Carving Their Own Destiny

Harold J. Brooks started his career as a plumber with $115 and a pickup truck. From the foundation of those humble beginnings Brooks has built a business that has become one of the largest commercial, industrial and development service providers in Southern NH and Northern Mass. with more than 1.5 million square feet of property along Interstate 93.

It all started when he bought his first building as an investment property. Once he got the real estate bug, there was no stopping him as he continued to purchase, rehabilitate and lease properties. By 1980, this self-made businessman founded Brooks Properties, which now owns more than 40 buildings. Two decades later, Brooks built Brookstone Park in Derry, which includes a golf course and the Brookstone Grille and Events Center.

At the entrance to the center is a statue Brooks commissioned of a man carving himself out of a block of stone, titled Self-Made Man, to embody his belief that people create their own destiny. Brooks also wanted to honor self-made people and commissioned 20 smaller statues to be given as awards.

This year he made that goal a reality, hiring LTD Company, an advertising agency in Bedford, to pull together the competition, and it partnered with Business NH Magazine. The result is the Self Made in NH Award, a tribute to people who have truly carved their own place in our state.

I wanted to do Self Made in New Hampshire because I know firsthand what it's like to work your way up. It's not easy, Brooks says. I know there are other men and women throughout the state who have worked tirelessly to get to where they are today. It's not always obvious who the self-made people are, and that's why I'm doing this. These people deserve to be honored for years of hard work and dedication.

A call for nominations went out across the state for people who have taken something out of the ordinary and carved it into an extraordinary career and life. The inaugural competition attracted more than 40 applications, creating a challenge for the judges: Eric Brooks of Brooks Properties; Donna Morris, executive director of the Greater Salem Chamber of Commerce; and Russ Ouellette, managing partner of Sojourn Partners in Bedford.

The judges whittled the field down to 10 impressive semifinalists, who are profiled here. The winner of the first Self Made in NH award will be revealed at the Self Made in NH Celebration Gala on Thursday, June 16 at the Brookstone Event Center in Derry.

Fred Bramante

Fred Bramante did not excel at school and, in fact finished nearly last in his high school class. However, he endeavored to complete college and earned a degree-ironically-in education from Keene State College. He taught middle school for six years and went on to earn a master's degree
in education.

While teaching, Bramante came up with the idea to buy and sell used instruments to musicians. Daddy's Junky Music now has 19 stores in seven states.

Teaching, however, remains his passion. Bramante is on the State Board of Education and previously chaired that board. He led the revamping of K-12 public school standards, including allowing for internships and independent studies to engage students and reduce the dropout rate.  He now speaks around the country on education redesign. "Education is the most important gift we can provide our kids," he says.

Ben Gamache

Raised in a working class family on Manchester's west side, Ben Gamache started on the path to real estate development at age 17, when he tried to buy his first home and investment property. When the bank realized that he was too young to take out a loan, Gamache convinced the bank and property owner to hold the deal for six months until he turned 18.

After working with his father, a licensed plumber, Gamache struck out on his own. In 1976 he founded Gamache Enterprises, a real estate investment firm in Manchester, which initially focused on residential real estate and owned 1,800 apartments by 1990. Gamache Enterprises no longer owns residential properties, but now has 200,000 square feet of mill space and a total of 700,000 square feet of commercial property.

A community leader, Gamache is on the board of directors for Easter Seals nationally. He is also chairman of the board for Intown Manchester, a nonprofit that works to enhance the economic vitality of Manchester's downtown.

Maryanna Hatch

As a social worker living in Durham, Maryanna Hatch changed the course of her own life and, eventually, thousands of others, when she began volunteering at the county nursing home and was appalled by the living conditions. Thus began her devotion to helping the elderly age with dignity.

Hatch, now 88, organized the Friendly Visitor program in Strafford County's Riverside Rest Home. While a selectwoman and first chair of the Durham Town Council, she helped to build low-income senior housing and started a home-health agency for the elderly called Homemakers/Home Health Aides of Strafford County.

In 1982, she met Rosemary Coffin, who shared her vision for building a senior community focused on enriching the lives of its residents. The pair created what eventually became RiverWoods Continuing Care retirement Community in Exeter. In the '90s, after years of rejection by banks and investors, the group secured funding for what was then a new concept in NH-a continuing care retirement community. RiverWoods now has three campuses with 600 residents and 400 employees, thanks to Hatch's persistence. And it is more than her dream. It is also now her home.

Gina Hutchinson

Known as Mrs. H. to her students, Gina Hutchinson has spent her life teaching and inspiring others.  While a teacher at the Timberlane School District 40 years ago, Hutchinson was asked to teach baton twirling after school. What began as an extracurricular activity with a couple of students has grown into a successful business and a world championship team, through which she has touched the lives of hundreds of students and literally taken them around the world.

She has taught her students, through example, not to let adversity stop them from achieving. She grew her baton-twirling school through a divorce, raising two children, having to move the business, and most recently, a serious car accident that required her to have surgery and months of rehabilitation. Her favorite saying is No problem is a problem.

The Red Star Twirlers have performed in many places, from the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. to the Great Wall of China. In 1987, they were one of the first American groups allowed into The Soviet Union as part of Glasnost. Mrs. H. received Derry's Outstanding Teacher Award in 1987. She also co-founded the PALS program in 1995, a mentoring program. She served as a member of the NH House of Representatives in 2008-2010.

