ife is uncertain.
John Neal, owner of Ineeda Laundry & Drycleaners, Inc. in
Hutchinson, Kansas, understands that simple truth and
appreciates every single moment — even when circumstances
don’t go as planned.
“Most things that you think are so
urgent — that the world can’t get along without you
doing them — you find out it really can,” he said.
Even at a young age, John always had a
plan. He wanted to be a lawyer and, eventually, an elected
official. In time, he would accomplish both goals, but he would
also spend most of his life in the cleaning industry, something
he had initially tried hard to avoid.
John’s father, Kenneth, strongly
encouraged his son to follow his dreams even though his own
life had not initially gone in the direction he hoped it would.
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The laundry was part of a drycleaning,
laundry and textile rental chain called Home Service Laundries.
Kenneth Neal worked his way up into management, and, in 1946,
he teamed up with his father and the company’s general
manager — Gene Shmalberg — to buy the business.
John, born in 1941, grew up around the
facility in Hutchinson that his father managed.
“When I got old enough, I drove as a
relief driver in the summer and on vacations,” he
recalled. “Prior to that, I washed windows and helped
sort clothing. I can remember having to sort women’s
underwear and all these women that worked down there would make
fun of me. I can still remember that to this day because I was
so embarrassed. I paid my dues.”
Though he worked hard for the company,
John had no interest in pursuing a career there. His passion
came from participating on the debate team at school. In fact,
after he graduated high school, he attended Hutchinson
Community College for a year and was part of the team that won
the national debate program that year.
The following year he attended the
University of Kansas where he studied political science and
international relations and graduated in 1963. On campus, he
met a former high school classmate, Darla, whom he married 40
years ago.
John and Darla wanted a life together in
diplomatic foreign service. When John received a Fulbright
Scholarship to go to Spain during their first year of marriage,
the couple seemed well on their way to leading the life they
wanted. Then, they hit a bump in the road. Ironically, it was
the road itself.
Going to Spain wasn’t exactly the
fun experience John had anticipated.
“I went to the University of Madrid.
That didn’t work out very well. It turns out, I
didn’t know Spanish well enough. I knew it, but I had not
been in a situation where I had to use it exclusively so I had
a lot of trouble in school,” John said.
The young couple also quickly discovered
that they were extremely homesick for their families in Kansas.
“While we were down there, we
decided that we really wanted to put our roots down somewhere
near our home,” John noted. “It made us realize
that foreign service was not what we wanted to do.”
The couple moved back to the states where
John went to law school at the University of Kansas while Darla
supported them by working as a junior high school teacher. In
1967, John went to work for the largest firm in the state
— now known as Foulston Siefkin — in Witchita. He
cut his teeth on personal injury cases and was back on course
with his life. However, there was an ambiguous feeling he just
could not shake.
“The firm treated me
fantastically,” he recalled. “I did well. I enjoyed
parts of it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the rest
of my life trying lawsuits. I was really surprised at that
because that’s what I thought I wanted to do.”
eanwhile, in the late 1950s, John’s father
and Gene Shmalberg had decided to split their company into two
corporations. Kenneth Neal now fully owned the business in
Hutchinson.
As John was wondering if he was going in
the direction he wanted, his life turned upside down when his
father died of a heart attack in 1969. After giving the matter
a lot of thought, John decided to move back to Hutchinson and
buy the family business from his mother and brothers.
Due to factors such as the polyester
revolution, new minimum wage laws for laundries, and the
emergence of permanent press and doubleknit garments, the next
five years proved to be extremely stressful for John and his
business.
“The drycleaning industry went into
a slump about the time I got there,” he laughed. “I
thought it would surely be an easy job — if you
could be a lawyer, you could be a businessman — but I
quickly had my eyes opened.”
Fortunately, an old family friend was
there to offer support. Gene Shmalberg’s son, Bob, had
taken over his father’s business and had plenty of advice
to give. Most importantly, he introduced John to John Hill, a
consultant who helped save his business.
“I credit John Hill with getting me
off the ground in the early years,” John said. “It
was a real struggle. We decided to grow the textile rental side
of the business because the drycleaning side was in a
slump.”
In 1974, they closed the drycleaning
operations down and concentrated on the dust control and rental
uniform and linen aspect of Ineeda, which proved to be
successful for the next 20 years.
By 1994, John had decided to acquire two
drycleaning plants and he slowly shifted his business in the
other direction when he sold the rental division to Aramark.
At that point in his life, John wanted to
free up more time so he could actively pursue community work.
He’s been quite busy over the years,
including a stint on the city council for four years and a term
as mayor. He also served as president of the Hutchinson Chamber
of Commerce and worked as a board member for the local hospital
and the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.
ohn also found time to help the cleaning
industry. He has been president of the Mid-America Fabricare
Association, as well as the Textile Rental Service Association.
He is probably most proud of his work on
the state’s Dry Cleaning Facility Release Trust Fund,
which charges a surcharge on gallons of perc and gross receipts
for drycleaners in order to raise money for assistance in
cleaning up environmentally contaminated sites.
“Right after New Year’s Day,
we met with an attorney that was with the firm I had been with
in Witchita many years before and he drafted the law, which we
worked with him on and proofed and everything,” John
recalled.
“Then, it got submitted to the
Kansas Legislature when they went into session in mid-to-late
January of 1995. By April 16 of that year, it was signed by the
governor. It was just an unheard of thing that a major piece of
legislation like this could be drafted, proposed and signed
into law all in the same year. It was due to the concerted
effort of drycleaners across the state.”
For his role in the proceedings, IFI
honored John with its Legislative Regulatory award in 2001. As
much as he enjoys that distinction, John’s just thankful
that the law was passed.
“We’ve been very fortunate and
I credit that state law with saving my business, along with 70
to 80 other cleaners who are now part of the protection of that
fund,” John said. “I would have been a Superfund
site at one of my sites — maybe both of them had it not
been for that. As a Superfund site, I would have been out of
business by now.”
Though John is happy his business his
doing well these days, he’s more concerned with the more
personal things in life: his family, which includes two sons,
David and Matthew, and many grandkids.
John likes to think that he has always
appreciated each day, but he found a whole new respect
for life last year when he was diagnosed with chronic
lymphocyctic leukemia.
The deadly disease brought back painful
memories of John and Darla’s first son, Michael, who died
in 1972 of acute lymphocyctic leukemia when he was almost four
years old.
Certainly, cancer has affected
John’s life on many levels — at times casting a
dark shadow over it — but, he is still able to recognize
his blessings.
“It has been a whole new chapter to
my life. It made me change some priorities and realize
what’s really important,” he beamed. “One of
the neat things that has happened is that my family and friends
and employees have been so supportive. I am just so
grateful.”
John has been the recipient of many kind
gestures, but one sticks out clearly in his mind. His son David
wanted to find a way he could show his father his support so he
opted to participate in the 26.2-mile Walt Disney Marathon for
Leukemia in January.
“He had never run a marathon
before,” John noted. “He raised over $34,000 for
leukemia as a runner and came in as the largest fundraiser in
the entire Walt Disney marathon — out of 26,000
runners.”
With such inspiration to guide him, John
has no intention of ever giving up. “I’ve been
undergoing chemotherapy every three weeks. It’s not an
onerous thing — other than it leaves me feeling pretty
wiped out for three or four days. But the rest of the time I
feel good and can do most of the things that I want to
do,” he said. “I’m determined to be a
survivor.”
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