Louis Perry, who built a reputation as one of the top security providers in Southern California and runs his own company, seems to have an innate feel for the business world. And that apparently runs in the family.
Perry’s 16-year-old son, Justin, was recently honored at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce for his success in the Stock Market Game, a national competition in which students simulate the buying and selling of stocks.
The younger Perry, a student at West Ranch High School in the Santa Clarita Valley, came in first place in the Southern California division. With savvy bets on companies such as Apple Inc. and Under Armour Inc., he earned a 68 percent return during the 10-week competition – results that would make any full-time stock picker drool.
Louis Perry, the 51-year-old president of Kadima Security Services Inc. in Los Angeles, said he is very proud. “The most important thing in a parent’s life is to pass the torch,” he said.
But he doesn’t take much credit. In fact, Perry said his son is a far better investor.
“No question,” he said. “I know nothing about stocks.”
Salad Days
Long before she was old enough for a job, Michele Bestudik knew what she wanted to do during her summers on Catalina Island: work as a salad girl.
In the 1950s and ’60s, the Avalon Harbor Department hired teenagers to row around the harbor collecting trash from boats and to pick up pieces of unsightly seaweed. Because of the seaweed, local kids called the boats “salad boats” and the rowers salad boys and salad girls.
“They hired girls and guys, but the girls were the key attraction,” said Bestudik, 63, who grew up in Sacramento but spent her childhood summers in Avalon. She now works as the historian and film liaison for the Santa Catalina Island Co.
Sadly, Bestudik never got to work as a salad girl. Instead, she scooped ice cream at the Catalina Island Ice Cream and Donut Shop. Not a bad summer job, she said, but not as good as working on the salad boats.
“They kept you in shape and you got a great tan. It was a great job when you were 13 or 14,” she said. “And it was probably three hours of work, then the rest of your day was free.”
Be Afraid
Most small-business owners who get crossways with the Internal Revenue Service may object politely and quietly but certainly wouldn’t stage a big brawl. Not so Arlene Howard.
The 72-year-old owner of AHPR in Santa Monica took on the IRS last year after she claimed she was incorrectly penalized and treated vindictively by an agent.
Howard methodically lined up support from Reps. Howard “Buck” McKeon and Henry Waxman (representing both sides of the political aisle), and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Among other efforts, Howard wrote an op-ed published Sept. 5 in the Business Journal in which she outlined her gripes and called for creation of an ombudsman in the IRS to represent aggrieved taxpayers.
Howard won earlier this year and even got back her money that was in dispute. Afterwards, she wrote a thank-you note to the IRS commissioner.
Howard said a representative of the commissioner recently called and thanked her for the note. She told him that as far as she cared, the IRS could target her for future scrutiny.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she said.
She said that he replied: “Maybe not. But we are afraid of you.”
Staff reporters Richard Clough and James Rufus Koren contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected]
