N.E.T. & Die’s former owner comes to work every day, says he’d be bored just watching TV all day
By Stefan Yablonski
Richard Shatrau likes his job, the challenge — he’s not one to sit around and watch TV.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time. It will be 60 years in September,” he said. “I can’t stand just sitting and watching the TV all day. I would get bored. I just can’t do that. There are people who can — but I’m not one of those. Not me, that would drive me nuts. I have to get out and be doing something.”
The company, N.E.T. & Die, was started in 1966 by his father, Harry Shatrau. In 1981, Harry’s children, Richard, Helena and Bob continued the operation.
In 2018, Richard’s daughter — Michelle — assumed leadership.
“Michelle took over a few years ago. She is doing a good job. I give her a few pointers now and then,” Richard said.
“I think it took him a couple years to trust that I could do this; that I could run a machine shop. He probably questioned some of my methods and decisions early on,” she said. “I’m not a machinist so he was unsure if this is something I could do because I didn’t have the in-depth technical knowledge of a machinist. As long as I have the right people on my team, I don’t need to be a machinist. I just need to have the right people around me that know machining.”
The former owner is “semi-retired.” But he’s still coming to work every day. He punches in at 8 a.m. Works a half day and goes home at noon for lunch.
“But it’s getting harder these days. I’m not as young as I used to be,” he quipped.
What’s the best part of his job? “Working with his daughter,” Michelle interjected.
“Just being here, being active,” he said. “I don’t have a job anymore. I just come here to get away from home, the TV and have something to do and keep me busy.
“It’s a job a challenge. I enjoy what I’m doing and I am working with a great bunch of people. A lot of guys that work for me are good friends. Some have left and went to other places.”
He said he is not a big computer guy. “By the time that all came around, I was too old,” he added.
“When the summer gets here, I will be out in the yard doing stuff. I also golf three or four times a week,” he said. “We have a feral cat that comes around the house. We feed it. We really don’t want to adopt it yet.”
He said he was heading to Florida at the end of February for a month to work on his golf game “And get a little sunshine,” he added. “I’m leaving on Thursday or Friday and heading down south for a month; play some golf in the sunshine, get my golf game honed up.”
“He won’t call to see how things are going in Fulton. But I will call him down there,” Michelle said. “And I’ll send him drawings … ‘hey I’ve got this job, can you help me?’ I won’t leave him alone.”
“They got hammered with a lot of snow all around us [recently]. It will be nice to get away from all that. I’m kind of a winter guy. I used to downhill ski; but not so much anymore. I’ll be 85 in June. I played basketball until I was 78 years old. We had a lot of pickup games,” he said. “I could keep up with the kids. They’d school me now and then.”
