Printer Bud Hadfield Soared Like an Eagle –Michelson

"The fiercer the look, the better," related Steve Hammerstein, ICED president and CEO, in describing his boss' infatuation with eagles. "And that's basically how he attacked life—with the same fierceness an eagle attacks its prey. He lived a full, complete, exhausting life."

A consummate entrepreneur, Hadfield printed a newspaper called The Family News (complete with ads he sold in the neighborhood) out of the basement of his parents' Cranston, RI, home during junior high. But, after Bud's father died when he was 16, Hadfield admittedly turned rebellious and was expelled from high school for fighting during his senior year. After a series of odd jobs, he joined the Merchant Marines during World War II, followed by a brief career as an amateur boxer. Hadfield eventually relocated to Houston, and failed at nine different business ventures. Undeterred, he acquired an 18x20-foot letterpress shop, with no running water, from a widow for $1,000 in 1967 and renamed it Bud Hadfield Printers. The printing business grew and became successful, which he credited, in part, to him signing up for a Dale Carnegie training course. Hadfield said what he learned made him a better businessman and salesperson, and it also led to him meeting his wife and business partner of 50 years, Mary, when he sold her a course.