Suitable Hobby
Paul Suits is a craftsman who’s equally comfortable fixing dental equipment as building model trucks
Paul Suits has always enjoyed working with his hands. Is it any wonder, then, that he started working as a service tech on a part-time basis when he was still in high school, and began doing the work full-time following graduation? Is it any wonder that when he’s not working, he can often be found in his garage fashioning a model truck or toy from scrap wood he picked up somewhere?
Suits is a service tech and equipment salesman for Carolina Dental Supply, High Point, N.C. He was born in Greensboro, N.C., in November 1945. His older brother, Johnny, got him a job at Thompson Dental (Columbia, S.C.) in 1962, when Suits was just 17. After graduation, he was asked if he wanted to work full time at the company. "I felt this would be a good opportunity for me," he says. "I have always enjoyed working with my hands, and fixing and repairing items came easy to me."
It was a good opportunity indeed. Suits stayed with Thompson until 2004, two years after the company was acquired by Patterson Dental. In that year, he joined Carolina Dental Supply. It turns out that Carolina’s owner, William "Butch" Routh, was a grade school and high school friend of Suits. In fact, Routh had been a service tech at Thompson while Suits was still there, before Routh bought Carolina Dental.
Woodworker
Although Suits likes working with dental equipment, he also enjoys working with wood. His father was a carpenter. "I guess I picked it up from him," he says. So about 10 years ago, he decided to take up a new hobby – building model trucks, toys, buildings and airplanes from wood. "Shipping crates and scrap wood," he says. It takes him a few weeks to build and paint a standard model, such as a foot-long Ryder truck or John Deere vehicle. "Once I begin, I have to finish it," he says. He has also built a dollhouse, a cradle and a Thomas the Tank Engine. (He has four grandchildren – Hunter, age 13; Kiser, 10; Peyton, 7; and Kennedy, 4.)
"I do not plan to make a vehicle," he says. "I get an idea in my head and I begin. Could be a toy, airplane or truck. I see it in my mind and it materializes through the wood and objects around the garage."
Collector
Suits’ interest in model vehicles isn’t limited to those he builds. He has a collection of approximately 400 die-cast cars, trucks and off-highway vehicles, which he began acquiring about 15 years ago. He finds them "all over," he says. "Magazines, flea markets, family and friends, service stations, hardware stores. The older the vehicle, the better I like it.
"I enjoy the hunt," he continues. "I go to several local flea markets and some [farther] away." He especially likes the challenge of acquiring complete sets of the die-cast vehicles, such as Texaco truck banks and gas company collector banks. "With any hobby, you enjoy seeing the set or almost the whole set," he says. "Discovering one on the hunt is a lot of fun."
Dental equipment has changed since Suits began working on it 47 years ago. "When I began, some [dentists] were still using old-fashioned pump base chairs," he says. "Some offices were still using belt-driven handpieces. No asepsis products were being used in the offices. As far as sterilization, a lot of offices were still using boiler sterilizers. No masks while cleaning teeth. It was a different world."
That said, he has adjusted well. About five years ago, when he joined Carolina Dental, he started selling equipment as well as servicing it. "Because we are a small company, I do both," he says. "A service technician makes a good equipment salesperson, because of his knowledge of the product. Because I am familiar with the office and the equipment, this gives me an edge to share, ‘Now is the time to replace,’" he says. "Trust plays a huge role."
Meanwhile, he’ll continue to build and collect model cars and trucks ... and pass on his love of his hobby to his grandchildren, particularly 7-year-old Peyton. "When he visits, he is all about the collection," says Suits. "He will dust them and ask questions about them. He collects now, and he understands they are to be seen and not played with. They are special." And there’s still hope that the other grandkids will pick up the bug too. "I started this late in life," he says. "Perhaps they will too." [FI]
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