The story of how my family came to America, to the “land of milk and honey”, in search of opportunity and of how Sam Shemper (no doubt with the help and support of his wife Goldie) ended up in the scrap business is not unique. Their circumstances demanded they be entrepreneurs. Scrap dealers have commissioned books to be written on their businesses but the genesis of all of the stories is rooted in the need to survive and thrive in their newfound countries. The stories are all the same only the cast of characters differs. From S. Shemper & Co. to Ben Shemper & Sons, Inc. to HCS Trading, “from generation to generation"––l'dor v'dor, as it is said in our Jewish tradition.
Much has been said and written about experience. As long as we are open to receiving all that our senses allow, in the end, all that we are is a result of our experience. Experience gives us understanding and compassion, experience gives us knowledge and expertise, and experience ultimately gives us confidence to be brave and take risks.
But our experience is often informed (if not guided) by our history and the histories of those that came before us. Our broad understanding of how the world around us operates, the development and flourishing of the principles by which we live our lives and operate our businesses, our conscious choice to abide by such maxims of “treat others how you want to be treated”, are all informed (if not guided) by our history. As time marches on and we constantly are adapting to today’s operating realities with an eye always on the future, our identity lies not in past but rather in a present informed by the past. Albert Einstein once said: “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.” The more we know and learn and accept our histories, the sooner we can live our full potential in the present with the hope we can bring about a brighter tomorrow. Out of darkness comes light.
As time marched on, members of the Shemper Family were fruitful and multiplied. Eventually the business did not evolve in a manner that allowed it to efficiently support the growing number of family members. Approached by much larger organizations looking to grow, Ben Shemper & Sons, Inc. took advantage of what was the right opportunity at the time and was sold in May 2007.
Today, there are entrepreneurial members of the family in the professions of health/medicine and mental wellness, professional tennis instruction, real estate, law, science, and business and finance to name but a few. And there are still some of us who continue on in the tradition of earlier generations of the family in the scrap metal industry.
Whether by choice or whether by lack of design to fight against the currents of the stream of time or perhaps a combination of the two, in the end, I did not follow the oft-repeated advice of my grandmother Esther Shemper who after spending some of the prime years of her life during the latter years of The Great Depression working at “The Shop” (aka, the scrapyard) would advise: “Become a doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief, there are easier ways to make a living”. And while she was no doubt right, the work while still demanding has certainly become easier over time with the advent of various technological innovations.
And with those thoughts in mind, as the past has become the present, HCS Trading pays homage to the legacy of generations of family members, employees, scrap suppliers, and consumers that came before......