Nancy Shawver

Reporting for American City Business Journals

(partial list)

References

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, December). Calabrese Ready to Buy Hi-Tech Robotics Plant. Business First,(1)  2(7), 3.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450434).

Hi-Tech Robotics Ltd., the Buffalo-based robotics systems manufacturer, plans to sell its headquarters at 1885 Harlem Road and find a new operating location in the area. The company has filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating it will sell the 70,000-square foot building, which houses offices and manufacturing space, for $750,000 to Joseph Calabrese and Leonard Calabrese. The transaction is expected to be sealed by the end of the month, pending the completion of financing, the documents said. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, December). Courting the Needs of the Legal Profession. Business First,(1)  2(6), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450429).

Crisp. Matter-of-fact. Cleanly organized. Each word describes Barrister Information Systems Corp., a Buffalo-based company that provides computer systems to the legal profession. And, not coincidentally, those descriptions also fit the designer of the company, its founder and president, Henry Semmelhack. Semmelhack, 48, comes to his business with a keen eye for the technical product, yet with an intuitive understanding of people, communications and corporate development. Both have helped him build Barrister Information Systems at One Technology Center, 45 Oak St., to its current post: after five years of 30 percent average annual growth in sales, the company made its initial public offering in July. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, December). Presenting Science Simply With Simplicity. Business First,(1)  2(9), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450448).

Morris & Lee Inc. is unlike any other company in Western New York – it deals in wonder. The company, located at 155 Great Arrow Drive, Buffalo, bases its existence on scientific principles — laws of gravity, motion, action and reaction, for example. Explaining these principles with anemometers, floating magnets, force pumps, electric motors and electrostatic generators, the company counts not only sales but also “oohs” and “ahhs” from science students. The company makes equipment and kits for teaching science to high school and college students. It is one of only a handful of such companies across the country, one that has survived and flourished where others have struggled. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, December). Quebec Firm Buys Critical Care. Business First,(1)  2(6), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450430).

Critical Care Associates Inc., a Buffalo-based supplier of equipment and medical supplies for in-home health care, has been acquired by Continental Pharma Cryosan Inc., a diversified medical supply company in Montreal. Continental Pharma Cryosan, an international supplier of human biological products, completed its acquisition of Critical Care on Nov. 23, said Thomas Halasz, vice president and chief operating officer of the Canadian corporation. Critical Care was acquired for $2,375,000 (U.S.), of which $1 million was cash and $1,375,000 was Continental Pharma Cryosan stock, officials from both companies said. Additional stock options can be granted based on Critical Care’s yearly performance. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, November). Hauptman: Buffalo’s Nobel Winner. Business First,(1)  2(5), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450411).

Perhaps he is a hero. Perhaps he is a genius. But Dr. Herbert Hauptman, the 1985 Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, does not consider himself in those terms. Instead Hauptman, 68, executive and research director of the Medical Foundation of Buffalo Inc., prefers to describe himself as simply a mathematician, a scientist who works in theory and basic research. He is sincere; his life is an equation of powerful ideas and simple convictions. But he is not entirely accustomed to the fame, respect and responsibilities he is accorded as a Nobel laureate. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, November). Mobile Beauty Salon Brakes for Customers. Business First,(1)  2(4), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450367).

Joanne Songin is on a mission. Wherever there’s an unruly head of hair, wherever there’s a wilted perm begging for new life — she’ll be there to take care of it. It could be anywhere, it could be anytime – it doesn’t matter. Songin is a free spirit who goes where she’s needed; she’s a maestro with scissors and combs in hand. She’s a roving hairstylist for hire. Has mousse, will travel. She runs a mobile beauty and barber shop in the back of a converted Winnebago, a business she calls the Seabird Hair Care-a-van. Complete with sink, barber chair, curlers and combs, Songin travels throughout the city and suburbs to meet her customers at their convenience and wash, cut, style, perm or color their hair. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1986, January). Hospital Marketing Heats Up. Business First,(1)  2(11), 13.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450120).

Marketing fever is spreading through hospitals like a rampant virus, leaving a trail of tried-and-true business practices flourishing in its wake. The fever is apparent in the new wave of hospital billboards and advertisements, the flood of brochures and newsletters and a raft of community support gestures. Hospitals in Western New York, like those in most other areas of the United States, are embracing with open arms the ideals and concepts of marketing. Other industries have long known the power of marketing as a remedy for ailing businesses. The art and science of marketing a business or a service is nothing new, yet it’s only recently that hospitals have begun to take “the four p’s” of marketing — product, price, placement and promotion — seriously. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1986, January). Management Is Kathleen Connor’s Habit. Business First,(1)  2(11), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450122).

Don’t talk to Kathleen Connor about an energy shortage. She’s never experienced one and it’s unlikely she ever will. Connor, who holds a doctoral degree in communications and management, is something of a fireball. K.T. — as she’s also known — is a high-spirited energizer with a penchant for keeping busy. She doesn’t know the meaning of idle time. While a good percentage of the population slogs around in one job, Connor keeps more than busy in a diverse assortment of jobs. With an infectious smile, unfailing enthusiasm and a rare quality of instilling confidence in others, she makes it all look easy. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1986, January). Millard’s Vitatech Steps Out on Its Own. Business First,(1)  2(13), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450134).

After 12 years in the basement of Millard Fillmore Hospital, the hospital’s biomedical engineering department is stepping out on its own. As of Jan. 1, the hospital’s biomedical engineering section was transformed into a new company, a division of the hospital’s “entrepreneurial ventures” corporation, said Kenneth Rogers, vice president for planning and marketing. The department now is the Vitatechnical Services Division and now is a money-making arm of the hospital’s corporate structure. The 12-person staff has not changed, nor have the company offices — still in the Gates Circle hospital basement. But, the function of the department suddenly has taken a prominent new role in the hospital. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1986, January). Pact Brightening Cyber’s Future. Business First,(1)  2(14), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450143).

Cyber Digital Inc., a Bohemia, N.Y.-based manufacturer of digital telecommunications systems which is opening a manufacturing plant in Amherst, has entered into a contract with Honeywell Inc. for installation and service of its voice and data transmission system. The contract gives Cyber Digital a nationwide base for installation and maintenance of its products and gives Honeywell access to Cyber Digital’s computer telecommunications systems, said J. C. Chatpar, president of Cyber Digital. Cyber Digital’s products are a computerized telephone terminal and a microswitching system. The units have the capability of digitally transmitting spoken words and computer data at the same time, over existing telephone wires. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1986, January). Pension Reversions Supply Quick Cash. Business First,(1)  2(14), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450144).

The child’s play known as raiding the piggybank has a legal parallel in corporate financial practices, called pension plan reversions. Since 1980, about 640 companies across the United States have terminated their pension plans and collected any excess assets from the funds — a total of about $5.8 billion, said Jane McVicker, public affairs officer for Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. in Washington, D.C. Another 200 proposed pension terminations are pending. Marine Midland Banks Inc. and Rich Products Corp. are two such locally based companies that have replaced existing pension plans with new ones to collect surplus assets. Marine Midland gained $98 million and Rich Products gained $1.3 million in excess assets when their pension plans were ended and replaced, according to Pension Benefit Guaranty. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1986, January). Piecing Together the Puzzles of Genetics. Business First,(1)  2(14), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450145).

Part of Michelle Marinello’s job is cutting up photographs into tiny bits and — on the basis of little curves, spots and lines – matching up the small fragments into pairs. It may not sound very high-tech, but it’s an essential element of her business, which is providing detailed, specialized chromosome analysis for physicians and hospitals in Western New York. As the owner and founder of Genetic Diagnostic Laboratories Inc. at 191 North St., Buffalo, Marinello works with blood, tissues, tumors or samples of body fluids to isolate chromosomes and examine the secrets they contain. With each sample, she develops a cell culture, photographs the chromosomes and then cuts and pastes the photographic images into 22 sets of pairs for detailed study. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1986, June). Norman Cancelled MBI Deal With a Morning Phone Call. San Jose Business Joural,(1)  4(7), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5976627).

On the day that Businessland Inc. had set to acquire MBI Business Centers Inc., MBI’s chairman and chief executive officer received a surprising phone call. “We planned to sign the agreement last Friday (May 30),” said Avner Parnes of MBI. “There were no great issues over the last four weeks. Then I  received a call from (Businessland chairman) David Norman Friday morning. He proposed to reduce the rate of exchange.” San Jose-based Businessland had planned to acquire Rockville, Md.-based MBI Business Centers, a computer retailer, by exchanging 1.5 shares of Businessland stock for each of the 5 million shares of MBI. Based on stock prices May 30, the deal would have been worth about $86 million. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, August). Bea Maurer Sews Up Niche in Bag Business. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(13), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264593).

