.”

A taste of away, here to stay

Mike Barriault’s great-grandfather Albert founded Central Distributors in Lewiston in 1934. Mike worked there summers as a teenager. Joining full time didn’t feel inevitable.

Barriault, 33, went to school in Boston and first worked as an accountant.

“Once you realize you could have done it (on your own) — and (have) done it — it’s easier to come home,” said Barriault, now operations manager.

His grandfather Fern is Central Distributor’s president. His father, Dennis, uncle Ron, sister Renee and cousin Amy are active in the business.

“You surely grow up admiring your father and mother and grandparents,” Barriault said. “You watch them and see them succeed (and think), ‘Oh, I want to do that someday.'”

Toddling after

Lance White of Dixfield is a fifth-generation logger. His father, Elijah White Jr., and grandfather Elijah Sr. are in the Maine Logging Hall of Fame.

“I’ve been in the woods since I could walk and just never thought there was anything else to do,” said White, 42.

He and his father founded E & L Logging 25 years ago. Unofficially, the pair goes way back.

“I started with my father when I was 16 months old,” White said. “I wanted to go with him so badly. He said, ‘As soon as you don’t wear diapers anymore, you can go with me.’ He tells the story; I was potty trained that day.”

Sign of the times

Mike Monahan started Signworks, now in Farmington, 30 years ago with $150. “I called myself a sign painter and it’s been uphill ever since.”

Twelve years ago, son Sam joined the business. Father and son complement each other, Mike Monahan said. He’s good at hand-painting, Sam at graphic design.

Mike is 62. Sam, 33, is now boss.

“I hope this is what he really wants to do — he’s really, really good at it,” Mike Monahan said.

Laughing, he remembered the first time a customer chose one of his son’s designs over his. “You’re pissed and proud at the same time,” he said.

Thinking ahead — way ahead

On the job site, he says, they read each other’s minds. Scott Warner went to work for his dad, Scot, at L & S Windows in Lewiston as soon as he finished high school. They install roofing, windows and siding and it’s often just the two of them.

“I just knew I wanted to do what my dad did,” said Scott, 25, of Monmouth.

Warner is the oldest of seven, with five sisters and a brother, Logan, 3, who might, too, follow in dad’s footsteps.

“Our business is L & S Windows, ‘L’ and ‘S’ for my parents. My little brother’s name is Logan and I’m Scott,” he said. In a way, the business is sort of primed to pass to them.

“That’s our future plans, anyway.”

Family jewelers

Growing up, the jewelry store was punishment.

“In middle school, if I did poorly on a spelling exam, I studied colored stones,” said Michael Dostie, 29. “There is a book just on garnets.”

His grandfather, Jules, founded J. Dostie Jewelers in 1947. Twenty-three years ago, Michael’s father, Daniel, bought the business. After high school, Michael Dostie went to college for computer science. Two years in, he found it wasn’t for him.

Dad’s reaction? “‘You’re in between semesters, I’m in my Christmas season, you’ll work for me.’ I fought it tooth and nail,” Michael said.

Then, he discovered he liked working with customers. The more he learned about design, the more it turned out his aesthetic was like his dad’s.

“If you’re looking at the jewelry we create, styles-wise, you’d think it was part of the same collection,” he said.

Third-generation pastor

Casey Collins’ father was a United Methodist pastor and his father a United Methodist pastor before him.

“I was totally influenced by my dad,” said Collins, 61. “Growing up in a clergy household, my parents were always into justice issues and people.”

Collins started her career as a social worker, often for the elderly. “When you’re in that position, you work a lot with death and dying.” But she found herself biting her tongue. She couldn’t offer any religious words of comfort.

Twenty years ago, she changed that. Collins has been pastor of Lewiston’s Calvary United Methodist Church for five years.

Her late father, the Rev. Ernest R. Case, was a pastor with the First Radio Parish Church of America.

“He stood with me when I was ordained,” Collins said. “He was thrilled.”

Alarming news

In the early days of his dad’s business, UPS boxes arrived at the house brimming with electronics, and to a young kid, Rick Rodrigue remembers, they looked pretty cool.

He and his brother, Daniel, joined dad Raymond at State Alarm Company in Lewiston in 1980.

