He grows business from the ground up.

• Author: Willis, Dail
• Position: PEOPLE - David Pike

David Pike's introduction to the rose business was far from fragrant: The owner of Witherspoon Rose Culture Inc.--Pike's father-in-law--put him in a dump truck, drove to a manure-filled cow shed near Durham, gave him a shovel and said, "We need that back at the shop."

Twenty-six years later, Pike laughs about it. "I was a college graduate, I married the owner's youngest daughter--so I thought, 'I'll be president by the first of the year.' But my father-in-law had other ideas." It took several days to shovel the manure and far longer to learn how to dig and maintain a rose bed.

But Pike persevered and in 1985 became president of what is now Durham-based Witherspoon-Pike Enterprises Inc., which still does business as Witherspoon Rose Culture. It plants and maintains rose gardens for about 2,200 customers around the state. Witherspoon Rose Culture, which had revenue of $3.7 million last year, visits each garden at least 21 times a year to plant or replant, fertilize, prune and treat rose bushes. It also sells plants and related products through catalogs and a garden shop.

Pike, 49, was born in Virginia and grew up in Greensboro. He studied religion at what's now Campbell University in Buies Creek. He met Rhonda Witherspoon his freshman year when she joined him and some friends in a game of spades. They married after graduating in 1978 and moved to Greenville, where she took graduate courses in early childhood development at East Carolina University. Pike worked as assistant manager of a Rose's store in Greenville, but he didn't like it much. In 1979, he accepted his father-in-law's invitation to try out the business. His wife began working there the next year and is vice president.

Witherspoon is nearing its third generation and 55th year. Robert K...