Junior Achievement 2018 Hall of Fame Laureate Robert Pennev.

PositionJunior Achievement

Robert Penney is the founder of Penco Properties, a business he continues to operate today with his son, Henry. Penney grew up in Portland, Oregon; his father was a fireman and his mother was an assistant in a dentist's office. On September 4, 1951, he arrived in Anchorage, where he launched a lifelong career in business. Penney says that instead of a deep interest in any one industry, he had a passion for business and entrepreneurship: "My first semester of college after high school, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to be--a CPA, a doctor, or a scientist, and I kind of lost interest [in college]. Then when I moved to Alaska and started in a retail lumber yard, all of a sudden, I said, 'I want to be a business man,' so that's been my goal since." Below are selections from an interview with Penney, conducted by Alaska Business.

How did you get your start in business?

I've done about everything you can imagine in Anchorage, business-wise. From 1957 forward I've been a mobile home dealer, been an RV dealer, developed real estate and mobile home parks, [and] I've had quite a few retail businesses--everything I thought there was an opportunity for and I had the resources for, I would try and see if I could make it work.

What drew you from Oregon to Alaska?

I used to work in a lumber yard when I was in high school and I worked all the time on weekend and evenings. One of the brothers [at the yard] had been in WWII up here, and he told us that one of his partners would like to open a branch lumber yard in Anchorage. So, we drove up the Alcan at 1951 and we opened up a lumber yard on Post Road. At the time, I think the only streets paved in Anchorage were 4th and 5th Avenue, 9th Avenue, and Spenard Road. There were roughly 25,000 people in Anchorage.

What was your first business?

If you won't laugh at me, it was trying to make French fries. At the time, I was mopping out a restaurant every day for my meals. While there, sometimes I'd have to make French fries for the restaurant. I said, "Why the heck don't I try to do that?" So I went down to Gottstein's, bought two tons of potatoes, shaved them, got a French fry slicer, and sliced them and delivered French fries to a whole bunch of businesses in Spenard. The problem I had is, if they didn't use the French fries right away, they'd start going brown. I didn't know anything about blanching them like they do today, [he laughs].

It was successful, but not as successful as it should be because of all...

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