A Conversation with Curt Gerrish
by Kathleen Downey
A sharp business acumen, civic mindedness, and a philanthropic tincture are melded attributes of Curt Gerrish, president and CEO of Rochester Electronics. I recently met with Gerrish in his comfortably appointed corporate office overlooking the greenery of The Lord Timothy Dexter Industrial Green. Gracious and accomplished, Gerrish was alternately reflective, candid, and philosophical in our conversation.
But before we talked about the company he founded or his steadfast commitment to community, Gerrish wanted to know about the two families I had encountered in the parking lot. The two families of Canada Geese were walking in parallel lines, a parent at either end with their babies in the middle, to a pond on the property. “How many babies did you count?” Gerrish wanted to know. The headcount that I reported caused Gerrish to sigh. “Oh, then we lost some,” he told me. He speculated on the fate of the missing goslings and appeared genuinely affected.
Though he oversees a global technology company, it’s easy to receive an impression of Gerrish as a benevolent conservation warden as he describes the park as home to a wide populace of wildlife. “I consider myself an environmentalist and want to help preserve habitat, but I also want to help people by giving them jobs,” says Gerrish. He describes a delicate but necessary compromise in achieving both these goals. With the construction of the Rochester campus, Gerrish says that various vegetation, trees, and more than 1000 shrubs were planted in order to preserve and encourage native wildlife to take up residence in the park. “The Lord Timothy Dexter Industrial Green is one of the most beautiful industrial parks in the country,” Gerrish asserts. He adds that the careful, meticulous, and green design of the park was the thoughtful achievement of the Newburyport Area Industrial Development (NAID) group.
“The best thing about NAID,” Gerrish tells me, “is that it was compromised entirely of townies, those who wanted to help the Newburyport community through job growth while preserving the beauty and ecology of the area.” In fact, Gerrish served as the group’s last president. Today, NAID operates as a charitable foundation.
Almost 30 years since he founded Rochester Electronics, Gerrish jokes that when he took his first job out of college at a semiconductor company, he had no idea what a semiconductor was; today, Rochester is the world’s largest continuing manufacturer of discontinued semiconductors, licensed by more than 50 manufacturers as a source for legacy/discontinued products.
Gerrish traces his success to the work ethic he developed as a youth growing up on Ferry Road. “The culture of that time affected me,” he says. “I saw hard-working people, individuals who took care of themselves and their families, people who recognized the value in doing.” As a young man, Gerrish helped in his parents restaurant, The Flying Yankee (now Joseph’s Winter Street Cafe’).
But true success for Gerrish is measured in the act of helpingothers realize success by accessing their own potential. “I am a great believer in giving a helping hand, not a handout,” Gerrish tells me. He is proud of Rochester’s summer intern program for at-risk youth. “Our program instills positive values, exposes these young people to a solid work ethic, and shows them the connection between working and money” Gerrish explains.
Gerrish also believes firmly in giving back to the community. The Gerrish Family Charitable Foundation has given generously to the Immaculate Conception School and to the Anna Jaques Hospital. The foundation has even donated the lighting for a local little league team’s ballpark, inspiring the little leaguers to thank Gerrish in person while visiting his office, where they posed with Gerrish for a team photograph.
To relax, Gerrish enjoys visiting Joseph’s Winter Street Café where memories of his own tenure there welcome him. He also enjoys walking the boardwalk and a lazy drive around the Artichoke Reservoir, where Gerrish says he spent his boyhood summers and boasts, “I was the greatest fisherman in Essex County when I was 12 to 14 years old.”
Kathleen Downey is a contributing writer to Newburyport-Today if you are a “Townie” and would like to be interviewed by Kathleen, please let us know!
