Maurice Udes Interview (Part I)

Hello. I'm Maury Udes. I have lived in Omaha since I think 1949.

I'd like to tell you a little bit about my family background. My dad's family came from Russia. My dad was born in Russia. He was about six months old when his parents left and came here and I'm happy to say they brought him with them. And I'm sorry to say, my father passed away a few years ago, but he was wonderful gentleman and I really enjoyed him. On my mother side, they came from Germany. My mother, my grandmother immigrated here when she was about 14. She came by herself. I don't know why. I never heard those details, but her family sent her to relatives in Arkansas, which is where I was born and raised and had a great boyhood down there.

When were you born?

November 23rd, 1921.

Tell me a little bit about growing up in Arkansas.

Well, I don't know that I ever grew up, but it was wonderful down there when I was young. I had a great boyhood, had a lot of friends. A lot of them I'm still in contact with.

Do you have a lot of memories for the house you lived in or the houses you lived in?

Well, yes, but not really. I left there a long time ago and I remember the houses I've lived in here in Omaha, probably more than those I lived in Arkansas. Anyway, I had a great boyhood there, had a lot of good friends and I've gone back for every class reunion we've ever had. Although I really enjoy Omaha, I still have wonderful memories of my boyhood and my friends in Arkansas.

Do you have any brothers or sisters?

I have a younger sister, but she isn't doing very well. She's waiting for her replacement kidney and I don't know if she'll ever get it. She's about seven years younger than I am. And she just, she just isn't doing well.

Where does she live?

She lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.

What kind of work did your father do while you were growing up?

Well, the family had a wholesale grocery business and my uncle ran it and my dad worked for him. Family-owned wholesale grocery business. And, after prohibition was repealed, they started wholesaling liquor and beer, and then they put in their own bottling plant. They bottled their own wine and it was quite an enterprise they had.

Did you work there growing up?

Oh, I worked there in the summer, just filling orders and trying to build some muscle.

Did you go to high school in the same area?

Yeah. We had a great high school and our high school all the years I was there our high school had a great football team and that they had to win the state championship about every second year. And that's quite an accomplishment for a small town like that. And our better athletes, they didn't go to University of Arkansas, they went to Alabama and pretty soon everybody was calling us an Alabama farm team.

When you graduated from high school, Maury, did you go on to the university?

Well, I went to Purdue I didn't go to University of Arkansas and math was my favorite subject, my best subject in high school. And I discussed it with my math teacher and he recommended that I go to Purdue and that's what I did. So I went to Purdue, graduated, went in the service as soon as I got out of high school, World War II.

What kind of degree did you get from Purdue?

A bachelor of science in electrical engineering.

And right from Purdue, you went into the service?

Yeah. Purdue had people out interviewing graduating seniors every year. They interviewed me and I thanked them for the interview. And I says I'm going into the service soon as I finish here, that's final. Well, nothing can be done to change it. I'm not trying to change it. But, when I come back, if I come back, I'd like to know that I could I contact your then? And I, if you have an opening, go to work for you. They said we'd be happy if you would contact us. So I did. And I, I got out of the service. I worked for GE for short time. And then I went on to other things.

What were some of the other things you did after that?

Well, I went out and found a job where I could make more money, where I thought I had entered the job would introduce me to better opportunities for advancement was a job with Lyon Metal Products. And Lyon was a manufacturer of products from light cages light cages of steel. And they had a wonderful line and it just had went real well for me. They were a great company to work for.

Did you do a lot of traveling?

Well, at first I traveled the state of Arkansas and then we had a sales meeting in Kansas City. And at that time I had worked, I had been working as a salesman for two years, but Arkansas was not the best place to sell the type products Lyon had. So we had a sales meeting and I approached the president of the company and I told him that. I said, well, I've been working in sales for you for two years now. I said, I wish you could give some consideration to giving me a better sales territory, more potential. He says, okay. And he turned and walked away. And I didn't know if he meant, uh, oh, okay I'll, I'll give you a better territory or if he meant, okay, the conversation's over. But, I was transferred to Chicago, had a wonderful opportunity there and from there I was transferred to Omaha and had a wonderful opportunity here. And so I'm just real happy with the way things went for a while, went for me with Lyon Metal Products.

When you're with them for quite a number of years?

Well, I was with them in Arkansas for two years. And I think I must have been with them here for four years. So it was probably close to six years and I worked for them.