Bob Lawton

In 1952, Bob Lawton was 21 and attending Norwich University when he borrowed $750 from his grandmother to start his own miniature golf course and arcade with his brother John-a partnership that would last until John's death in 2003. Lawton worked as an engineer for the telephone company for 15 years while running Funspot during the summer months.

Over the years, Funspot has evolved and expanded and is now the largest arcade in the world, according to the Guinness World Records. The 70,000-square-foot facility has more than 500 games, a bowling alley, children's rides, mini-golf course, indoor golf center and a 400-seat Bingo hall that has raised more than $2 million for local charities since opening in 1996. It is also home to the American Classic Arcade Museum with the largest collection of classic games in the world.

In 1992, Lawton followed in his grandfather's footsteps and began republishing The Weirs Times and Tourists' Gazette. And he continues to personally open the doors to Funspot at 8 a.m., seven days a week.

Mark Lore

In 1980 Mark Lore, then a recent college graduate, hitchhiked to NH with $35 in his pocket. Within six years, he was vice president and general manager at Ride-Away, a struggling company he was determined to turn around. A friend who owned several companies including the handicap vehicle modification company said if Lore could make it succeed, he would sell it to Lore.

Within three years, Lore became president of Ride-Away, raising annual revenues from $250,000 to more than $2 million. It is now the country's largest provider of modified vehicles, with annual revenue of more than $50 million and 12 locations spanning Maine to Florida. Lore gives 10 percent of company profits to nonprofits and also donates several wheelchair accessible vehicles to those in need. He instituted the Vans for Valor program, which provides modified vans to veterans free of charge. 

G. Hayden McLaughlin

Hayden McLaughlin is passionate about landscaping. After starting his career in the Landscape Division of Pike Industries, he became a manager for Northern Design Contractors, a landscape design and installation company in Gilford. When the owner decided to sell the construction and associated nursery part of the business in 1988, McLaughlin bought it and started Belknap Landscape Company.

Under his leadership during the past 23 years, the family-owned business has developed a full-service, award-winning design-build, construction and grounds management company. Belknap Landscape Company has grown from 10 employees operating five trucks to upwards of 90 employees during peak season supported by a fleet of more than 50 trucks. The company has also grown its services beyond basic lawn care and landscaping to include in-house design services, irrigation, landscape lighting, tree care, crane service and masonry, and permitting for waterfront projects.

McLaughlin and his staff have also played key roles in community projects throughout the Lakes Region, including helping to build Rotary Park and Veterans Memorial in Laconia, Kirkwood Gardens at Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in Holderness, and the Gilford High School football and lacrosse fields.

Deborah Osgood

A typing course at a vocational school helped Deborah Osgood land her first job at 17, but it was her talent and determination that allowed her to earn her doctorate and launch a successful business helping other business people succeed. 

After working her way up the corporate ladder at two NH companies, she became COO of a fledgling manufacturer and pulled it out of near bankruptcy. Over the next decade, she grew the business internationally, expanded revenues by 500 percent and created 50 new jobs.

Osgood launched her own business, Knowledge Institute, in 1996, creating an online social community tailored to the needs of small business. It helps more than 2.5 million entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals monthly to connect with more than 33,000 business counselors, 25,000 government and nonprofit agency programs, trade associations and academic institutions.

She serves on Gov. John Lynch's Economic Development Advisory Committee and on the U.S. Small Business Administration Regulatory Fairness Board. She helped to pilot a U.S. Department of State Iraqi Businesswomen's Partnership program where she served as one of nine businesswomen in the United States to volunteer as mentors to businesswomen in Iraq. She has also volunteered as a SCORE counselor.

Kirk Simoneau

Raised by deaf parents, Kirk Simoneau taught himself to speak and read by watching TV anchormen and following the captions. He worked as a struggling writer and motivational speaker until a personal tragedy changed his life: In 2003, he watched as a drunken driver struck and killed his father.

That experience and the resulting travails of dealing with the justice system led Simoneau to pursue a legal career. Despite personal challenges that would have derailed others-his wife fought breast cancer twice and his mother moved in with them when she developed Alzheimer's-Simoneau graduated second in his class.

He was hired out of law school by Nixon, Raiche, Vogelman, Barry & Slawsky, P.A., one of the top plaintiff's trial firms in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report. Within a year, Simoneau was made a partner at the firm and currently serves as its managing director. And while he developed and suffers daily from a painful, incurable disease known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy that at age 39 requires he walk with a cane, Simoneau remains grateful for the life he has built with his family.

Steven Smith

Steven Smith has spent his career proving the naysayers wrong, from his radio station internship boss telling him he'd never make it on the radio to the scoffers who told him a new radio station could not succeed in Sullivan County.

Between that internship and starting his own radio station, Smith worked hard to become a DJ and program director at different stations. When his hard work to grow a radio station in Lebanon led to its sale and, ironically, put him out of a job, he decided to create his own radio company. He entered a partnership with Koor Communications to build WCNL in Newport in 2007. Since then, he has added listeners and increased revenue an average of 11 percent annually. It is now the highest-rated radio station in Sullivan County, and has received several awards. 

Smith serves as general manager, program director and morning show host of WCNL, as well as the second vice president of the Newport Area Chamber of Commerce. He is also on the board of the Newport Opera House Association, and a corporation member of David's House.

Of these 10 impressive candidates, who will win? To find out, visit www.BusinessNHmagazine.com and click on the events button to purchase tickets to the event.  For more information about the Self Made in NH award, visit www.selfmadeinnh.com