Bea Maurer is in the bag business, and she’s not only got a handle on the market in this area, she’s got it all sewn up. Maurer is president of Chantilly-based Bea Maurer Inc., a small company that makes and sells sport bags, luggage, backpacks and carrying cases for computers or video equipment or just about anything else. Maurer designs and makes specialty products, too, anything from a dog’s backpack to top-secret items for federal investigators, like a duffel bag with false bottom or a case with secret compartments for hiding a tape recorder. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, August). Cabinet Firm Expands Line by Buying High-Tech Outfit. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(12), 4.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264582).

In a $100,000 deal, General Kinetics Inc., a quiet 34-year-old metal fabricating firm, has tiptoed into the $1 billion “bug-proof” communications market. Rockville-based General Kinetics last month acquired Cryptek Inc., a tiny Herndon-based communications technology firm with three employees.  General Kinetics acquired the firm by assuming Cryptek’s current liabilities of about $100,000, said Stephen P. Goldman, chairman of General Kinetics. The acquisition is the first for General Kinetics, which counts on its sales of precision metal mounting systems for 90 percent of its annual revenue. Cryptek, a development stage start-up, doesn’t have any products or sales yet, but offers an ambitious plan that brings General Kinetics into the secure communications marketplace. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, August). Cash-Short Delta Data Sells Majority Stake in Firm. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(13), 3.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264595).

Columbia-based Delta Data Systems Corp., still settling down after a dramatic top-level restructuring, has sold 51 percent of its common stock to a Silicon Valley computer manufacturer. TeleVideo Systems Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., paid $4 million to acquire 7.9 million shares of Delta Data stock. With the acquisition, TeleVideo also gained two positions on Delta Data’s seven-member board of directors. Delta Data Systems, a manufacturer of computers and data management systems which are secure from electronic surveillance, sells virtually all of its products to the government market. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, August). Delta Data’s Future With TeleVideo Looks Good. Baltimore Business Journal,(1)  5(12), 3.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5421566).

Columbia-based Delta Data Systems Corp., still settling down after a dramatic top-level restructuring has sold 51 percent of its common stock to a Silicon Valley computer manufacturer. TeleVideo Systems Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., paid $4 million to acquire 7.9 million shares of Delta Data stock. With the acquisition, TeleVideo also gained two positions on Delta Data’s seven-member board of directors. Delta Data Systems, a manufacturer of computers and data management systems which are secure from electronic surveillance, sells virtually all of its products to the government market. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, August). Greyhound Terminal Next for Fast-Track developer. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(11), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264576).

A Rosslyn-based real estate developer who has embarked on a multimillion dollar buying spree in the District has made a $32 million offer on the historic Greyhound bus terminal. Mohamed Hadid, president and founder of Hadid Development Cos., said his company is under contract and will settle in 120 days with the property owner, Carlyle Associates, a New York-based investment group. Hadid proposes to erect a new building on the property behind the terminal, probably a 12-story structure that could cost as much as $70 million to build. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, August). Like Father, She Handles Eateries. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(12), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264590).

As a child, Barbara Stern recalls visiting restaurants and bars all over the Washington D.C. area with her father. She’d sit with him, sipping a Shirley Temple and kicking her legs over the bar-stools, while he talked to the restaurant owners about things like gross sales and profit margins. Now the tables are turned. Stern, with partner Gary Valentine, has re-opened her father’s restaurant brokerage business, Al Stern & Co. After two weeks in business, the company has won about 30 clients – all former clients that knew Al Stern. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, August). QuesTech Chief Leads Revival. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(11), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264579).

After three months of digging his way through mounds of paperwork and receivables, William L. Mayo, the newly-appointed president of McLean-based QuesTech Inc., thinks he sees some daylight. “Frankly,” said the 59-year-old physicist who came from the high-flying satellite world of Comsat and GTE, “a lot of it has been drudgery.” But that “drudgery” is beginning to pay off in the rejuvenation of the high-tech firm. In the second quarter, ended June 30, the company’s net earnings leaped 68 percent over the same period last year — marking what Mayo hopes is a sharp reversal from the declining earnings the company had posted annually for the past two years. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, December). Enterprising Companies Build for Future During Recessions. The Business Journal,(2)  5(11), 4.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6000848).

CALL THE APPROACHING new year a recession, or a period of weak growth. Call it anything you want, but whatever you do, don’t ignore the opportunities that such a period can bring. Even business leaders, economists and researchers — despite all the doom and gloom they predict — say an economic slowdown doesn’t have to trigger despair.  Instead, they say, judging from experiences in recent recessions, an impending slowdown can open the door to real growth. Sheldon Stahl, dean of the School of Management at Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Mo., for example, sees 1988-89 as an impetus for business to concentrate on quality, which he sees as a key to developing market share. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, December). Greyhound Will Move Charter Bus Division to Dallas by March. Dallas Business Journal,(1)  11(18), 1.  ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5491115).

Greyhound Lines Inc. will spend more than $3 million to move its charter travel subsidiary headquarters to Dallas and open 31 new charter bus service offices in 1988. The company currently is scouting for 12,000 to 16,000 square feet of office space in the Dallas area to become the new home of Greyhound Travel Services Inc., the bus line’s charter service subsidiary formed in August 1986. The subsidiary’s headquarters will be relocated from West Des Moines, Iowa, by March, said J.W. Haugsland, president of Greyhound Travel Services. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, January). HP’s Sara Westendorf Picks the Fast Track, Kicks Up Some Dust. San Jose Business Journal,(1)  4(38), 11.  ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5976497).

None of the typical slogans about women working in a man’s world applied to Sara Westendorf, a research and development lab manager at Hewlett-Packard Co. So she made up her own: “Don’t get mad, get ahead.” Westendorf has put her philosophy to good use. She started out at Hewlett-Packard 10 years ago, among the ranks of electrical engineers. Since then, she’s been promoted three times — an ascent that earned her a spot on a recent BusinessWeek list of “Fifty Fast-Track Kids,” a compilation of potential future chief executives. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, July). Cranes Dot Sky, but Rentals Fall. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(9), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264975).

There’s not much of a boom in the boom business this year. Although it’s common to see cranes towering above certain pockets of the Washington D.C.-area skyline, crane rental operators say their business is not on the rise. And though not a key index of the real estate economy, a slump in building crane business could signal a slowdown in the the booming real estate market as well. “We’re doing OK,” said R. Daniel Kauffman, executive vice president and general manager of D.C.-based Crane Rental Co. Inc., one of the largest crane rental companies in the area. “Our company has seen increases in volume and profit over the last three years. But these aren’t boom times.” (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, November). Genex Out to Assure Wall Street That Products Will Lead to Profit. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(24), 10.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264699).

After a long absence imposed by adverse market forces, deteriorating revenue and a less-than-sophisticated business strategy, Genex Corp., once considered one of the most pormising beltway biotech firms, is edging its way back into the public spotlight. This week, the Gaithersburg-based firm will begin courting favor of Wall Street analysts, marking the first time in 3 1/2 years that the company has been willing to detail its progress for investment researchers. At a Nov. 12 analysts’meeting in New York City, Gary Frashier, president and chief executive of Genex will deliver a message: “This is not a turnaround, this is a whole new company.” As proof, he will present announcements of the company’s new focus on commercialization. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, November). Wheaton Plaza Adds Hecht’s, 39 Other New Retail Outlets. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(23), 10.  ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264695).

The oldest shopping center in Montgomery County, Wheaton Plaza, now is home to some 40 new stores, including a 180,000-square-foot Hecht’s Co. department store. Although the mall’s new wing won’t be completely finished for a couple more weeks, Hecht’s staged a charity fundraising/grand opening at its newest store last week. More than 8,000 shoppers showed up on the store’s first day open, said Jack Boonshaft, regional vice president for Hecht’s. Wheaton Plaza, at Viers Mill Road between University Boulevard and Georgia Avenue, first opened its doors 27 years ago. The mall consists of 1.25 million square feet of retail and office space, including the 235,000-square-foot addition. The mall covers 79 acres. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, October). Illinois-Barred Fundraisers Seek to Raise $30 Million. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(22), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 7292603).

Two former professional fundraisers who were fined $50,000 and barred from soliciting donations in Illinois for a five-year period now are planning to lead a Lanham, Md.-based company on a campaign to raise $30 million. The pair, brothers Patrick J. Gorman and Martin D. Gorman, are the founders and majority owners of Encore Marketing International Inc., a travel club operator. The company has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make an initial public stock offering. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, October). Launching Grand Marquis Pays Marriott Fast Profits. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(20), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264662).

In 1985, Bethesda-based Marriott Corp. took a huge gamble with the opening of two mega-hotels, each with more than 1,600 rooms. The sheer size of the projects marked a radical departure from the conservative firm’s typical approach to hotels. Compared to most Marriott hotels, which are in the range of 300 to 500 rooms, these hotels are more than flagships, they’re battleships. But it was a carefully planned strategy that Marriott followed in opening the giant hotels in New York and Atlanta. Everything about these two hotels was different: their focus on large convention traffic, their  supremely plush style, even their name — not just Marriott Hotels, these two are Marriott Marquis hotels. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, October). Pricey Retailers Flood Georgetown. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(22), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 7292604).

