I kept this quiet to allow us all time to get over what had happened to us this past Friday, but our CEO/President Mike Paulson passed away from his battle with cancer.
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To our valued customers/suppliers and friends:
On Friday October 14, 2011 Mike Paulson President of Straightline Precision Industries Inc. aka Straitline Components, passed away after a short but tough battle with lung cancer. Mike loved the direction the company had taken over the last several years of moving into the mountain biking world. Although Mike was not heavily into mountain biking himself, he was surrounded by people who were, from his own sons, to his grandchildren, and also the employees of the company that he also considered family. This is why he was so willing to risk a large part of his life savings on this market.
His passing is a huge loss to all that knew him, his devotion to his family was commendable, and even though he could be hard nosed, he always treated friends and business associates with kindness and respect. He will always be remembered for what he was, and that is a truly great man, father, husband, friend, boss, grandfather and great grandfather.
Mike had been planning his retirement for a few years, and had stepped away from most of the daily business here at Straitline Components. His two sons Dennis and DJ, have been running the business on a day to day basis for the last couple of years, and although his loss will leave an un fillable void in the company it will still be business as usual. We plan to continue what we have been doing - designing and manufacturing innovative high end products for the mountain biking industry.
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Mike allowed us to build bike parks urging us to resurrect the local FreeRide park www.freeridebc.blogspot.com As long as we pushed the sport it was worth doing in his eyes.
In the photo: Mike, Greg, DJ, Eric, Jay, Dennis –off camera Kyle, Mathew, Ashley, Melissa and his lovely wife Marlene- a true family run business.
Once I posted information online with a Slipknot video that captured our excitement… and it derailed a $300,000 deal. He never fired me for that! Instead he simply used it as a lesson in life and business so that I would learn from my mistakes.
Thanks Mike!
