Sustaining a Legacy of Achievement Sustaining a Legacy

Alumni Profile: Harry “Mike” Katerman ’71Relational Businessby Andy BoligMike Katerman knows how important it is to havelong-lasting relationships to help you weather thestorm. Ironically, the day that we were scheduled to getsome pictures of Mike and his collection of Corvettes,that storm had moved in with a vengeance. With rainpouring down like buckets upon us, Mike said, “Well,we can take the pictures in my barn.”As you can imagine, this is no ordinary barn. Mikehas a secluded area inside his secure “toy room” thatadequately accommodates all of his Corvettes and theirstablemate, an all-original, 42,000-mile, 1955 XK-140Jaguar, bought at the stables at Watkins Glen in 2001.His Corvettes take up the rest of the area. Depending onwhether your passion is for performance or history, thehighlight of Mike’s collection could easily be the brandnewZR1, which Mike aptly describes as, “Incrediblyfast!” On the other end of the spectrum, you mightprefer his 1953 Corvette. The first-year Corvette sitsproudly with its sister C5, also wearing a matchingwhite exterior, red interior and black convertible top. …The Katerman story actually begins long before any of thesecars were even constructed. … This recently retired executive was thePresident and CEO of Magee Carpet, a supplier of automotive carpetingto GM and several other automotive manufacturers. The relationshipbetween GM and Magee Carpet even predates GM! Possibly GM’soldest supplier, Magee Carpet started selling hand-woven tapestriesfor the floors of Fisher Brothers coaches. The company signed the firstcontract with the Fisher Brothers in 1908, the same year that BillyDurant founded General Motors Corporation. Since then, MageeCarpet has manufactured carpeting for various GM lines ranging fromCadillac, Buick and Chevrolet cars, Astro vans and SUVs. …During Mike’s tenure with the company, the focus was more onmaking carpeting to help supply our voracious demand for automobiles.… Besides possibly being the oldest supplier to the largest automanufacturer in the world, Magee Carpet also held the honor of beingone of only two GM suppliers to win the General Motors Supplier of theYear Award for 14 consecutive years, spanning the time from when GMstarted handing out the award until the time when Mike retired. Mikealso chaired the prestigious General Motors Global Supplier Council foreight years. …While Mike is the original owner of both the ZR1 and the 2003convertible, the ’53 came into the Katerman collection by his father,Myles Katerman in 1967. The elder Katerman treated the car to a twoyearrestoration, starting in 1978 by the now-defunct, Classics and Morein Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was then shown at the A.A.C.A.’s specialNew England Meet in Danbury Connecticut, on July 17, 1982, whereit received a Senior Grand National Award. Of course, restoring the ’53was pretty straightforward, as all records indicate that each of the 300Corvettes produced that year came decked out with the entire optionlist, all two items. The heater was a $91 option, and the signal-seekingAM radio would set back the buyer another $145. Of course, the ’53came with the standard six-cylinder engine wearing those three littleair cleaners, one for each carb on the side-mounted intake. While Mikeadmits that the other two Corvettes get the lion’s share of the drivingduties, the little white roadster still proudly wears a custom set of MageeCarpet floor mats complete with the GM logo emblazoned on them, justfor those times when he does take the car out.Much like the cars have changed since GM hand-built a smallnumber of ’53’s in a small assembly plant on Van Slyke Road, so hasthe automotive industry. Mike was cognizant of the changes that werehappening, and understanding GM’s desire for their suppliers to bediverse, Magee Carpet merged with the Swiss firm Rieter AutomotiveSystems to create Magee Rieter Automotive Systems. Mike explains thehard decision to merge his company by stating, “If we stay the same, wewon’t be here tomorrow.”… although now retired from the company, Mike hopes that thefuture for Magee Rieter Automotive is just as bright [as ever]. After all,the company was built on long-term relationships. He’d like to thinkthat even though there are new relationships, they’ll merge in nicely tohelp build a foundation that accepts both the proven trends in historyand the new, more complex scenarios and issues on a grander scale.Reprinted with permission from Corvette Enthusiast Magazine, July2010 issue. Photo by Andy Bolig.32