Some 45 high-fashion and specialty retailers will make their Washington debut next month in the second addition to Georgetown Park, an upper-crust shopping mall. The mall’s new addition, with 120,000 square feet, opens Nov. 5. New tenants, including retail outlets for big-name fashion designers Liz Claiborne and Tommy Hilfiger, were hand-selected by the mall management, Coldwell Banker Commercial Group Inc., said Gregg Dawley, vice president of Coldwell. The center opened in 1981 with 200,000 square feet of space along the banks of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal between Wisconsin Avenue and Potomac Street. The four-story mall features specialty stores, lifestyle shops, galleries and fashion stores. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, October). Public Market No Panacea for Biotech Firms. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(19), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264648).

Thomas M. Li thought he saw a door opening in 1981. His company, Rockville-based Biotech Research Laboratories Inc., had spent the previous two years pursuing contracts for government research in biotechnology. It was a safe existence, Li recalled. “We had elected to take a less expensive road,  performing almost exclusively government contract research,” Li said. “But we knew, ultimately, growth would have to come from products. And product development is very, very expensive.” Then in 1981, biotech suddenly was Wall Street’s favorite buzzword. Everyone was clamoring about the new biotech companies – San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. was the hottest firecracker in the market. Li saw an opportunity to take his young company public, perhaps also to win enough capital to support the company’s growth. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, September). Allegheny Beverage Seeks OK for Sale of Remaining Subsidiary. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(16), 4.  ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264617).

Shareholders of Allegheny Beverage Corp., a Cheverly, Md.-based diversified beverage and food service firm, hold the company’s fate in their hands Sept. 28. On that date, shareholders will be asked to approve the sale of the company’s sole remaining business, Service America Corp., and elect six new directors to the nine-member board of directors. In addition, shareholders will consider a new name for the company — Alleco Inc. The outcome will decide the fate of the company. In its proxy statement to shareholders, the company notes that if the sale of Service America is not approved and consummated, the company will lack resources to repay a bank debt of about $115 million and find itself in default of its loan agreements. The company’s revolving credit currently is set to expire and become due Oct. 1. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, September). Olde Heurich Taps Into Beer Market. Baltimore Business Journal,(1)  5(15), 13.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5421591).

After a brief but sobering career in real estate, Gary Heurich wanted something with a little more kick. He turned to beer. Heurich, like his father and grandfather before him, had a touch of the brew in his veins. He dreamed of making a local beer, giving Washington a taste of its own. He distilled his dream into reality last year with the founding of the Olde Heurich Brewing Co. in Georgetown. The company revives the family brewing tradition established by Heurich’s grandfather in 1873 and taps into a growing segment of the $43 billion-a-year beer market in the United States. Besides, where else can a company president really get a taste of the profit? (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, September). Preservation Motive Runs Strong in Architectural Antique Dealers. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(15), 10.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264615).

Michael Haymaker likes to think of himself as part of a rescue squad, a team charged with saving unique works of art by unknown masters for future generations. The “team” is called the Great American Salvage Co., which has operations in Middleburg, Va. Haymaker, as showroom manager, presides over a 2,500-square-foot shop filled with one-of-a-kind architectural antiques — hand-carved wooden doors and entryways, unique stone-carved columns and terra cotta cornerstones, stained glass windows and porcelain sinks. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1987, September). Young Heurich Brews Up Old Tradition. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(17), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264632).

After a brief but sobering career in real estate, Gary Heurich wanted something with a little more kick. He turned to beer. Heurich, like his father and grandfather before him, had a touch of the brew in his veins. He dreamed of making a local beer, giving Washington a taste of its own. He distilled his dream into reality last year with the founding of the Olde Heurich Brewing Co. in Georgetown. The company revives the family brewing tradition established by Heurich’s grandfather in 1873 and taps into a growing segment of the $43 billion a year beer market in the United States. Besides, where else can a company president really get a taste of the profit? (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, April). New York Firm Finds Hallmark’s Jewelry Maker a Perfect Fit. Kansas City Business Journal,(1)  6(30), 11.  ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980642).

The purchase of a Hallmark Cards Inc. jewelry making subsidiary by New York-based Crystal Brands Inc. is seen as a sterling strategy for both companies. The sale of Trifari, Krussman & Fishel Inc. allows Hallmark to concentrate on other interests while the jewelry firm fits into expansion plans for the New York apparel and accessories manufacturer. Neither company will disclose the purchase price or the structure of the acquisition, set to close April 30. Trifari, Krussman & Fishel, founded in 1925 by three East Coast families, is a costume jewelry manufacturer. Hallmark acquired the firm in 1975 for $500,000. The subsidiary now is considered the second-largest costume jewelry manufacturer in the country, behind Crystal Brands’own subsidiary, Monet. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, August). Polo Hits the Playground. Kansas City Business Journal,(2)  6(50), 6.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980827).

Ryan Gound is just the kind of shopper that a number of retailers are after: He’s young, fashionable and doesn’t like to sacrifice comfort for good looks. Not unusual, but Ryan is only 3 1/2 years old. Ryan and others of his generation are the new targets of high-fashion retailers. These retailers employ a basic strategy: Get a kid hooked on their styles, they’ll be customers for life. It’s a bit early to tell if this strategy is paying off, as designer-label clothes for kids are a relatively recent phenomenon. But high-fashion and specialty retailing for children is making waves, no matter how you look at it. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, August). Women Buy Cars. Kansas City Business Journal,(2)  6(50), 4.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980828).

Women buy cars. Auto manufacturers and dealers across the country have realized that women don’t just buy cars, they buy enough cars to make up the single largest and fastest growing segment of the buying public. The National Association of Auto Dealers says women buy nearly half of all new cars in the country, which is more than twice the amount they bought a decade ago. In addition, women have a say in at least 80 percent of all car sales. That means that women bought some 4.5 million automobiles last year, representing some $46 billion in auto sales. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, July). Hats! Buyers Want Them, Retailers Have Them and McClenDon’s Makes Them. Kansas City Business Journal,(2)  6(45), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980769).

Every day, before leaving home, Vivia Collins Hagerty tops off her outfit with a hat. And every day, Hagerty receives a compliment or a comment about her hat. “I never go without them,” she says. “I’m just crazy about them.” In her own way, Hagerty is one of a small – but growing — troop of hat ambassadors: She advocates hat-wearing, she supports hatmakers. These hat ambassadors seem to be making some headway, since designers and retailers says hats are again becoming popular fashion items. The resurgence of hats was visible this spring, when New York hatmakers reported the best hat sales since Jackie Kennedy popularized the pillbox. The emerging chapeau trend is likely to continue this fall, say some experts, who note that several fashion designers — Christian Lacroix, for example — have included hats with their new fall wardrobe styles. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, July). New Age. Kansas City Business Journal,(2)  6(45), 4.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980770).

The signs are everywhere: In the bookstore, there’s a section called “New Age”; on the radio, there’s “Music for a New Age.” Suddenly crystals are popping up for sale in gift shops and food stores, and you’re humming the Army slogan, “Be all that you can be.” There’s something happening here . . . It’s called the new age. Cognoscenti, many of them molded by the idealistic ’60s but polished by the more materialistic ’70s, say the new age movement is dawning on humanity all over the world. This movement is seeping into mainstream American culture, and in its wake, it has altered the face of business and society. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, July). The Gap’s Expansion Effort Leads to Two New Plaza Sites. Kansas City Business Journal,(1)  6(45), 4.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980767).

San Bruno, Calif.-based The Gap Inc. is adding two new stores on the County Club Plaza, part of the retailer’s move to expand and upgrade its national chain of casual wear stores. On Aug. 2, the  company will open a high-fashion Gap clothing store, planned as the flagship of its Kansas City stores; and a Banana Republic Safari & Travel Clothing Co. store, the first in Kansas City. The Gap offers men’s and women’s casual wear — jeans, sweats and sweaters — while Banana Republic is best-known for its natural-fiber, functionally styled clothing for men and women. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, June). Area Truckers Predict Upswing in Freight-Hauling Industry. Kansas City Business Journal,(1)  6(41), 20.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980733).

If 1987′s road map for the trucking industry showed an uphill climb, 1988′s map would show the industry reaching a plateau. That doesn’t mean business is coasting along, by any means. But instead of the fierce battles for shipping sales, companies are shifting gears – enjoying relatively stable rates and preparing for the next round in the trucking industry shakeout. By all predictions, only the strongest trucking companies — with the best management at the wheel — will survive. Recent years have been tumultuous for the trucking industry, as competitors forced prices lower and lower, undercutting one another with rate discounts. The rates often reached so low that even though some companies were able to increase their tonnage, their profit margins shrunk, in some instances to negligible amounts. Last year was no different. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, June). Ethnic Makeups Bring a New Shade of Success to Cosmetics. Kansas City Business Journal,(2)  6(41), 11.  ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980740).

