Alaska Business Hall of Fame Laureates Larry S. Cash and Barbara L. Cash.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Junior Achievement - Interview

2017 Alaska Business Hall of Fame Laureates Larry S. Cash and Barbara L. Cash, interviewed with Tasha Anderson, Alaska Business Monthly's Associate Editor; below are excerpts from the interview.

ABM: How did you get your start?

Barbara: Getting my start in business came after deciding to get my degree in interior design, and design space design had been a passion of mine since I was very young. After getting my degree, I came to Alaska ... It didn't take me long to figure out that commercial design is really where my passion lay. I worked for a company that was established here and in Seattle. In 1978, when the economy started to drop off here, they moved their operation in-total back to Seattle. And I was left saying " I want to stay here, so what do I do?" and to my good fortune and a real blessing, some client said, "We've enjoyed working with you, we'd like to continue working with you." That was an unexpected gift to me that I was able to just start right in and continue that working relationship, but on my own.

Larry: I've always been driven as a person to achieve and be the best--I'm very competitive in that respect. Hard work to me wasn't hard work, it was fun. I got my degree in architecture, had an opportunity to work in Palo Alto, California, and worked there for four years. Then the opportunity to see Alaska came up, so I came to Anchorage, sight unseen, for a year with a one-year commitment working for another firm. Eventually became a partner in that firm.

And there came a point in my career when I knew it was time for a change and I, talking with Barb and praying about it, made the decision to start my own company.

ABM: What were your parents like and what was your family life and upbringing like?

Barbara: [My parents] weren't in business; my dad was a chaplain in the Air Force and my mother a registered nurse and nursing instructor. I'm the only one in my family who actually went into business.

Larry: I grew up in a construction-oriented family, contractors and rock masons and carpenters and whatnot. My dad, in the early years of mom and dad's marriage, was working construction, and there was a lot of travel involved, and they didn't want to be apart from one-another. So early after they were married, my dad got the job as the mailman. Being the mailman, my dad got to know everybody. Anytime any of the farmers wanted to sell a piece of land, he was the first to know about it. So he started buying and selling land, and that...