Bill Bixby
of Ganesh Imports
Bill Bixby and Annie
Bill Bixby once rode for twelve hours atop the roof of a bus, from India to Nepal. “I made myself comfortable on a big bag of rice,” he recalls with a wide smile. During another trip to Asia, Bixby somehow fit his lanky frame into a train’s luggage rack and then slept across the continent. He describes this mode of travel, too, as having been “quite comfortable.” And he recalls landing on a grass airstrip on an island in Papa New Guinea, then hiking for two weeks into the bush with his guide before arriving at tribal lands of two warring tribes. Bixby notes that the area was the site of the rumored cannibalized demise in 1961 of Michael Rockefeller, youngest son of former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.
But it was a trip to Africa when Bixby was an impressionable fourth-grader that first inspired his love of foreign travel. “My grandfather took me,” Bixby says. (Not surprisingly, Bixby cites his grandfather as one of his role models.) Instead of encountering Mickey and Minnie Mouse, a thrill commonly experienced by many of today’s youngsters, the young Bixby experienced the thrill of Africa’s savannah: home to zebras, elephants, lions, leopards, hyenas, and rhinoceroses.The trip ultimately shaped Bixby’s future career.
As owner of Ganesh Imports, the State Street emporium stocked with wares from other cultures and far-off lands that he routinely visits, Bixby is part purveyor, part cultural ambassador, astute entrepreneur, and maybe (by his own admission) one or two parts hippie.
Bixby grew up in Haverhill where his grandfather and father worked in the family-founded business, Bixby International (a state-of-the art plastics manufacturer, now located in Newburyport, which began as a supplier to the footwear industry in the late 1800s). Upon completing his academic education (Bixby studied geology at Maine’s Colby College and at the University of Colorado), Bixby’s feet took him far from the former Shoe City to remote and exotic locations, before eventually carrying him back to the States and to a brick Newburyport storefront.
“After college, I traveled around the world,” Bixby says. For a year, he immersed himself in a simple, vagabond life while embracing each rich experience. Thailand and Indonesia, in particular, cast their spells on him. “Returning from that trip, I figured out the kind of job I wanted,” Bixby says. With his sense of wanderlust now entrenched and a desire to introduce others to the many cultures that had profoundly impacted him, Bixby’s travel took on more of a purpose. He started collecting artifacts from the various countries that he visited, conducting transactions with native peoples and establishing cultural relationships that endure today. And he brought his exotic treasures home.
“I first began selling at fairs and colleges,” Bixby recalls. Encouraged by the
reception he received, Bixby started looking for store space. He had also been
selling his collected wares to the now-defunct Newburyport store, Nile River
Imports. When Nile River closed, Bixby opened his own store in 1989. Named
after a Hindu deity, and embodying Bixby’s passion for Indian culture, Ganesh
Imports gravitated from its original Pleasant Street location to its current
State Street location after a few years. (Ten years ago, Bixby opened a second
Ganesh Imports in Portsmouth, NH.)
Besides Thailand and Indonesia, Bixby’s twice-a-year buying expeditions include visits to Central America, India, Nepal, and Mexico. He’s proud of the friends and business associates he’s made in so many different countries, referring to them as his Ganesh family. Bixby recalls the pleasure of hosting one “family member”—his Bali associate—and introducing the gentleman to Newburyport. “He was bundled up in sweaters during his entire visit,” Bixby laughs, recalling his guest’s reaction to the “frigid” mid-70-degree temperatures, far cooler than Bali’s temperatures.
A world event and a genuine concern for his Ganesh family led Bixby to host a phenomenal in-store fundraiser. When a devastating tsunami hit Thailand in 2004, Bixby felt compelled to help. “I didn’t personally know anyone who was injured, but I wanted to do something for the communities that were impacted,” Bixby says. So he held a one-day sale-athon and donated 100 percent of the day’s proceeds to Thailand’s tsunami relief effort. Bixby visited the region in the months following the tsunami. “Hundreds of photos of missing relatives were posted everywhere,” he recalls of the somber scenes that met him. “But,” he adds, with satisfaction and gratitude in his voice, “Thailand bounced back.”
Sitting on an ottoman inside his State Street store—amidst the clothing, jewelry, sticks of incense, wall décor, draperies, satchels, purses, figurines and other cultural artifacts from Bixby’s travels—Bixby is comfortable and relaxed. Asked how he decides which items to stock, he says, “My customers decide. I take direction from what they like to purchase.” He says that both the Newburyport and Portsmouth stores are constantly evolving. “Ganesh is a little less hippie than when it first opened,” Bixby admits, “but it still has a hippie edge.”
“I feel proud that the store has survived all these years,” Bixby states. “I have a great loyal following of customers.” Bixby is also a proud dad to his eleven-year-old son, Liam. Liam might have inherited his father’s penchant for travel. When Bixby offered to take his son on a trip during this past spring vacation week, suggesting that Liam might enjoy Disney World, his son instead opted for Italy. The trip was a family affair, with Liam, Bixby, Bixby’s parents, and Bixby’s girlfriend all experiencing Rome and Florence together (and leaving Mickey and Minnie waiting in the Florida heat).
There’s one other love in Bixby’s life: Annie. The thirteen-year-old mixed-breed yellow pooch, whom Bixby adopted from a shelter in Kennebunk when she was a young pup, is Bixby’s devoted companion and official Ganesh greeter.
Kathleen Downey is the Features Editor for Newburyport Today. She can be reached at Kathleen@Newburyport-Today.com