A few years back, cosmetics and hair care products for blacks typically were squeezed into a tiny space on the bottom shelf of a beauty aids aisle. Not any more. A stroll through a cosmetics department or a drug store now shows entire display cases and aisles of ethnic cosmetics — often 48 feet or more. In a business where shelf space is worth its weight in gold, that kind of leap is evidence of strong growth. Ethnic cosmetics have come of age, catering to a young, growing and upwardly mobile population. The black consumer market is estimated at about 29.5 million strong, up 9 percent since 1980, with a median age of 26.5. This market, which controls more than $200 billion in buying power, last year spent some $3 billion on cosmetics and personal care products. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, June). KC Facing Uncertain Future As Automobile Manufacturer. Kansas City Business Journal,(1)  6(38), 17.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980702).

Detroit holds the unchallenged title as the nation’s auto production center. But whenever Detroit slips, stumbles or hiccups, the effects are felt instantly 600 miles away in Kansas City. They’re not just sympathy pains, either. Kansas City has consistently been ranked either the No. 2 or No. 3 auto-producing center in the nation, at one point employing some 15,000 autoworkers. Kansas City’s past — and future — as an auto manufacturing center is inextricably linked to the fortunes of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, May). Carolina Freight Carrier Rolling Into KC With New Terminal. Kansas City Business Journal,(1)  6(36), 12.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980684).

Carolina Freight Carrier Corp., a national trucking company, is boosting its presence in Kansas City by turning its agency office into a full-service terminal. The company has operated a sales office in   Kansas City since July 1986 and now plans to operate a 60-dock terminal with a staff of about 20, beginning May 31, said Dan Prachar, district manager for Carolina Freight. The move represents an investment of about $300,000 in equipment as well as a commitment to build business in the Kansas City market, he said. But if Carolina Freight’s aggressive pursuit of business takes customers from other haulers, the result also could be a new round of price cuts in the freight rate wars. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, May). Greenhouse Getting to Be a Habit for Nuns With a Growing Company. Kansas City Business Journal,(1)  6(37), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980692).

The Sisters of St. Francis are known for their brown robes, but in Independence, they’re also known for their green thumbs. At the mother house and retreat center for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist, 2100 N. Noland Road, the sisters have struck pay dirt with a greenhouse operation. They grow and sell perennials, seasonal bedding plants, tomatoes and peppers, flowering pots and hanging plants, as well as a winter crop of poinsettias. What started as a therapeutic activity and an expression of their faith has blossomed into a thriving business. This spring season, sales reached $37,000 — a healthy climb over last spring’s $22,000 and the $10,000 in sales recorded in their first year in business. The 1987 poinsettia crop netted an additional $17,000 in sales and this year the sisters are setting their sights even higher. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, May). She’s Engineering Success. Kansas City Business Journal,(2)  6(37), 12.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980698).

S. Diane Graham will be the first one to admit she’s come a long way. Her days at Kansas City’s Center High School, where she says she’s probably not remembered, are as if from a different life. “I was not real popular in high school,” she says. “I was real shy.” Graham once thought the art teacher at school was mean to her, and she was never able to work up the nerve to take a course, even though she wanted to be an art major. “I always felt like there was something different with me,” she says now. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1988, May). Tallgrass Hopes New Steps Will Bring It Out of the Woods. Kansas City Business Journal,(1)  6(36), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5980689).

Tallgrass Technologies Corp., a high-tech company based in Overland Park, is preparing to launch two new families of products to help the company regain sound financial footing. David Horton, who joined the company seven months ago as president and chief executive, said Tallgrass Technologies has made strides in its effort to regroup and gain sales. “We’ve been going through a turnaround,” he said, “and we’re still going through it.” Tallgrass Technologies, founded in 1981, manufacturers computer memory systems. In the early ’80s, the company dominated its market with an automatic tape backup system for personal computers. Revenues peaked at about $70 million in 1985, but then the company was wracked with growing pains. (excerpt)

Menninger, Bonar,  Tracewell, Nancy,  Daniel, Heidi,  Heschmeyer, Mark,  Kramer, Jack. (1987, October). Area Companies Reassess Future in Wake of Crash. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(22), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 7292601).

Talk about bad timing. Last Monday Charles Merriam, a senior vice president with Virginia-based Scott & Stringfellow Inc., had a meeting scheduled to discuss the sale of a $4.2 million secondary offering for a client. Little did Merriam know that when he set the meeting that Monday, Oct. 19, would go down in history as Black Monday, the day the stock market crashed. Merriam, who watched in shock as the market for new issues evaporated, canceled the meeting and pushed back the offering. “There is going to be a reassessment,” he said after the sobering experience. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy,  Cooper, Stephen K.. (1987, July). 2 Hard-Hit Health Plans Fight to Retain Federal Certification. Washington Business Journal,(1)  6(9), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 6264971).

Two Washington D.C.-based health maintenance organizations are under regulatory scrunity after posting millions of dollars in losses for 1986, health officials have confirmed. Donald Kollmorgen, an official with the federal watchdog agency, Health Care Finance Administration, said Group Health Association and the George Washington University Health Plan are under formal evaluation. Both plans must now show the agency how they will cover losses and regain profitability. If the plans do not comply with the federal regulations, they risk losing federal qualification. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy,  Schecker, Fred. (1994, January). Going on-line. American Society of Newspaper Editors. The Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors,(756), 12.   ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 7804964).

Newspapers all over the US are preparing for the digital information age by starting electronic on-line information services. Success could be on the horizon for those newspapers that form alliances with on-line services.

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). A Super-Sleuth for Corporate America. Business First,(1)  1(26), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449480).

Aside from the tinted windows, the grey-and-black van doesn’t look at all mysterious. A passerby would never guess that on the inside the van hides a powerful periscope, an array of video equipment, recording devices, a television set, a portable phone and enough amenties to make its inhabitants comfortable for extended periods of time. The van is one of Robert Ferrari’s tools; a surveillance vehicle. In layman’s terms it’s spy-mobile. Ferrari is a private eye, an investigator for multinational corporations and major insurance companies. He’s a sleuth for corporate America. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). Allentown Industries: Handicapped Jobbers Sell Themselves With Quality, Not Pity. Business First,(1)  1(23), 12.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449453).

In one corner there’s group gathered around a table, each person working over an unusual-looking jig assembling delicate ceramic wind chimes. Just behind that group, there’s a cluster of workers who are packaging cotton swabs at the rate of 3 million a week. And just across from them, there’s a work force running machines that shrink-wrap plastic over packages of papers. And that’s just the start. There’s a group running a blister-package assembly of gauges for kerosene tanks, there’s a group packaging do-it-yourself dollhouses, another bunch is running a machine that packages multi-colored  gumballs. There’s even a person making mattresses for coffins. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). Cyber Digital Aims at Amherst. Business First,(1)  1(24), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449467).

Cyber Digital Inc., a Long Island-based communications company, plans to begin manufacturing integrated circuits and telephone switching components by midsummer at a new plant in a section of the Wehrle International Industrial Park. The company announced April 2 – Business First/Eyewitness News Reports aired the story April 1 on WKBW-TV – that it is pursuing a $7.25 million financing package that lays the groundwork for its proposed state-of-the-art roboties and computer-automated manufacturing plant at Wehrle Drive and Youngs Road, about 3 miles from the Greater Buffalo International Airport, said Cyber Digital President Jawahar Chatpar. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). Fido’s Final Resting Place Is Under the Pines. Business First,(1)  1(24), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449468).

Peace of mind. That’s what Edward Jordan offers with every tiny piece of land he sells. Edward and Ruth Jordan, who operate the Pine Rest Pet Cemetery, also sell cremation services, gravestones, coffins and family plots — for animals. But Jordan insists that his main service is the peace of mind he freely gives to grieving pet owners. Pine Rest Pet Cemetery, established 1919, is one of the nation’s oldest pet cemeteries. Located at 757 Seneca Creek Road, West Seneca, it is the final resting place to more than 16,000 dogs and cats and brids and other loved, furred, feathered or whiskered companions. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). Fight Opens Against Malpractice Liability Rates. Business First,(1)  1(27), 20.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449483).

Some 16,000 physicians across the state will be examining their mail with particular trepidation this week. The reason? Their new medical malpractice insurance bills from Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Co. are on their way, and they include a 55 percent rate increase, retroactive to July 1984. The rate hike, mandated by the state Insurance Department, was deemed necessary to maintain the Medical Liability Mutual’s solvency in light of the increasing numbers of lawsuits filed against physicians and the increasing amounts awarded in malpractice cases. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). General Cinema Closing Alperts: Parent Leaving Furniture Business; One Store to Remain. Business First,(1)  1(25), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document I D: 5449475).

