The
Craig Fahle
Show

The odd couple: Rabbi Mendel Shemtov and businessman Alan Ross.

back here:'
At Mumford, he continued fighting.
"But I had no expectations of ever being
a student," he bemoans. "I just couldn't
read well."
When his father died, Alan says,
"Thank God, my brother was working
for Jack Peltz at the old House of Foods
on Seven Mile Road in Detroit because
Jack took a liking to him and paid for
the funeral.
"Ironically, my sister, two brothers and
myself all became multi-millionaires."
Alan dropped out of Mumford and
joined the Navy for four years, where
the fistfights accelerated because he dis-
played a Jewish star on his bunk.
"I really kicked ass on those anti-
Semites in the Navy — maybe I fought
because I loved the pain?" he wonders.
"But, anyway, I also learned to read bet-
ter, mainly on pornographic literature. I
became an avid reader of Henry Miller
books:'

Survives Court Martials
He was court martialed four times for
fighting and other infractions, but sur-
vived each trial, and later successfully
participated in a "six-for-five" business,
whereby "sailors were loaned five bucks
[or larger amounts] until payday, but
had to pay back six."
Stationed in four U.S. cities, Alan sent
his mother $1,500 of his Navy earnings
and kept enough for himself to briefly
go into the home improvement business,
stretching from Port Huron into Canada.
That led to a highly lucrative "short-
hustling" career, as Alan describes it, for
about five years in the 1960s. He sold
pots and pans out of a station wagon,
"but I sold them to businesses, not inch-
viduals, eventually to the tune of $1,000
a day for a couple hundred boxes. The
businesses used them for gifts and other
things, or maybe re-sold them.
"That business spread around the
country and even to Europe. I employed
1,500 workers selling in 11 countries,
and I took about 100 trips over there.
Business was so good I couldn't spend
the money fast enough, so I kept $1 mil-
lion in cash in a safe. To top it off, I made

about $150 a day playing gin rummy.
Heck, I ended up giving some money
away'

Gold Refining Next
Exhausted from all of this, Alan stayed in
the U.S. to open a gold refining business
in Detroit, Chicago and Toronto, employ-
ing 40 workers. "But I dealt with jewelers
only, not individuals, and I made $2 mil-
lion a year in gold refining:"
Alan's interest turned to aviation 35
years ago when he had to charter a plane
to visit his ailing sister in Cleveland
— and bought the plane for $28,000.
IFL now has 25 planes, including three
large 727s, worth $80 million, with 150
employees, several hangars and a huge
parts inventory
"Our biggest freight customers are
the auto manufacturers, and we fly
parts to their plants in North and South
America;' he said. "We take trips to
Canada for oil companies.
"When you see the winning team
put on those championship hats after
a Super Bowl game ... Well, we got the
hats there that day, for both teams, just
in case; the same with hockey's Stanley
Cup champions. We also take individual
vacationers to Florida for $15,000 a
roundtrip:'

Can't Fly Now
Alan's tone turns a bit somber when he
describes his own love for flying, point-
ing out he made a solo flight after seven
hours of instruction. "Unfortunately, I
can't be a pilot again for medical rea-
sons',' he laments."I've had a few mini-
strokes, and I have five stents in my
blood vessels:'
Alan is a bit more relaxed these days,
spending quality time at his Orchard
Lake Village home with his wife, Helen,
to whom he has been married for 51
years. They have two daughters and four
grandchildren. And, of course, he spends
more time with Mendel.
"Alan's life story is amazing, isn't it?"
asks Mendel rhetorically."He's an amaz-
ing Jew. I think my Chabad mission here
is complete, but Alan and I are friends
for life."

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August 2 9 2012 11

