University of Texas at El Paso ScholarWorks@UTEP Combined Interviews Institute of Oral History 7-20-2010 Interview no. 1489 Don Shapiro Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.utep.edu/interviews Part of the Oral History Commons Recommended Citation Interview with Don Shapiro by Kristine Navarro, 2010, "Interview no. 1489," Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute of Oral History at ScholarWorks@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Combined Interviews by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of Texas at El Paso Institute of Oral History Interviewee: Don Shapiro Interviewer: Kristine Navarro Project: Paso del Norte Entrepreneurship Oral History Project Location: El Paso, Texas Date of Interview: 20 July Terms of Use: Unrestricted Transcript No.: 1489 Transcriber: GMR Transcription Services Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Don Shapiro was born August 18 1927. He is the son of Sylvia Ann Lebost and Isadore Shapiro. His brother is George L. Shapiro. Don attended school in New York and college at New York University. Don is a veteran of the United States Naval Reserve. Don is the owner of Coronado Consulting and Coronado Roofing in El Paso, Texas. Don currently resides in El Paso and he is married to Bobbie and they have three children, Steve, Randy and Lori. Summary of Interview: Don Shapiro was born and raised in the New York Metropolitan Area. In the 1930’s Don’s father Isadore worked in the fur district in New York City. When Don graduated from high school, he joined the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. After WWII, Done atteneded NYU and got a degree in accounting. After graduating NYU, he became a door to door salesman in New York City. After a time in New York, Don and his friend Harry Katz decided to drive cross country to California and work to earn money along the way. They started by driving a limousine for a car dealership to Fort Worth. In Fort Worth they got jobs working in freight and after a period of time, Don and Harry decided to purchase a used car to continue to California. They drove to El Paso, Texas and got jobs at Franklin Department Store. Don worked for a short time with this company and decided to work selling surgical supplies instead. Harry was stayed with Franklin and became a very successful retailer. While Don was selling surgical supplies, he met Florence Cullham who owned Western Manufacturers Representatives and wanted Don to sell her clothes. Don considered the option while he briefly went back to New York. In 1952 When Don returned to El Paso, he worked for Florence for one year, he took over some of the lines and then obtained some lines of his own and began selling on the road. It was while selling on the road that Don met his wife Bobbie while she worked at Majestic Knitting Mill. Every six months Don would return to for one week to New York to work at Majestic Knitting Mill in order to keep in touch with his manufacturers. Don and Bobbie kept up a relationship for a few weeks and decided to marry. For their first eight months together, Don and Bobbie traveled selling garments and enjoying an extended honeymoon. Don was in the selling business for approximately 12 years before he went into business for himself with American Stretch. Don went into a partnership with Leon Majors and opened their business, Don Leon, in the 1960’s. Don Leon was the production end of American Stretch. During the 1960’s Don met a man named Douglas Rose who was manufacturing hosiery and persuaded Don to sell hosiery. Don sold some garment lines and went into hosiery as well. In 1974, Don got into jean manufacturing and purchased a company called Action West. Don’s garment manufacturing grew and eventually due to union activity and cheaper production, Don moved his business to México. In the 1980’s the manufacturer and retailer relationship shifted, businesses started going to China, Don decided to leave the garment business and he sold Action West to Fred Sternburg. This sell allowed Don to move into another field of business. Don started up Coronado Consulting. Coronado Consulting owns seven buildings and they are all operating. In 2003 Don started Coronado Contractors which is a roofing company. Don’s advice for entrepreneurs is to do right by your client, love what you do and the money will follow. Length of interview: 131:00 Length of Transcript: 50 pages Name of Interviewee: Don Shapiro Date of Interview: July 20th Name of Interviewer: Kristine Navarro KN: Today is July 20. My name is Kristine Navarro. I am interviewing Mr. Don Shapiro, the owner of Coronado Consulting. Good morning. DS: Good morning. How are you today? KN: I’m good, how are you? DS: Good. KN: Excellent. I’ll just ask you a couple of questions about your background and everything. DS: That would be great. KN: Can you tell me just a little bit, where and when you were born? DS: I was born on the 18th of August, 1927. And I’d like to start right from the beginning of my earliest recollections, and I remember things that happened before I was able to walk. One incident goes back to when I was in the crib. And I was hungry, I wanted some milk. So instead of crying, I learned how to use my feet to move the bottle up to meet my hands and to drink from a bottle. I did that many times. My grandmother wanted to call the newspapers in New York because she was so proud of what I was able to do at that time. I actually recall that right now. That was before I could walk. I was either in a carriage or a crib all the time. And another incident that I remember, maybe a couple of years later, when I wasDRAFT walking down the streets of the Bronx with my Aunt Estelle who was 13 when I was born, later became an entertainer and married Carl Reiner. And their whole family was into entertainment. And my Aunt Estelle was walking with my mother down a business area where there were retail stores. And they stopped to look in a liquor store, and the bottles were bright and beautiful. And I was able to talk. I was talking, but not much. And I said, “I like that. Please get me that.” And they said, “No, Donny, you can’t have it.” And I said, “Why not?” And my aunt said, “Because that’s poison.” So I started crying, and I said, “I want poison.” I didn’t know all the words, but whatever it was, the 1 of 48 Don Shapiro word didn’t matter, but I saw something I liked, and I wanted it. And at that age, I asserted myself to try get something I wanted. It didn’t work because it was hard liquor in a beautiful bottle. Another thing I remembered, which before I could walk, one toy. I had a camel that I loved. It was the perfect replica of a camel. And I remember listening to words, and I couldn’t talk then, from people, families telling me that it’s a camel. But it’s interesting that I could remember back that far. And those are the main things from my infancy that I recall. And I do remember I loved the places we lived when I was very young. In fact, almost always, where I went. But I went to public school in Queens right at [inaudible], New York, right on the beach. And we stayed there for a year and a half. We rented a home on the beach on 66th Street in Rockaway, Rockaway Beach. I remember how wonderful it was and the things that were dangerous to other people like a small hurricane where the waves are going over the boardwalk. I loved watching that. And we had a big storm. We were snow bound for a couple of days, and I loved that, too. Things that were out of the ordinary were things that I loved the most. KN: Why do you think that was? DS: It was the interest that I had in what was going on that was not day in/day out stuff. And I think it reflected with my life later on where I became a risk taker in many ways, including physical risks and money risks. And anything that was stimulating or unusual, I liked. And we stayed in Rockaway Beach for about a year and a half. I went to school there for one year. And I loved it. It was small, the classes were small. It was the first time in my life that I met a black person, and there was a young lady. And were about 5 ½ in kindergarten. And after that, and she seemed very nice. But a lot ofDRAFT the children were not that friendly to her, and it bothered me quite a bit. And I loved that school, and I loved the kids. And then we moved to the Bronx. It was more city like, and I got used to that and went to a school right near the Reservoir Oval, which was suburbs. And that was okay. And then we were there for only one year, so I had to adjust all the time to moving.