General Cinema Corp., the movie and soft drink corporation, is closing its two New York state furniture retailing operations, Alperts Warehouse Showrooms Inc. in Buffalo and Albany. Janine Dusossoit, director of investor relations for General Cinema in Chestnut Hill, Mass., said last week the New York stores would be closed in May. Closing the discount furniture warehouses in New York leaves the corporation with one remaining Alperts Furniture store in Seekonk, Mass., she said. Alperts Furniture, which is situated next to the Eastern Hills Mall in Clarence, is currently conducting a going-out-of-business sale, but the store manager declined to comment on the impending close-out. The store manager of the Alperts warehouse in Albany also declined to comment. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). Hotels Thrive on Creative Marketing. Business First,(2)  1(27), 12.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 2636478).

Five years ago, in surburban Philadelphia, the George Washington Motor Lodge chain found that it had lost its Early American charm as Bicentennial fever cooled. Despite keen locations around the Philadelphia outer belt, despite budget-priced rooms, the hotel group found itself lucky to reach a 50  percent occupancy rate. It was struggling. Worse, the 20-year-old lodging chain was beginning to look its age. Enter new ownership, management, and most important, new marketing. Almost overnight, things began to change. Fresh coats of paint gave the hotels a new color scheme, minor renovations made the chain look more modern. A new logo — a brilliant spray of cherries — replaced a staid and predictable picture of a bust of the first president. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). Millard Jumping Into Home Care. Business First,(1)  1(27), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449485).

Millard Fillmore Hospitals last week rebuilt its corporate structure by developing a new parent corporation, VitAlliance Corp., and a new subsidiary, Millard Fillmore Home Health Care Corp. The new home health care subsidiary will be in operation by Aug. 1, providing medical and nursing services at patients’homes. The for-profit home health corporation will be operated as a joint venture with Travenol Laboratories Inc., a national home health care and medical supplies company. Jan Jennings president of Millard Fillmore Hospitals, said the corporate reorganization will permit expanded services independently of the not-for-profit hospital. In this format, the hospital’s primary services and focus will not be diffused by the additional corporation, yet it will be able to provide a full spectrum of services for the community. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, April). Physician International Serves as Health Care Matchmaker. Business First,(1)  1(24), 2.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449470).

In Houston, a major hospital has an opening for a new chief surgeon. Even before the position is advertised, the hospital is inundated with inquiries from physicians across the nation. And, halfway across the continent, in rural West Virginia, a tiny community hospital desperately appeals for pediatric specialists. It can hardly find an interested physician. The hospitals involved in these two situations have little in common. Yet both could be clients of a growing Western New York company which specializes in physician manpower services. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, August). Astronics Corp.: Glow-in-the-Market Diversity. Business First,(1)  1(41), 10.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449577).

Kevin Keane isn’t one to boast, not by any means. But even the eloquent Keane, as president and chief executive officer of Astronics Corp., can’t resist feeling a bit proud of Astronics, a diversified manufacturing company with a glowing financial performance record. Astronics, whose stock trades over the counter, doesn’t make waves, doesn’t court Wall Street and doesn’t go in for fancy marketing strategies. Instead, with aggressive yet conservative practices, the Buffalo-based Astronics keeps a low profile while it continues to rack up steady increases in sales and earnings. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, August). Earl Martin. Business First,(1)  1(43), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449591).

Earl Martin’s name can be found all over Western New York. It’s on the cornerstone of school buildings, it’s engraved in plaques that hang in government buildings at the Peace Bridge, and it’s etched in the stone masonry of churches throughout Buffalo. Martin, an independent architect, wonders what people will think in 50 years when they see his name on the old buildings. Will anybody remember him? Will anybody recognize his work? Will his efforts to design beauty into Buffalo-area buildings still be standing? (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, August). Harvesting the Fruits of a Dream Come True. Business First,(1)  1(41), 9.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449581).

In 1894, the Becker Farm in Gasport was a diverse business operation, providing food and a livelihood to a young and hopeful family. It was a time when the farm was more than a workplace; when  farming was more than a job. Now, a fourth generation of the Becker farming family – again young and hopeful — has embraced farming as a lifestyle and is harvesting the tradition planted at the farm nearly a century ago. Oscar and Melinda Vizcarra are the core of the new family, the farmers and managers of the 300-acre Becker Farm in eastern Niagara County. Vizcarra, at 33, is robust and dark, quick to smile and eager to explain the secrets of a good harvest to his city customers and their children. Melinda Vizcarra — everybody calls her Mindy — at 29 is full of energy and enthusiasm, full of plans and hope. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, August). Just a Garage Mechanic for the Health Pros: ‘Idea Man’Robert Baier Took a Ragged Road to the Top of Biomedical Institute. Business First,(1)  1(44), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449598).

Robert Bair has come a long way from his roots on Buffalo’s West Side, from his youthful reputation as a ne’er-do-well and a college dropout, and from his first job as a pooper-scooper cleaning up after the animals used in surgical experiments. But Baier refuses to forget his humble origins and how his career — which progressed in fits and starts across a variety of fields — now leads him to direct the Health Care Instruments and Devices Institute at the state University at Buffalo. The institute, a mouthful of awkward-sounding words, is known more simply as HIDI. Founded in 1984, it is a state-sponsored Center for Advanced Technology and, so far, the recipient of about $500,000 in grants to evaluate biomedical products, medical equipment and health care devices. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, August). Profit for Cellular Products Hinges on AIDS Test. Business First,(1)  1(41), 12.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449584).

Cellular Products Inc. of Buffalo reported a net loss of $659,562 on sales of $1 million for fiscal 1985, but company officials last week predicted that the biomedical products company could break into profitability this year. The sales for fiscal 1985, the year ended March 31, were a significant increase  over the $550,227 recorded in fiscal 1984, but costs and expenses also increased substantially, from $863,622 in 1984 to $1.7 million in fiscal 1985. Net loss posted in 1984 was $334,702. Fiscal 1985 net loss was 14 cents a share, compared to a 9-cents-a-share loss in fiscal 1984. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, July). Body Shop Given a Whole New Meaning. Business First,(1)  1(38), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449558).

Audrey Shaughnessy is never alone. Day or night, at her work, she’s always surrounded by hundreds of people — all nude, pert, young bodies. Shaughnessy isn’t a masseuse or the operator of a nudist colony. She owns and runs a kind of body shop. Actually, a clinic for sick mannequins. At Bone & Andres, Shaughnessy welcomes mannequins from all over Western New York, from New York City, even some from cities throughout the northeastern United States. To her, they’re just like people — they come in all sizes, shapes, styles and no two are exactly alike. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, July). Cyber Digital: Upstart Telecommunications Company Rings in Wall Street Accolades. Business First,(1)  1(39), 6.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449564).

Cyber Digital Inc., a Long Island-based communications company, is preparing to open its manufacturing facility in Amherst this fall, in anticipation of a quiet revolution in telecommunications. J. C. Chatpar, president of Cyber Digital, doesn’t much like to talk about expectations, though. He prefers to talk in concrete terms, about the company’s strengths and weaknesses. The company’s strength is its product, a unique telephone switching system with the capability of transmitting voice and data — that is, person-to-person conversations and computer-to-computer transmissions — simultaneously. The system permits otherwise incompatible computers and printers to communicate with each other, while handling normal telephone communications as well, all on existing telephone  wires. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, July). From Symphony Circle to the Waterfront: John Chew Hopes to Fulfill His Olympian Sized Dreams in Buffalo. Business First,(1)  1(36), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449548).

John Chew could be described as a dreamer with a perpetual gleam in his eye — or perhaps as a man possessed by his goals. He is animated, almost visibly percolating with ideas, dreams and goals. He admits to being somewhat fanatical about his goals, but after winning respect and success with his restoration of the Birge Mansion, he has proven that he is not jousting at windmills. Chew, 49, is the president of Olympian Properties Corp., a Buffalo development firm, a long way from his childhood in London, England, and his education as a mechanical engineer. He developed the company to restore the Birge Mansion, a demanding and impressive debut. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, July). Sales Pitch Is Added to Buffalo General Strategy. Business First,(1)  1(37), 6.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449557).

Need heart surgery? Think of Buffalo. While that’s not exactly the slogan, it is the thrust of a campaign that Buffalo General Hospital has mounted to pull in patients from outside Western New York. The goal  is twofold: to emphasize Buffalo General’s low-cost, high-quality cardiac surgery division and to market Buffalo as a hub of medicine, said hospital President Dr. William Kinnard Jr. The marketing campaign is designed not only to bring more patients into the hospital – ultimately improving its bottom line — but to draw additional dollars for other segments of the Western New York economy. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, July). Venture Capitalists: Nurturing Ideas. Business First,(1)  1(40), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449576).

It’s a blending of gut instinct and bottom-line risk-taking; it’s aptly described as an industry that is part banking, part investment and part marriage counseling. The venture capital business is an unusual industry, with a goal of producing one commodity: successful Entrepre neurs. Even the name — venture capital — is slightly exotic, promising challenge and risk and a pioneering spirit. While venture capitalists themselves don’t think of the business as high glamour, they do agree that much of their time and effort is spent nurturing entrepreneurs. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Buffalo General, Caremark Enter Home Care Plan. Business First,(1)  1(34), 13.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449536).