What was your next step then in life?

Well, then I went into business for myself.

Doing what?

Well, I started a lumberyard. I jumped right out of what I had been learning and it was worked out well for me.

How did you happen to get into a business like that Maury?

Well, I was looking for a job and my, Lyon Metal, was advertising for salesman. So I interviewed with, and I felt there was exactly what I was looking for. And he gave me a great opportunity to learn about, get educated and a huge line of products at Lyon Manufacturing. And it was just a real natural.

Then how did you happen to work yourself into the lumber business?

Well, Lyon made a line of steel kitchen cabinets, and at that time, Youngstown was a big name in steel kitchen cabinets and Lyon made a steel kitchen cabinet line too. And, both made a very superior line, but Lyon had a price advantage and you could go up against anybody and everything fell into place so easily. So I got acquainted with a lot of builders and it led me into the lumber business.

And you branched out in the lumber business, doing everything — hardware, lumber and so on. Didn't ya?

Well, I started manufacturing wooden kitchen cabinets. That was, that was a great thing.

And then did you get into doors and windows?

Yeah. Sure did.

How many years were you in the lumber business?

I'm not sure. I don't want to say eight or nine years. It went real well.

A lot of hard work?

A lot of good work.

I'd like you to tell me a little bit about your time in the service.

Okay. Well, I think I was in the service about four years. I think I was overseas a year, two and a half years, and I was in England, France, Belgium, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. I enjoyed every minute of it. I got a lot of beautiful training, wonderful education. And I came right out of college, right out of engineering school into the service. And I was field artillery man. In the field artillery, you use some math and after I had finished my artillery training, they took me on the sound and flash ranging where you can locate enemy artillery just by the sound of the enemy's gun firing. You could accurately locate his map coordinates. You can triangulate 'em and you could give his coordinates to our own artillery. They could fire one shell out there. We triangulate on where that shell detonated and give him another, another rating. And the next shell would be right on top of their artillery. There was a wonderful, and we had a lot of ammunition. The Germans were short of everything. They started the war with the greatest army, mechanized army, in the history of the world. As early as 1942, they were running out of everything.

You went in as an enlisted man?

Yes. I went in as an enlisted man, and then I went to OCS, I got a commission and I became a battery commander. And, I came out as a captain.

You enjoyed all your time in the service.

I enjoyed every minute of it. It was great stuff. And it all worked.

What outfits where you with?

Well, it's been so long ago. It's been so long since I've thought about it. I'm having a little trouble recalling. I'm having trouble remembering the numbers.

You were telling me earlier, Maury, about a trip you had made to the Gurs concentration camp. I'd like you to tell me that again.

Well, I think I mentioned earlier, my grandmother was born in Germany and she immigrated here when she was about 14. Her family sent her to relatives in Arkansas. I don't know the story connected with that. I don't know why they sent her alone, but she came with no escort to relatives in Arkansas when she was 14 years old. What was your question?

We were talking about the trip you made to Gurs.

Oh yeah. Anyway, my grandmother's, my grandmother had a sister who did not immigrate and they were putting all the Jews in the concentration camps. So her sister was put in this camp in France, it's called camp De Gurs. And my grandmother did everything she could for her. Which of course was very limited. She sent her clothing. She sent her groceries. She sent her a little money, the amount of money you could send was limited. A little bit of American money would go a long ways in Germany at that time. So my grandmother continued to send her, her sister money. And my grandmother had her son get an attorney and they drew papers for the sister's emigration. And I don't think she ever got papers or when she did, it was too late. And her sister wrote that she had taken in this young girl, which to us meant that she had informally adopted her. And she said that if the papers didn't also cover this little girl, she said she wouldn't leave her behind. So I felt my grandmother's sister was one of the heroines of the Holocaust because she did stay behind with her step daughter. And they were both lost.

Wasn't it at a later you tried to make the trip to Gurs camp?

Yes, I did make the trip.

Can you tell me about that?

Well, I finished up the war as a prisoner of war in Germany.

I told . . . already cleared that with, I told him, I told him that.

But you did make the trip to Gurs?

You know, I've been, I've been a prisoner of war myself. And when I got out of a PW camp, I got a Jeep, told my commanding officer of my aunt, and I told him I wanted to go look. I was given permission to go and look for her. When I got to this camp De Gurs, where she had been the last time we heard from her and there were no inmates there and we heard they had all been sent to what I told you, the name of the camp.

