[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 132 (Tuesday, December 5, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2067-E2068]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            50TH BUSINESS ANNIVERSARY OF MR. JOSEPH H. BALL

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JIM GERLACH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 5, 2006

  Mr. GERLACH. Mr. Speaker, I would like the below article to be 
included in the Congressional Record. Mr. Ball is an outstanding 
constituent and I am honored to help him celebrate his fifty years of 
service to his family, community, and business. This article, ``LM 
Honors Joe Ball for Five Decades in a Business He Loves'', by Melissa 
Steven, appeared in the Main Line Times on November 9, 2006.

       LM Honors Joe Ball for Five Decades in a Business He Loves

       Although he has been working for a half-century as founder 
     and CEO of American Advertising Services, Joseph Ball said he 
     feels like he hasn't worked at all. ``I didn't work a day in 
     50 years because I loved every minute of it,'' said Ball of 
     Penn Valley. ``I believe in advertising, I sincerely do.'' 
     This past August, the Lower Merion Township Board of 
     Commissioners recognized Ball and his American Advertising 
     Services with an ``Official Commendation'' plaque for the 
     company's 50th anniversary. Throughout five decades, Ball has 
     spawned numerous other businesses in the communications area, 
     including ACT (Advertising/Communications Times), the longest 
     established marketing and business-to-business monthly 
     journal for the Philadelphia region. And just a few weeks 
     ago, Ball created yet another new business, American Business 
     Development, which ``marries businesses,'' said Ball.
       ``I don't live in yesterday,'' said Ball. ``I look ahead 
     and live in today.'' Ball was just 26 when he launched 
     American Advertising Services in 1956. Working since 17 for 
     The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he started as a copy boy, 
     Ball volunteered to do just about anything his managers would 
     let him do to learn, including writing and editing. He left 
     the newspaper business because he wanted to take a chance and 
     start his own company.
       He started American Advertising Services company with a $35 
     Royal typewriter on a desk in a room he shared with his 10-
     year-old sister. The company grew and moved to Philadelphia, 
     where he rented a space in a basement on South 22nd Street 
     for $50 a month. Two more relocations later, Ball settled for 
     the next 40 years at Second and Chestnut streets in Old City, 
     Philadelphia. Two years ago, he moved the business to a new 
     home in Bala Cynwyd.
       Ball and his wife of 48 years, Sandy, have made Penn Valley 
     their home for the past 40 years. They raised their three 
     children there and sent all through Lower Merion School 
     District schools. Now, with eight grandchildren, Ball still 
     shows no signs of slowing down.
       Melinda Williams, managing partner of the Williams Group, 
     an ad agency, started her communications career as an account 
     executive at American Advertising Services after graduating 
     from Syracuse University. She had trouble finding a job, she 
     said, because ``you come out of college with a lot of 
     knowledge, but yet no one would hire you because you didn't 
     have any experience. Joe took a chance on me and on a lot of 
     other people when they were young,'' said Williams. ``And you 
     never forget the first person who takes a chance on you.''
       Williams spent a year and a half with Ball's company, 
     working with different companies as an account executive. She 
     said the experience provided an education second to none. 
     ``It gave me a unique perch on the market. It allowed me to 
     figure out which areas in communications I wanted to go 
     into.''
       Including Williams, Ball has helped launch the careers of 
     many other communications professionals who have walked 
     through the doors of his businesses. Ball gave Warren Conely 
     his start as an artist in the late '70s. Conely, now working 
     at the Philadelphia Inquirer in advertising art, started as 
     an artist for ACT. ``He did give me my start in the 
     business,'' said Conely. ``He gave you a true taste of the ad 
     industry.'' Ball believes so many former employees have 
     succeeded because they learned very essential techniques from 
     working with him. He teaches employees to ``persevere, 
     persevere, persevere'' and ``In sales, never hear the first 
     `no,' just give another idea.''
       ``You just smile your way through the day and never see a 
     problem,'' said Ball, ``[but] see a challenge and think `How 
     can I overcome it?' '' ``Any facet in the ad industry, 
     whether it be radio, television or print, you learned it all 
     from Joe because he did it all,'' said Conely. ``He got 
     everybody involved in every aspect of the business.'' 
     Williams said Ball's dedication to his job and love for it 
     really showed every day. ``He was always the first one in and 
     last one out,'' she said. One key ingredient to Ball's 
     success, said Williams, was his knack for hiring the right 
     people for the job. ``He always hired nice people who were 
     smart, innovative, creative and who had a lot of potential.''
       In the '60s, at a time when women were going on interviews 
     in white gloves, pumps at a reasonable height, and pearls, 
     Ball was basing his hiring decisions on talent, not gender. 
     ``It was very hard for women to get positions because you 
     needed experience to get hired, and Joe hired me without 
     experience,'' said Jane Stark, who was hired by Ball in 1965 
     as a copywriter. Stark went on to be promoted to a public 
     relations position at American Advertising Services. ``Joe 
     was responsible for opening a lot of doors and was very open 
     to promoting employees within his business,'' said Stark, who 
     later became the general manager of NBC TV-40 in South Jersey 
     for 21 years. ``He gave women lots of opportunities. From 
     little acorns, big trees grow.''
       Williams agreed that Ball gave many women opportunities to 
     start their careers

[[Page E2068]]

     when there were not too many opportunities to be had. 
     Williams said that the amount of people who have come through 
     Ball's businesses, then moved on to bigger and better 
     things--as well as the employees who have stayed over the 
     years--is a testament to Ball. ``The students are doing 
     better today than the teacher,'' said Ball, ``and that's the 
     way it should be in America.''

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