Rodrigue started his own company, Chandler Security Systems, in 2007. This summer his son Christian will work with him as a helper. The cool electronics caught his eye, too.

“This type of business changes so fast with technology, it’s perfect for him,” said Rodrigue, 52. “I’m in the same (location) where my dad started the company in 1968. If it wasn’t for him, in any way, shape or form, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.”

‘My best friend’

When Stephen Corro wanted out of the minimum-wage grind, his late father showed him the basics of working with fiberglass. Stephen went to school for the rest. Wilbert Corro Sr. had worked in the field part time.

Stephen Corro, 55, owns Corro’s Fiberglassing & Refinishing in Auburn.

“He was my best friend,” Corro said. “He was my best man in my last wedding.”

Living the dream

Dan Cunliffe started Republic Jewelry & Collectibles in 1984, selling gold chains out of a suitcase.

He’d worked for a bread company for almost 20 years and wanted to try something new.

“He would go to people’s houses and show them jewelry,” said his son, Dan Cunliffe II, of Minot.

He grew a customer base and the business moved first to a seasonal table at the Lewiston Mall, to other locations, then, in 1992, to Center Street in Auburn. Dan Cunliffe II helped with the table at the mall while commuting to college at the University of Southern Maine, then stayed on. Now 45, he’s part owner.

“He’s a great guy; he’s a great role model,” Cunliffe said of his dad, now semi-retired. “It takes guts (to leave a job and go out on your own). A lot of people, that fear would keep them from following their dream.”

A building relationship

Jason Merritt grew up on an old farm and loved following his father around, watching him fix things. After high school, Jason studied building and construction.

Several years back, his father, Alan, a technology education teacher at Lewiston High School for four decades, encouraged Jason to teach a night class on woodworking. He liked it.

When a position opened up for a carpentry and building construction instructor at the Lewiston Regional Technical Center three years ago, in the same building as his dad, Jason went for it.

“We carpool together every day,” said Jason, 37, of Auburn. “Every day we have lunch together. He’s had so many years’ experience. He’s been the best mentor you could ask for.”

From a don’t to a do

Growing up, Barbara Daigle wanted to be a funeral director like her father, but people told her, ‘Girls don’t do that.’

So she went into insurance. It wasn’t the same.

When Daigle’s 11-year-old son died in 1987, the tragedy served as a catalyst. With her husband’s encouragement, she went back to school and joined the family business, Plummer Funeral Home in Augusta. Her dad, Leo Murphy, is 84 and semi-retired, still helping with services and arrangements.

“I couldn’t wait to be able to work with my dad,” said Daigle, 57, of Auburn. “I admire him for his stamina, for his people skills, his empathy, his courage, his strength. He’s a very generous, giving, caring man. At the same time, he has this little tweak of humor.”

She has a tweak, too, having written in her high school yearbook: “I want to be successful in everything I undertake.”

Father and son racers

Ron Jordan started drag racing at 16. His son, Ron Childs, got behind the wheel when he was 16. In separate incidents, years apart, father and son both got spun around and hit head-on in turn No. 4 during stock car races at Oxford Plains Speedway.

“He wisely quit and went back to (the less-dangerous) drag racing,” said Jordan, 66. “I put my car together to race the next week — that week, I hit the wall. I should have quit.”

He spent the next two months in a coma. Jordan hung it up after 12 years of drag racing and four years with stock cars. Childs, 42, is still at it, with 293 wins, 23 championships and counting. Both men live in Lewiston.

“He asked questions a couple times; makes you feel good,” Jordan said.  “I am proud to say that my son and I (have) had an excellent relationship all of his life.”

‘It’s a done deal’

Out of high school, it was the easy decision: Unsure what he wanted to do, Josh Morin joined his father, Jerry, at GM Morin Enterprises. The company does commercial and residential construction. Two years in, he knew the work was for him.

“I’ve never had another job,” said Josh Morin, 30, of Lewiston. “(So) I haven’t had a lot of bosses to compare him to. Sometimes it’s hard to know — he’s my dad, I’ve listened to him all my life: ‘Go to bed, brush your teeth.'”

But from what he hears, and what he knows, his dad is a good boss. The work has brought them closer.

“It’s a done deal,” Josh Morin said. “I’m in it now.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

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