To build healthier business organizations, hospitals in Western New York are undergoing corporate restructuring that will result in diversification and operation of money-making ventures. And while reorganizing their corporate structures, the hospitals also are creating new companies that send  health care services beyond the hospitals’ bricks and mortar and into the home. Last week, Buffalo General Hospital Inc. announced a corporate reorganization that created a new parent corporation, which will serve as a holding company to the hospital and individual profit-making ventures. The first for-profit subsidiary created a home health care service partnership with a major national home health company. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Hospitals Blaze a Profit-Making Path. Business First,(1)  1(34), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449537).

Hospitals in Western New York are joining a national trend of corporate restructuring to better position themselves against increasing competition in a market that will benefit from fewer government health care dollars. The reorganization usually consists of building a not-for-profit corporation that serves as a holding company or a parent to the hospital and its charitable foundation. But the restructuring also sets the stage for development of separate profit-making ventures that permit diversification into health care services outside the hospital, as well as forays into real estate, accounting, marketing or other ventures. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Hospitals Create Special Task Force to Prepare for Physicians’Walkout. Business First,(1)  1(32), 2.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449525).

With the threat by physicians and surgeons to curtail services July 1, hospital administrators in Western New York last week formed a task force to prepare a contingency plan to cover those services if the threat becomes reality. Many surgeons and specialists are planning to reduce their malpractice coverage, limit their practice to office visits only, or otherwise reduce their services July 1, rather than pay medical liability premiums which are 55 percent higher than last year’s rate and are expected to increase by as much as 42 percent next year. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Independent Health Going Public. Business First,(1)  1(32), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449526).

Independent Health Association Inc., one of the fastest-growing health maintenance organizations in the nation, is reorganizing to become New York state’s first publicly traded health maintenance   organization. Independent Health, 4510 Main St., Snyder, has petitioned the state Health and Insurance departments for permission to convert its operating status from a not-for-profit corporation to a for-profit corporation. If state approval is indeed granted, the company then would make a public stock offering, said Frank Colantuono, president of Independent Health. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Malpractice Lawsuit Screening Firm Formed. Business First,(1)  1(32), 7.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449527).

A Buffalo attorney has started a new business service for physicians to screen patients for prior involvement in malpractice claims. Med-Alert is a service that operates like a credit bureau, explained company founder Donna Gray. A physician subscribing to the service would call the company with the name of a patient, and Med-Alert would scan its computer files of malpractice claims filed in Erie County over the past 10 years. If the patient had been involved in a malpractice claim, Med-Alert would notify the physician immediately and then follow-up with a letter of confirmation which would cite the number of legal actions the patient had been involved with or initiated. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Malpractice Rates Are Low in Canada. Business First,(1)  1(35), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449542).

What a difference a border makes. While physicians in New York state are grappling with escalating malpractice insurance rates — the highest in the nation — doctors practicing north of the border in Canada are content to pay between $400 and $2,900 a year for their annual medical liability protection. Canadian physicians gasp in horror at the numbers of claims filed against their collegues in New York and elsewhere in the United States, and at the size of the awards those claims can fetch. In Canada, 679 malpractice lawsuits were filed against physicians in 1984, compared to more than 5,000  medical malpractice lawsuits filed in 1983 in New York and 23,000 filed across the country, the most recent year for complete data from the American Medical Association. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Medicine’s Homecoming: The Home Health Industry Is Booming, Raising Questions About Who Is Providing Care and Who Is Regulating the Caregivers. Business First,(2)  1(35), 4.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 2636504).

Home Sweet Home. More than just a place with a special feeling, it’s also becoming a welcome spot for health care, a place that offers patients a comfort no hospital or institution can ever hope to match. With that realization, the health care industry has developed a new respect for home health care and is beating a path to patients’front doors. Home health care has become one of the fastest growing businesses anywhere, yet it is one that can be cluttered with red tape and packed with stressful, emotion-laden work. Home health care also is the spark that has ignited some of the hottest issues in the health care industry and in national public policy-making. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Radiation Clinic Comes Out of the Basement. Business First,(1)  1(35), 13.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449543).

Western New York’s first freestanding radiation outpatient center, Radiation Oncology Group P.C., is challenging the traditional hospital setting for cancer treatment. The center, at 626 Frankhauser Road in Amherst, has been operating since last December and is offering radiation cancer treatments in a setting that capitalizes on shortcomings of hospital treatment centers and emphasizes a private, convenient atmosphere for cancer treatment, explained Dr. Vilsani Shanbhag, managing partner of the clinic. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, June). Visiting the Sick: Professional Nursing Care Keeps Patients Out of Institutions While Boosting Their Morale. Business First,(2)  1(35), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 2636506).

The sign on the door depicts a threatening view into the barrel of a revolver. It advises visitors they need not worry about a killer dog, just about the owner. The sign, on a house on Buffalo’s Upper West Side, boasts a kind of macho fierceness and independence. It looks perfectly appropriate on the ramshackle and rough-looking building. Nancy Monaco ignores the sign. She strides up the porch steps, peering through the tattered screen before she raps sharply, then lets herself in. Monaco is a community health nurse with the Visiting Nurses Association Inc., but in this house she represents much more. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, May). Cellular Products Develops Second AIDS Test. Business First,(1)  1(30), 6.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449503).

Cellular Products Inc., a publicly held Buffalo biomedical products company, has developed a “dip stick” test to identify the presence of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome virus in blood samples. The new test follows on the heels of Cellular Products’development of an AIDS test kit for use in blood banks, which has received investigatory new drug status and is now ready for clinical studies for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Following the studies, which will include 6,500 tests conducted at four sites around the country, the test kit is expected to be ready for federal approval and marketing in the United States and abroad, company officials said last week. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, May). EthiCare Acquires Victor Medical. Business First,(1)  1(28), 2.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449491).

U.S. EthiCare Corp., a Buffalo-based home health care services company, last week said it has acquired Victor Medical, a supplier of home medical equipment. With the acquisition, EthiCare will move into supplying medical equipment like wheelchairs, beds, walkers, van lifts, exercise equipment and home safety aids, in addition to its home personnel services, said company President Patrick Egan. Acquisition details were not disclosed. EthiCare, with headquarters at the Ellicott Square Building in Buffalo, describes itself as Western New York’s largest home health services supplier. The company has offices in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Jamestown, Albany, Syracuse and Fredonia, and employs about 1,750 people to provide nursing services, convalescent care, rehabilitation services, home aid, housekeeping and companionship services. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, May). Home Care a Focus of Hospital Change. Business First,(1)  1(28), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449492).

With a nation clamoring for lower medical costs, the health industry is finding itself in flux, faced with a challenge of providing quality health care at a reduced cost in a new competitive marketplace. The result is alternatives, changes in health care delivery and services, and at the forefront of the new  services is a very old concept: home health care. In Western New York, the home health care industry is developing rapidly. For example: Millard Fillmore Hospitals, with the formation of its new home health care services subsidiary, will begin offering nursing services, therapies and high-technology medical assistance in patients’homes by Aug. 1. The for-profit division, Millard Fillmore Home Health Care Corp., will be a subsidiary of the hospital parent, VitAlliance Corp., and is a joint venture with Travenol Laboratories Inc. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, May). Peter’s Fur Farm: It’s a Ranch for the Rich. Business First,(1)  1(31), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449518).

It’s a lonely life, out there on the range. Day in and day out — there’s always work to be done, mending fences, cleaning pens and tending to the critters. Dave Peters knows all about the trials and tribulations of ranching. Peters, like his daddy before him, is a mink rancher. He runs Peters’Fur Farm   on Route 20 in Hamburg, where he raises thousands of mink which later end up as high-fashion clothing on store racks around the world. Peters is a cautious young man. In the classic mode of the close-mouthed and solitary rancher, he is hesitant to tell too much. He ventures he’s operated the fur farm since 1979, when, in his mid-20s, he took over for his father. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, May). Weeks Oversees Smorgasbord of Services. Business First,(1)  1(30), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449512).

Ed Weeks begins talking about the Episcopal Church Home and its position among the array of health care services in Western New York, yet in the same breath he also manages to discuss ladders, toolboxes and fat, lazy dinosaurs. He values that kind of non-linear thinking, and actively grasps after offbeat ideas and innovative alternatives. Which explains in part why the Episcopal Church Home, where Weeks serves as executive director, is a leader in health care services for Western New York’s growth elderly population. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, November). On the Cutting Edge. Business First,(1)  2(3), 21.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450309).

Diversified Manufacturing Corp., a welding and fabricating job shop, enjoys a position on the cutting edge of high-technology computer-assisted manufacturing. Literally. The 31-year-old Lockport company is a machining shop for industry, building motor and engine housings, pressure vessels,  machine fixtures, tools and specialty parts. The company’s services are similar to those of hundreds of other job hops in the eastern United States, said company President John Tillotson. What sets Diversified Manufacturing apart, however, is its automation and computerized precision. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, November). Parmed Suing Over Trade SecretFlap. Business First,(1)  2(2), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450198).

