Jean Huskey Named Among State's Top Businesswomen
By Karen Gould

At right: Jean Huskey, owner of Art Huskey and Sons Excavating in St. Ignace, is one of the state's 2008 top 10 businesswomen, for which she will receive an award given by the Greater Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners March 13. (Photograph by Casey Morningstar)

Just two months shy of her 75th birthday, Jean Huskey will be honored by the Greater Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners as one of the state's top 10 businesswomen of the year.

She is the first woman in the Upper Peninsula to receive the honor, which will be presented March 13, and, while she will be recognized for her perseverance, Mrs. Huskey is known in St. Ignace for her generosity, humble nature, and strength.

Having been chosen from a field of more than 100 others, Mrs. Huskey, who owns Art Huskey and Sons Excavating in St. Ignace, will receive the Warrior Award, given to a woman who has persevered through business loss, challenges, and who currently owns a successful business. The other nine recipients represent other traits.

Her daughter-in-law, Diane Huskey of St. Ignace, who submitted the nomination, said Mrs. Huskey fits all 10 categories offered by the organization. She asked the committee to consider Mrs. Huskey for at least three of them, the Warrior Award, Giving Spirit Award, and the Pinnacle Award.

"I just had to nominate her, because I think she is inspiring to so many people and she leads by example," said Diane, who is married to Mrs. Huskey's youngest son, Kit. "I know she doesn't feel like a leader, but she is so much a leader. She doesn't know the lives she touches and the people that she influences. She really has no idea."

"She's just an amazing individual. Even if she wasn't my motherin law, she would be somebody that I would look up to. She is so incredibly strong and she is so incredibly humble and she persevered through some of the most difficult times before I even became a part of the family," she said. "She's just exhibited amazing strength and I just think the world of her."

A petite, modest woman, Mrs. Huskey is more interested in helping others than in receiving accolades, which embarrass her. Interviewed twice over the phone by organization representatives, she is amazed at the attention, and questions whether she is worthy of the honor.

As a business owner, she doesn't even own a computer, use the Internet, or have e-mail, unlike the other nominees downstate, she surmises.

"I've just always worked with books and erasers. I just go through them, a dozen a week," she said, laughing. "But it works for me."

She does not plan to go to Detroit to receive the award.

"You get me out of my element," said Mrs. Huskey, "and I'm just not comfortable."

An astute businesswoman who knows how to manage money, times were not always easy, and she learned how to manage a budget for a year-around business that has more business during the warmer months.

Her rules are straightforward: Subcontractors, suppliers, and others always are paid, which sometimes means before she is paid by the customer, and no new equipment is bought until the payments are completed on another piece of machinery. In the excavating business, a piece of equipment can cost $250,000. Other challenges over the years have included finding land to serve as a gravel pit in the right area, and negotiating its price.

But she maintains a positive outlook.

"Unless you have hard times," she said, "you don't understand how good it is when things do go right."

She is devoted to her family. Growing up, she was taught men work and women stay at home caring for the children and keeping the house. That all changed when her husband, Art, died in 1985 at the age of 54. His untimely death left her with a son in high school, four other sons, and a daughter.

"I knew nothing about business," she said. "I was a mother, a housewife, and that was my role."

The couple married in 1950 when she was 16 years old and he was 18. They moved into a small log cabin that had no indoor plumbing. Today, the log cabin remains a small part of her home, which has since been expanded by her sons. Drywall and siding now cover the logs.

Within a year of her marriage, they had a son, who died 10 months later. Then her son, Michael, known as "Chipper," was born, followed by a daughter, Pam, and twin boys, Tim and Tom. Later came Wade, then Kit, who both now work at the company. The other sons have all worked in the construction field. Chipper died in a work accident in 2004.

The year before Art Huskey's death, he needed office help, so Mrs. Huskey began assisting him by answering the telephone and doing the paperwork. When her husband died, the couple owed more money than they had in assets. Their house was even mortgaged to help pay for the business. They had no life insurance.

Lawyers told her she didn't have enough things to sell to pay for the debts the couple owed, she remembers.

"The thought of losing my house," she said, "was just frightening to me."

She made up her mind to keep the business operating, and a few years later, when a number of new motels were built in St. Ignace, business started getting better.

"Don't get me wrong," she is quick to add, "my business isn't built on anything big. My business is built on the people who are here. They are my bread and butter. The guy who's going to call and order five yards of sand is probably going to call me next year and have a house built or clearing done. Well, that not only helps me, it helps my boys, because the other kids are in the building business, so it all kind of works together."

The success of the business, she credits to others, including the bank that supported the company during difficult times.

"I haven't done any of this on my own," she said. "If it wasn't for all the people along the way that have been there for me, I probably wouldn't have what I have today."

She also credits employees for their role in the business through the years. Her work philosophy is to treat employees the way she would want others to treat her.

"I only have five employees, but they work like 12 people," said Mrs. Huskey. "They are excellent, excellent workers."

She worries about the current weak economy in the state and on the national level, and how both will impact local businesses, yet she remains optimistic.

"Everybody has to go through hard times up here," she said, speaking from experience. "That's just the way it is around here, but if you can hang on until it gets better, it's going to work out."

Retiring is not a consideration, and she said she has no plans to stop working. She enjoys walking, cooking for her family, making dishes for church gatherings, mowing the lawn, and her business.

Giving is fundamental to Mrs. Huskey's life. Her generosity is known to those she helps, and she'd rather not talk about her giving. She prefers to volunteer in the community for projects when needed, rather than to belong to a club or organization.

"I go from day to day knowing what I think I can do," she said, "and it works for me."

She volunteers at long term care, hospice, Project Hope, the St. Ignace Food Pantry, and St. Ignatius Loyola Church.

In 1991, she was named Citizen of the Year in St. Ignace, an award she is proud of because it came from her community.

Mrs. Huskey's family includes a daughter and her family, Pam and Thomas Sutton of Kinross, and sons and their families, all of St. Ignace, Tim, Wade, Kit and Diane, Tom and Marianne, and Chipper's wife, Margaret. Grandchildren and their families include Casey and Rashel Morningstar of St. Ignace, Gunner Zipp, a LaSalle High School student, Krista Huskey at Michigan State University, Tyler Huskey at Western Michigan University, Rachel Huskey at Central Michigan University, and Teresa Huskey. She has one great-grandson, Chance Morningstar.

Other women being honored by the Greater Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners include Elizabeth Schmidt of Atlas Tool in Roseville, Maria Rodriguez of the Mexicantown Community Development Corporation in Detroit, Donna Zobel of Myron Zucker in Sterling Heights, Linda Girard of Pure Visibility in Ann Arbor, Jackie Gant of the Native American Business Alliance in Bingham Farms, Ester Burns of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Nipa Shah of Jenesys Group in Novi, Denise Lewis, of Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn in Detroit, and Shawne Duperon of Shawne TV in Novi.