Lakewood Lore

Paint, wallpaper store renewed as Victory Technical

In the shifting business scene, one of our city's landmark retail stores disappeared recently, and in its spot a new enterprise has sprouted up.

Lakewood Paint & Wallpaper, located for 57 years in the Bow-Detroit building, 15520 Detroit, has been replaced at the site by a fledging operation known as Victory Technical.

The newcomer on the block is engaged in the currently burgeoning personnel services field -- that of obtaining temporary help for business and industry.

Owner of Victory Technical is 39-year-old Lakewoodite Peter Dula, an energetic Horatio Alger-type entrepreneur who heads this venture as a division of his 3-year-old WIN Temporary Services Inc., located just across the street at 15517 Detroit.

"We now have a total of 15 employees at our two locations, but plan to double, perhaps triple, in size within the next 12 months." said Dula, radiating optimism.

"Our business is rapidly expanding, not only due to substantial need for temporary day-work laborers in the current economy, but because we specialize in providing skilled help, as well, in many areas, including engineering, electronics, welding, machining and factory supervision."

Dula was born in Davenport, Iowa, of Hungarian immigrants who came to America from Budapest during the revolutionary uprising there in 1956. His father was a professional violinist, and his mother was a positive force in guiding her son toward his business goals.

A few months after Dula was born, his parents moved to Cleveland's West Side, where he eventually attended West Technical High School. Later, aspiring to become a concert pianist, he enrolled in Mississippi Valley State University on a music scholarship.

Dula's college studies were interrupted by a two-year enlistment in the U.S. Army, where he served as a military policeman in Germany.

"Upon my return, I decided to find something in the personnel field," Dula said. "I paid a visit downtown to the president of Cleveland Business Consultants, who said to me: `Get a haircut, shine your shoes, put on a tie and come back tomorrow, and we'll try it again.' "

Dula followed instructions and cleared his first hurdle in the job market. Eventually, he joined Tylok International, a Euclid manufacturer of automatic couplings, where its president, C.B. Crawford, took Dula under his wing and taught him the basics of problem solving in the business world.

Later, our subject was hired by Area Temps, a well-established Greater Cleveland employment services company with more than 100 employees, operated by husband-and-wife team Ray and Carolyn Castelluccio, who live in Lakewood's Clifton Park.

Four years ago, Dula left Area Temps to form his own WIN organization, and last year he bought a Lakewood home on Arthur Avenue where he lives with Judy, his wife of 14 years, and their 7-years-old daughter Katie.

Lakewood Paint & Wallpaper became an integral part of our community during the depths of the Great Depression. It was founded in 1933 by Milton G. Leachman of Springfield, Ky., and his wife Wilma.

It was a time before ready-mix, when painters mixed their own paints from lead and oil, and tinted their own colors. It was before rollers, latex and electric paint-can shakers.

Originally on Detroit at St. Charles, the store was relocated into the former Swede Building on Detroit between Rosewood and Orchard Grove in 1936. Three years later, it was moved to the current Bow-Detroit Building.

Steve Leachman, a nephew of the founders, joined the store staff after World War II, and bought out the business in 1950. Six years ago, he sold it to Robert Grandy, one his five employees, who last fall decided to liquidate its stock and enter another field, thus ending the Lakewood Paint & Wallpaper establishment.

After this development, Lou Kiss, a prominent Lakewood real estate agent and painting and decorating contractor, purchased the 75-year-old Bow-Detroit Building, still owned by Steve Leachman, and planned to transfer his Kiss business offices from 16304 Detroit into the former paint store quarters.

While sale of the building became effective the first of the this year, Kiss's plan to move it was changed. Instead, he opted to lease the space to Dula, after Dula evinced a desire to become a tenant.

Kiss now intends to seek other larger headquarters for his operations sometime in the future.

Kiss, like Dula, is of Hungarian ancestry. Also, like Dula's parents, Kiss came to the United States in the late 1950s after the revolt in Hungary. He was 16 years old at the time.

Kiss took adult courses in Cleveland to learn English, and attended Dyke College to study business. Later, he taught evening classes at Lakewood High School in home remodeling, painting and decorating and wallpapering, the basics of which he learned from father.

He started in business in 1960, doing painted and decorating, and adding real estate in 1989. Teaming with him today in his Lakewood business endeavors are his two sons, Steve, 32, and Martin, 27, both of whom are Lakewood High graduates.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post February 20, 1997. Reprinted with permission.

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