![\"Discher_Vernon1\"](\"http:\/\/dunwoody.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Discher_Vernon1.jpg\")
Visit Vern and Shirley Discher\u2019s Prior Lake home and you\u2019ll see Dunwoody pride. A Dunwoody pennant hangs over the door in the den. Certificates acknowledging Vern\u2019s membership in the Dunwoody 50-Year-Club and the Legacy Association are displayed on the wall, next to scores of family pictures and a map showing the couple\u2019s travels around the world and to all 50 states.<\/p>\n
\u201cShirley and I have been truly blessed in our journey through life,\u201d says Vern. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a \u2018me\u2019 story; it\u2019s a \u2018we\u2019 story.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple met on a double date in Minneapolis when they were still in high school. Vern was hooked instantly, but marriage had to wait until after he completed his military service in Germany and graduated from Dunwoody.<\/p>\n
Once he had settled into work at West Bend Aluminum Company (a job the College arranged for him), he and Shirley launched their life together.<\/p>\n
In the following years, Vern moved through a series of positions that built his knowledge of extruded aluminum manufacturing and sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always looking for better jobs with higher pay, so I moved around from company to company in those early years,\u201d he explains, admitting that there were a few times when he tried some \u201cwild scheme to be my own boss\u201d that didn\u2019t work out. \u201cI think I just had a built-in desire to be independent,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
In 1975, he was named general manager of Northland Marine, a division of Northland Aluminum Products that manufactured marine windshields and portholes.<\/p>\n
The company was struggling, and Vern and CEO\/owner Dave Dalquist turned it around by moving into extruded aluminum fabricating, an industry Vern knew very well.<\/p>\n
With a new name of Northland Fabricators and a new product line, sales took off. In 1979, when Northland Aluminum was ready to sell the division, Vern and plant manager Larry Holen, bought the company, renaming it Norfab.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the success of Norfab was my ability to hire the right people,\u201d explains Vern. He focused on sales, and let other people do their jobs.<\/p>\n
Shirley was often at his side at trade shows, business dinners and calls on key customers. \u201cShe did an excellent job,\u201d says Vern. \u201cShe loved people and people loved her. We\u2019d go to a trade show, and they\u2019d show up at our booth and say, \u2018Where\u2019s Shirley?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1987, Vern sold his share of the company and retired to travel the world with Shirley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have great personal pride in the fact that after more than 25 years, Norfab is still very much in business and that most of the employees that were there when I left are either still working there or have retired from Norfab.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look back on my career, I see that things just evolved,\u201d says Vern. He\u2019s pleased to see that Dunwoody continues to evolve too. \u201cWhen I was there, Dunwoody was all drafting boards and tee squares,\u201d he remembers. \u201cNow it\u2019s all computers. It fascinates me to go through it and to see what the young people are doing and the things they\u2019re creating.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet Vern Discher, ’48 Engineering Drafting & Design Technology Visit Vern and Shirley Discher\u2019s Prior Lake home and you\u2019ll see Dunwoody pride. A Dunwoody pennant hangs over the door in the den. Certificates acknowledging Vern\u2019s membership in the Dunwoody 50-Year-Club and the Legacy Association are displayed on the wall, next to scores of family pictures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[305,197,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-and-friends","category-industry-partners","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n