Auschwitz.

They had all been sent to Auschwitz, for extermination.

When did you come home from the service?

Yeah, I think it was May of 1944.

And that's when you went to work for the metal company.

No, I went to work for GE. And then after that, I went to work for Lyon Metal.

And then that's what brought you to Omaha.

Yeah.

You have a lot of good memories about Omaha, Maury?

Omaha. It's just been wonderful to me.

You've enjoyed your years here?

Have enjoyed my years and, and great opportunities here. And I'm real grateful for the opportunities that I've had here.

Through a lot of hard work.

Well, it it's fun work under the circumstances that I have.

I'd like you to tell me a little bit about your dancing.

Well, that's her hobby and I'm supposed to get a lot of exercise. I have to have exercise. I'm a diabetic, that calls for exercise. And I get my exercise through my dance. My wife is a great dancer. She's one of the best female amateur dancers in the country. And then we have gone to a lot of dance competitions and we always do well. And we have a lot of fun.

You travel around the country doing this?

Yeah, we go to about six competitions a year.

All over the country?

Yeah.

You've always enjoyed dancing. Have you?

Yeah, I've enjoyed it for a long time. The Ohio Star Ball is the biggest competition. The last time we were there, I think they had 16,000 entries.

And you were among those 16,000. How did you do?

Oh, I don't remember that. And I've got the metals downstairs and I'm not sure I could tell you which year I won which metals.

It's kinda nice to enjoy those things too, isn't it?

Yeah. But there's always another one coming up and we're always getting prepared for the next one.

Takes a lot of practice?

Takes a lot of practice.

Tell me about your family Maury.

Um, my wife and I were both married before, so we each had two families. We have six daughters, two grandchildren. And they're, they're just wonderful. We enjoy them all.

Did they live here in Omaha?

They all started here in Omaha. But Joan's daughters all live someplace else. Mine all live here.

And you get together as a family quite often?

Well, we get together as often as we can. I think we see a lot of each other.

Well, I wanted to stop and give you a, let you catch your breath for a second.

Maury, in 2001 you were honored by the Omaha Business Hall of Fame. I'd like to read the citation that was given you at that time.

Thank you.

Energy, ideas and involvement in the community describe Maury Udes. Starting as a manufacturer's representative in 1946, the World War II veteran built a lumber and building supply business into what is today one of the largest single location lumberyards in the country. Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Udes graduated from Purdue University with an electrical engineering degree and then spent the next three years in the army field artillery in war-torn Europe. In 1946, Udes returned to Arkansas and took a sales job with Lyon Metal Products. He then transferred to Omaha and continued representing Lyon. He started Builders Supply Company in 1951 at an old coal yard site. The company first sold lumber and other building materials and later expanded into millwork. After several expansions, the company moved to the 35 acre site at 5701 South 72nd Street, where it currently operates. In 1971, Udes set up one of the first employee stock ownership plans, ESOP, and began turning over company ownership to the employees. Today, the company is totally owned by its over 220 employees. Now retired from Builders Supply Company, Udes remains active in land development through several companies. In the past 25 years, he has developed many residential subdivisions. Through the Metropolitan Omaha Builders Association, MOBA, Udes fought ordinances which would restrict growth and was instrumental in helping pass LB 775 and LB 270 business growth incentive.

That's quite an honor, Maury.

Thank you.

This is a picture of my mother and her family. In the upper left-hand corner is her brother, Dan. And next to Dan, its his wife Etta. And then next to Etta is my mother's brother-in-law Stanley. And next to Stanley is his wife my mother's sister and then the next row down on the left side is my mother's brother Leon. And then my mother's father and mother, and then on the far right, is my mother. And that's the complete family.

This is my grandmother's sister and her husband. The sister is the one that went to the camp De Gurs concentration camp, which was close to the Spanish border, French-Spanish border. And she did not survive.

This is my maternal grandfather that I'm named after. His name was Morris.

This is my grandmother in her younger years. Her name, my grandmother's name, was Francis.

This is my grandmother Francis, as she appeared when she was somewhat older.

This is my mother when she was a young girl.

This is my mother with a happy smile on her face. She was still young, but older than she was in the prior picture.

This is a picture of my Dad.