Retirement not an option for man with many careers

Local Business

Retirement not an option for man with many careers
BY Joyce Lobeck, Sun Staff Writer
Jan 27, 2007

Doug Calvet isn't bucking for retirement or a gold watch.

"I tell my kids no one should stay in the same business for 35 years and get a gold watch. Change is good."

He certainly is an example of his own advice. Calvet is on his third career and thriving on it.

"At my age, I probably should be retired, but I'll never retire. I'm happy right here doing what I'm doing."

However, he now comes into the office at 9 in the morning instead of 6:30 a.m. And he's looking forward to turning the day-to-day operation of his business, Coldwell Banker Crimson Sky Realty, over to his daughter, Katie, and slowing down a little.

Owner and broker of a real estate agency in Yuma is a long way from where he originated and from the beginning of his working life.

He was raised in the small town of Monroe, N.Y., near West Point. When he was in high school, his family moved to Southern California, where his parents had a small ranch with chickens, turkeys, cattle, horses — and 200 fig trees.

That got him involved in 4-H and FFA and led to a fascination with farm equipment. Off to college at Fresno State University, he majored in the farm machinery program.

"What I really went to college for was sports. I was a runner and a pole vaulter, but I wasn't much of a student."

By chance, he said, he took some business courses and found new direction in his life. "I loved them, especially accounting and management. That turned me around."

That's also where he met his wife, Julie, whose father was a noted viticulturist and professor there.

With a degree in business and an interest in farm machinery, Calvet went to work for New Holland, a farm equipment company. That job led him "all over the country," he said, managing dealerships from Louisiana to Arizona and California.

In 1982, it brought him to Yuma to manage the two New Holland dealerships in Yuma and Roll.

When New Holland was bought out, he would have had to leave Yuma to stay in the business, Calvet said. That wasn't an option. "My family loved it here."

So in 1991, Calvet went to work for Rain for Rent, overseeing that company's irrigation operations in Yuma and Imperial counties as well as Nogales, Ariz., and Mexico.

"I've been all over Mexico," he said. That lost its appeal as kidnappers began targeting rich farmers and people who did business with them, he said.

Despite that downside to the business, Calvet said he enjoyed the challenges that came with the job, like growing the business. That included opening the Yuma office and starting Rain for Rent's custom sprinkler business to germinate produce.

Partnering with a Bard farmer, he started with 600 acres and when he left the company in 1999, the sprinkler business had grown to 10,000 acres, requiring 300 semi-trucks to move the pipes and pumps from field to field.

But the agriculture business was taking its toll on his health, Calvet said. Faced with uncontrollable high blood pressure at the age of 54, it was again time for him to move on.

Next, he briefly worked in Southern California as vice president of Ag Supply. "We decided to part company, I took my check and came back to Yuma."

That's when he decided to pursue a career in real estate. "Supposedly, that's less stressful," he said, laughing.

He enrolled in a real estate school at night and got his license in 2000. After a couple of years of working for other agencies, he purchased the Coldwell Banker franchise and opened his own office "from scratch" with one agent.

Today, he's grown the business to 25 agents, including his daughter, and offices in Yuma and the Foothills. On the drawing board is a new office based on other Coldwell Banker offices he visited around the state, especially one in Scottsdale.

He hopes to break ground in April or May. Located at 16th Street and 8th Avenue, it would triple his current space, giving him room to grow the business some more.

That is, after all, a challenge he enjoys. And even more, he said, he likes to watch people grow professionally and personally. 'There's a lot of gratification in watching the younger real estate agents grow in the business. I try to give people an opportunity and let them run with it."

Asked what he does for fun, he laughs. "I don't."

But then, he quickly added, he's rejoined the Yuma Golf & Country Club and is "trying to make time to play golf with my buddies."

Best of all, he said, is the time he spends with his six "wonderful grandchildren. I go to soccer games, I watch my oldest grandson's golf lesson, I go to my granddaughter's ballet."

STATS & FACTS
NAME: DOUG CALVET
POSITION: OWNER AND BROKER OF COLDWELL BANKER CRIMSON SKY REALTY
EDUCATION: BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN BUSINESS FROM FRESNO STATE COLLEGE
CAREERS: CALVET FIRST MANAGED NEW HOLLAND FARM EQUIPMENT DEALERSHIPS, THEN WENT TO WORK FOR RAIN FOR RENT AND NOW IS IN REAL ESTATE
ADVICE: "NO ONE SHOULD STAY IN THE SAME BUSINESS. FOR PEOPLE TO GROW, THEY NEED CHANGE."