Most people look back on their firsts with a sense of nostalgia, the first day of school, first kiss, first car, and first job.
Generally, the starting point in life seems worlds away from the conclusion, when things finally settled down or when everything started to fall into place. For Roland J. Knaggs things fell into place a little earlier in life than most.
Back in 1966, Mr. Knaggs started making his first house calls for Stoll Rug & Furniture Cleaning, and 56 years later Roland Knaggs is still a vital part of the rug & furniture cleaning business.
“It was my first and only job,” said Mr. Knaggs, now 72, remembering his time as a teenager in North Towne, “I was a Junior at Whitmer...and right when summer was over I came to work at Stoll’s.”
Mr. Knaggs recalls those first years early into his career.
“I was making $83 a week, which was pretty good money back then,” he said.
Much of the work Mr. Knaggs did in the first two decades of his time at Stoll’s was delivery driving.
“That’s where I learned to drive a stick shift,” he explained, “...it would take two guys on a truck to pick up sofas,” and then bring them back to the Stoll’s facility at 4032 Secor Rd. to be cleaned with heavy equipment.
Today Mr. Knaggs is a rug binding technician, which keeps him from touching on the most physically grueling aspects of the work available at Stoll’s.
Still, for a 72-year-old man, Mr. Knaggs, can get down on his knees to deal with carpets and rugs, and can easily lift a heavy load around the warehouse.
Instead of moving furniture or driving trucks, Mr. Knaggs sits over a heavy-duty pedal sewing machine working with different threads and speeds to bind fabrics in just the right way, while chatter from a police scanner chimes in so he can keep an eye on his youngest son, a law enforcement officer.
“I ain’t a millionaire,” Mr. Knaggs said. “The money was never that great, but it was steady.”
Throughout his time at Stoll’s Rug & Furniture Cleaning Mr. Knaggs admits that he never really had serious thoughts about leaving the company and that he was pretty satisfied with his work.
“It was just the variety of stuff you did, and it wasn’t like you were working at a factory doing the same thing day in and day out,” he said.
At the core of his reason for staying in the same place was a strong connection, and a high probability for human interaction.
When he was younger Mr. Knaggs got to meet a variety of different people in the community.
“Every day you’re in a different house with different people, and some people’s good and some people’s bad, so you get what you get.”
Around the warehouse, he is known as Ron and enjoys talking and joking with his coworkers.
“He's just a real good guy. Good family man...He just shows up and you don’t even think about it,” said Doug Gorrell the General Manager for Stoll Rug & Furniture Cleaning, speaking about Ron who came with the acquisition of Stoll Rug & Furniture Cleaning when Gorrell’s family bought the business in 1979.
“He’s a fixture,” Mr. Gorrell said summarizing the way Ron’s consistency has become a normal part of the company’s culture, and this loyalty has flowed both ways.
When Ron transitioned to becoming a Binding Technician it was because Mr. Gorrell noticed that Ron was having an adverse reaction to some of the cleaning solutions that were used on the furniture and carpets. The solution for Gorrell was to retrain him as a Binding Technician to keep him away from the harsher chemicals that were damaging his skin, and 30 years later Ron is one of their most valued employees.
In a word Ron is content. Ron kept the same job he had for 56 years, and kept his same wife, Donna, for 52. There is no burning desire for Ron to be somewhere else, in fact, he said, “I don’t enjoy doing traveling. I’d rather go up to the lake and just relax.”
And relaxing is what Ron looks forward to doing soon. In the upcoming weeks, Ron hopes to instill decades of knowledge into his replacement.
Perhaps Ron is not ready to plan a date for his retirement, and who could blame him for taking it slow after 56 years. One thing Mr. Knaggs is planning on doing is heading up to Fenwick Marina with his wife to do some fishing and getting some more time with his sons and grandsons.
Mr. Gorrell summed up this transitionary time for Ron.
“Gonna’ miss him. I think everybody's gonna’ miss him. But it's time for him to enjoy his life.”
First Published January 8, 2022, 12:56 p.m.