Parmed Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Niagara Falls-based international distributor of drugs, vitamins and pharmaceutical supplies which has been interested in attracting a large corporate parent, is suing a group of suitors, alleging the potential buyers are using the company’s trade secrets. The lawsuit, filed last week in federal District Court in Buffalo, seeks actual damages and punitive damages for the loss of confidential information released to a group of potential buyers during negotiations. Company officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, October). Center Intent on Debut of Cancer Drug. Business First,(1)  1(50), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449650).

The Oncologic Foundation of Buffalo Inc., a research and development center with close ties to Roswell Park Memorial Institute and Johnson & Johnson, is set to open in min-November to assist in bringing a new cancer treatment to market. The foundation, a non-profit organization at 220 Oak St. on the Buffalo Technology Campus, is dedicated to research in photodynamic therapy for cancer treatment, said Kenneth Weishaupt, administrative director of the center. The foundation is the brainchild of Thomas Dougherty, the Roswell Park researcher who pioneered the use of light-sensitive drugs in cancer treatment. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, October). Computer Task Group Takes a Front-Row Seat. Business First,(1)  1(50), 2.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID:  5449651).

In typically understated fashion, Computer Task Group Inc. boosted its national presence and professional work force by acquiring three regional computer services firms — all in a matter of five days. The acquisitions bring the number of Computer Task Group operating sites to 45 and raise the company’s total employment to more than 1,750 technical professionals, company President John Courtney said. Computer Task Group, 800 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, would not release terms of acquisition of any of the three companies: Data Force Inc., Seattle; Central Computer Systems Inc., San Francisco; and Documentation Resources Inc., Phoenix, Ariz. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, October). Sierra Research Takes Off With Air Force Contract. Business First,(1)  2(1), 2.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5450110).

The Sierra Research Division of LTV Aerospace and Defense Co. has entered a new era with its successful competition for a $34 million Air Force contract for two technologically sophisticated airplanes, company officials said. The contract marks the first time the company has bid competitively on an entire system, rather than on single components or electronic assemblies for aircraft and other military vehicles, said Thomas Guarino, Sierra Research Division president. The contract also marks the first success of a new business element within Sierra Research: the Advanced Technology Products sector, he said. The new business segment will be built through competitive bidding for government defense projects and will differ in its emphasis on complete systems — not just components. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, October). Supermarket for the Great Lakes Voyagers. Business First,(1)  1(50), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449653).

The larder is empty, the pantry has nary a crumb, and the ship’s hungry crew is starting to grumble. What’s a captain to do? In these parts, captains and crew know whom to call: Al Scott, owner of Inland Seas Chandler at the Elk Market Terminal, Buffalo. Scott is a ship’s chandler, sort of a combination grocer-delivery service for the Great Lakes ships that pass through the Port of Buffalo. Scott sells groceries, meats, produce, foods and marine supplies — whatever a ship might need till it reaches the next port. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, October). Zapping Dreams Into the Chemical Market. Business First,(1)  1(52), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449661).

Norman Weinberg is a master in the complexities of electrochemistry. He knows that by zapping chemicals with electricity, he can produce new kinds of reactions between chemicals. He’s also finding out that by zapping chemicals he can attract research dollars from the federal government, develop new products and send his fledgling company reaching toward the sky. Norman Weinberg, president of Electrosynthesis Co. Inc. at 3230 Union Road, Cheektowaga, and Vice President Hannah Weinberg are Western New York’s leading winners of Small Business Innovation Research grants. The husband-and-wife team is poised to market its first electrochemical process, which was developed with $230,000 in free money from the federal government’s Small Business Innovation Research program. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). A Star Rises Above the Science of Surface. Business First,(1)  1(47), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449619).

Anne Meyer is comfortable in her research laboratory at Calspan Corp., working with her precision instruments and meters, solving mysteries that plague business and industry. She finds herself studying diverse areas, from dolphin skins to book bindings, dental implants to pipe interiors, sheep tissue to hubcaps. She is equally comfortable in ballet slippers or worn dance shoes, since she also is a dancer, a choreographer and artistic director of the Nouvelle Dance Ensemble. Between her daily vocation and her hobby, Meyer manages to fuse the lines between art and science. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). Dental Insurance Firm Expanding into Buffalo. Business First,(1)  1(48), 11.  Retrieved February 2, 2009,from ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449632).

A new form of prepaid dental health care insurance, structured like a dental health maintenance organization, is organizing in Western New York. Dentcare Delivery Systems Inc., based in Garden City, N.Y., is a state-licensed insurance company that provides dental insurance through its own network of affiliated dentists. The company is beginning to offer its dental care plans to Buffalo-area employers and individuals, said Joseph Carney, operations manager of Dentcare. “We’re marketing on a small scale now,” Carney said. “We hope to move that up by the end of this year.” (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). Dreams of a Windfall Ride on the Breeze. Business First,(1)  1(47), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449623).

James Tatar doesn’t particularly care for rain. Or snow, for that matter. But give him a windy day and he’ll be happy. Tatar, president of Windfall Energy Corp., just loves to see the wind blow. Whenever there’s gust — no matter how fast or how slow — Tatar gets to watch his paneled windmill go spinning and twirling, all the while generating power. It looks something like a merry-go-round, rotating horizontally, parallel to the ground. The key feature of the Windfall windmill, though, is a new kind of deflector system that catches even the gentlest breeze, yet can continue to work in the blusteriest conditions, too. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). Hazardous Waste Is a Fact of Modern Life and Industry Is Pressing Its Search for Ways to Reduce, Recycle, Destroy and Contain It. Business First,(1)  1(47), 25.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449624).

For just about every type of product that’s made or manufactured, there is some sort of waste. It is a simple equation, a simple fact in our chemical society. But there is no solution to the waste equation — yet. Everywhere industrialists, ecologists, politicians and economists are grappling with questions about waste: How to deal with it? Where to put it? What’s safe? While answers are being formed, the questions have spawned a new science of waste management, a blending of technologies from biology, chemistry, geology, hydrology, physics — even economics and civil engineering. The study of waste management looks beyond the initial questions and challenges researchers to develop ways to produce less waste, ways to recycle wastes into useable products, ways to destroy toxics and ways on contain the wastes that can’t be destroyed.(excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). Invenex Combining Operations. Business First,(1)  1(49), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449644).

LyphoMed Inc., a Melrose Park, Ill.-based medical supply company, will expand its newest acquisition, Invenex Laboratories on Grand Island, company officials say. LyphoMed will move its medical supplies manufacturing operation from Syracuse to the Grand Island laboratory at 3175 Staley Road by the  end of 1985, said LyphoMed Chief Financial Officer Richard Wieland II. The move will include personnel and inventory from the Syracuse operation, but also may create some new jobs at the Grand Island laboratory in 1986, he said. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). Local Bid Made for Lithotripter. Business First,(1)  1(48), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449634).

A group of Western New York urologists has formed a joint partnership with Buffalo General Hospital to obtain a lithotripter — a machine that uses shock waves to blast kidney stones without surgery. Buffalo General has filed an application with the state for approval to acquire a kidney stone crusher, estimated to cost about $850,000. The equipment would be operated by a joint venture partnership with the Western New York Stone Treatment Center Inc., a for-profit company organized by  urologists, and Buffalo General, said hospital President Dr. William Kinnard Jr. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). Marvin Trott Thinking in a Big Way for His Smallish Electronics Company. Business First,(1)  1(46), 6.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449614).

“Think millions.” So exhorts a small sign strategically placed in Marvin Trott’s modest office. It’s there so Trott has no choice but to notice the sign every time he enters. Not that he needs prompting to think millions. That’s something he enjoys, planning millions — millions in sales, millions in earnings — for his company, Trott Electronics Inc. at 9020 Wehrle Drive, Clarence. Among Trott’s plans for millions are his goals for 1985. He expects the company to produce about $4 million in sales of its custom-made meters, private-label electronic products, distribution and maintenance services. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). Medicare: Putting a Price Tag on Sickness. Business First,(1)  1(46), 23.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID:   5449615).

On Jan. 1, 1986, prodded by new legislation, hospitals across the state will be forced to think of themselves as businesses. The catalyst – or culprit, depending on your viewpoint — is a new reimbursement system to pay hospitals for care provided to Medicare patients, those covered by the federal health insurance program for the elderly. Called a “prospective payment system,” the new program is a radically different means of reimbursement, expected to result in changes that reach the very heart of the health care system. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). New Reimbursement System Gets Mixed Reactions. Business First,(1)  1(46), 27.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449616).

While the diagnosis-related groups-based prospective payment system seems to be fulfilling its goals of reducing hospitalization rates and health care costs, controversy remains. When it comes to diagnosis-related groups, hospitals either love ‘em or hate ‘em. In Michigan, for example, the  diagnosis-related groups system has been in place since 1981 and seems to be working well. But in Maryland, hospitals have successfully quarantined themselves against diagnosis-related groups and plan to continue avoiding them. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, September). New Venture Fund Directed at Health Technologies. Business First,(1)  1(47), 14.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449627).

