Key to management success simple, for Harry Hawkins

Managing a room full of craftsmen and artists could be a real challenge, but Harry Hawkins, the new production manager at World Wide Sign Systems in Carson City, makes it look easy.

"I treat my workers with respect. They respond to that," he said "We're all equals here. No one is held above the rest."

Hawkins doesn't believe in a hard-nosed approach to management, a reflection of the ideals he learned as a child.

"My dad was a hard worker, and he instilled my values," he said. "He worked in construction and did just about everything, from roofing to cement work, to put four kids through school."

Hawkins was born and raised in Carson City. He attended St. Teresa of Avila School then went on to Bishop Manogue High School in Reno. He graduated in 1975, then interned at the Ad-Ar Sign Co. in Stockton, Calif.

In the business for more than 20 years, he took the position with World Wide on April 7.

The wholesale company is on Sigstrom Drive in Carson City's industrial area, just north of the airport.

A Wells Fargo Financial sign bound for Guam is on one work table. The familiar Toyota logo is still on the drawing board on another.

Art meets science in this unique field, and the details are left to the group of 13 employees at the plant. Plastic, aluminum, neon and wood laminate are the primary media.

Companies send ideas to the parent organization in Wisconsin before they're forwarded to the Carson City plant.

"If it weren't for these people's talent and know-how, I wouldn't be able to do my job," Hawkins said.

In his spare time, Hawkins enjoys taking his dad fishing. He is divorced and has three grown children -- Cindy, Harry Jr. and Michael -- in California.