A venture capital fund is being developed in the Rochester area with a goal of providing investment dollars to health care-related technologies and developments. The fund is the Pittsford Capital Partners 1985, which will be managed by The Pittsford Group, said Logan Cheek, managing principal of the group. The fund currently has a $7 million capitalization with a target of $30 million, Cheek said. The fund has not made an investment yet, but is accepting applications from entrepreneurs for equity investments, he said. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, February). Business Bears Down on Health Costs. Business First,(1)  1(15), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449383).

It’s shaping up as a bout not to be missed. In one corner: the health care providers. Squaring off in the other, a newcomer, a contender: The Western New York Health Care Coalition, a group of about 40 of the area’s largest employers who’ve banded together to flex their collective muscle in a fight against escalating health care costs. The coalition is similar to the nearly 150 business coalitions across the country, most formed within the last three years. In other areas, they’ve experienced varying degrees of success in beating back health care costs with a variety of punches, including coalition-wide boycotts of costly health care centers and lobbying for legislative relief. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, February). Independent Don Murphy: His Clients Are Friends and His Motto Is Service. Business First,(2)  1(17), 4.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449409).

DON MURPHY IS A STALWART ADVOCATE of the old-fashioned way of doing business, functioning in a highly competitive industry that has taken to measuring quality by size. Murphy is an independent insurance agent, proprietor of the M. J. Murphy Agency in Lockport. With 25 years experience selling   insurance and adjusting claims, Murphy is proud of the difference between his company and the major national insurance agencies. Bigger is not better, in his view. Okay, Murphy doesn’t offer his clients a toll-free phone number to make their claims. And he doesn’t send out regular — if impersonal — communications in word-processed form letters. But what Murphy offers is exactly what the large agencies can’t: personal service. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, February). Insurance Hike Squeezes Doctors. Business First,(1)  1(16), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449394).

A crisis in medical liability insurance is facing New York state’s physicians, who have found they lack a scalpel sharp enough to cut the painfully escalating costs of their malpractice insurance. Across the state, doctors are still wincing at the decision of state Insurance Department Superintendent James  Corcoran to increase rates for medical liability or malpractice insurance by 52.3 percent for physicians insured by Medical Malpractice Insurance Association. Corcoran also found that the increase is the minimum increase needed for the state’s other malpractice insurers to remain solvent. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, February). Mentholatum, Twin City Find a Hand in Dental Research. Business First,(1)  1(16), 2.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449395).

What began as an unlikely alliance between a dental researcher and two very different Buffalo manufacturing companies is looking more and more like a study in serendipity. The unusual partnership is providing solutions for all involved and a special unexpected benefit for one member of the trio, which now finds itself with a new product and strong potential for improving working dental technology. It all began with Mentholatum Co., the Buffalo-based manufacturer and marketer. The company had contracted with Dr. Sebastian Ciancio, a dental researcher at the state University at  Buffalo, to assess the effectiveness of its Thermodent toothpaste for people with sensitive teeth. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, February). No Easy Solutions to Malpractice Insurance Hike. Business First,(1)  1(18), 6.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449415).

A dispute over the causes of steep rate hikes for medical malpractice insurance has pitted doctors against lawyers, each pointing blame at the other. While physicians blame attorneys who clog the courts with frivolous lawsuits as a cause of their skyrocketing insurance rates, attorneys argue the doctors cause their own insurance problems and want to use an “artificial” crisis to threaten the rights of health care consumers. One point both sides agree on: the problem is a complex one, one that should not be dealt with simplistically. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, February). Steven Sample: A Demand for Excellence. Business First,(1)  1(18), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449417).

There’s a ground swell of activity under way at the state University of Buffalo these days, a product of Dr. Steven Sample’s quest for excellence in education, research and public service. In three short years since Sample was appointed president of the university, he has stepped into the forefront of Western New York’s revival as a catalyst and an innovator. He is a young, exciting president, an engineer and a teacher, a community leader by choice. He calls himself an optimist, but he also can be characterized as an aggressive idealist, driven by a simple goal: excellence. Nothing less. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, February). The Nose Knows No Wrong at Woodlets. Business First,(1)  1(18), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449418).

There are odors — and then there are odors. Some incite pleasant memories or bring a rush of sweet anticipation, like the gentle fragrance of baby powder or the unmistakably savory promise of fresh baked bread. And then there those of the other kind: the rancid stench of rotting garbage, the close, fetid smell of well-worn tennis shoes or your high school locker room, the pungent reek of your dog’s favorite pillow. Odors like that have given a Buffalo company, Woodlets Inc., a chance to familiarize itself with the clean, sweet smell of success.  Those disgusting odors assure a market for Woodlet’s top product, an aerosol odor-destroyer called Ozium. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, February). Wincorp Buys Into Canada Firm. Business First,(1)  1(15), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449386).

Software Distribution Services of Buffalo last week became an international distributor through its partial acquisition of a Canadian software dealer and now is negotiating a similar partnership with a European distributor. Wincorp, the parent company of Software Distribution Services, acquired 50  percent interest in the Canadian computer software distributor, Aviva Software Corp., said Franklyn Barry Jr., chief executive of Software Distribution. Aviva, which has offices and distribution centers in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Halifax, amassed sales of $4 million in 1984. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, March). A Leader for the Other Side of Health Care. Business First,(1)  1(21), 8.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449432).

These are times when medical miracles are commonplace; by-pass surgery, organ transplants and complex technological treatments and diagnoses occur daily. Yet all require assistance beyond the physician or surgeon, the skilled assistance of the nursing profession. Nursing is another side of health care, a side that has changed as the complexion of medicine has changed, but a side that remains the same in its emphasis on caring and easing pain. It is a bittersweet profession, one that merges simple human emotion and tenderness with the technology of modern medical practice. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, March). A Market Gone Sour for the Milkman. Business First,(1)  1(22), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449440).

It’s slowly souring business, the task of delivering milk and dairy products to homes and families. Sheer numbers show a dramatic decline in the business of home delivery or route sales of dairy products: In 1962, there were about 110 milk dealers in the Niagara Frontier; today, there are just 40 dealers. And 25 years ago, 43 percent of the population had a regular milkman carry fresh milk to their homes; now, only 4 percent of the population has milk delivered. It seems the halcyon days of home delivery are slowly fading into the fabric of the past, apparently for a variety of reasons. Some will say the familiar, friendly milkman is one of a vanishing breed. Yet, others believe the decline is due mostly to the prohibitive cost of delivering a service fewer people seem to want. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, March). Buffalo Radio: Playing the Cash Register Tune. Business First,(1)  1(20), 6.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID:  5449427).

Radio in Buffalo is growing up, maturing, and just like its favorite young urban professional audience, radio seems to have become a bit more concerned with the bottom line. Radio broadcasting is big business in Buffalo — the $18.9 million spent on radio advertising in 1984 is enough to make advertisers and station managers alike pay close attention to who’s listening and why. With sophisticated marketing research techniques in hand, radio stations and advertisers have zeroed in on the one audience that claims the lion’s share of the consumer marketplace: the young up and comers, the urban professionals age 25 to 54, the baby-boomer generation. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, March). Cellular Energized by AIDS TestRace. Business First,(1)  1(20), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449428).

A kind of biotechnolgical Manhattan Project is under way at Cellular Products Inc. in Buffalo. Cellular Products, a publicly held company, is competing with the nation’s giant pharmaceutical and biomedical concerns in the development of a quick and practical test for exposure to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. The efforts exerted at Cellular Products — extra hours on weekends and around-the-clock shifts — and resulting in a palpable excitement and a sense of being on the verge of accomplishment. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, March). Like Good Leather, Steffan’s Trade Endures. Business First,(1)  1(22), 1.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449444).

So you want to dress like Billy Idol, huh? Or you say you lost a couple of studs from that Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket? Maybe you just want to challenge yourself by making your own shoes or by repairing that old horse collar? Perhaps, overcome by a fit of nostalgia, you want to pick up a kit to craft an Indian chief coin purse, just like they make in the Boy Scouts? No matter. If you thirst for anything having to do with leather, there’s a place to quench it: M. Steffan & Sons. A walk through the doors at 761 Main St., Buffalo, is like a step back in time.

The store, as proprietor Norbert Steffan likes to say, hasn’t changed much since its start in 1851. (excerpt)

Tracewell, Nancy (1985, March). Practice, Theory Helps Recast Niagara Frontier. Business First,(1)  1(22), 10.   ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 5449447).

Elaine Forster has nothing but rave reviews for students in environmental design and planning at the state University at Buffalo. Forster, executive director of the Niagara Falls Neighborhood Housing Service Inc., relied on planning students to undertake projects that her staff of six could never have tackled. The students have updated census data, providing current working information for the staff; they also undertook a street-by-street profile of the agency’s loans and investments, complete with interviews of residents and recommendations to the agency. (excerpt)

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