Father and son reunions happen every day in the offices of Duluth-Superior vessel agents and freight forwarders

by Davis Helberg

Family relationships tie together the past and, in a couple of cases, the future for Duluth-Superior's vessel agents and freight forwarders.

Robert A. Buchanan, Jr., manager of the Duluth office of A.N. Deringer, Inc., got his start in 1971 when he and his father bought out a customs brokerage, agency and forwarding business from a longtime family friend.

Mark McLennan, a quarter shy of college graduation, accepted his father's invitation to join the S.A. McLennan Co. in 1973 and now has served as company president and proprietor for 15 years.

Charles Hilleren, fresh off four years of Air Force duty, joined Guthrie-Hubner, Inc., in 1973 and today, as the firm's owner, is grooming his oldest son to run the business.

Dan Sydow came from Chicago in 1974 to open an office for Federal Marine Terminals and now, as manager of FedMar's local office and proprietor of Daniel's Shipping Services, Inc., works alongside his two sons.

Few could have foreseen that in those four Great Lakes navigation seasons (1971-74), the foundations were laid for today's roster of local agents and forwarders.

In chronological order:

Buchanan

Robert A. Buchanan Sr.	Robert A. Buchanan Jr.

Son of a Twin Ports fooddistributor/broker and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Mr. Buchanan was an auditor for Northwest Bank in St. Paul in 1970 when his father introduced him to Theodore W. Svensson, a customs broker and founder of Svensson Shipping Co.

"My mother had graduated from Superior Central in 1938 with the woman who was to become Ted's wife," Mr. Buchanan said. "My parents were family friends with the Svenssons, and my dad had become aware that Ted was considering selling his business."

Mr. Buchanan was living in White Bear Lake, Minn., at the time and had gotten married in 1970 (never mind he had promised his wife, JoAnn, that they would not return to Superior).

"There were no such things as business plans in those days," he said. "You rolled the dice, and if it worked, it worked. After studying the business through the winter, I finally said, `What the heck' … and we bought it in April 1971."

Tutored by Mr. Svensson in the arcane world of customs duties and regulations, Mr. Buchanan passed his broker's test in October 1972 and received his license from U.S. Customs in January 1973.

He kept the Svensson Shipping name for several years, but conducted the brokerage business under his own name. Although mainly focused on customs and forwarding, Mr. Buchanan also does some vessel agency work and, in fact, represented the roll on-roll off railcar ferry Incan Superior when it ran between Duluth-Superior and Thunder Bay from 1974 to 1992.

Bonnie Ritchie joined the firm in 1979, earned a customs broker’s license in 1983 and continues to be a key part of the business, once known as Buchanan Customs Brokers & Agency through 1998. On Jan. 1, 1999, Mr. Buchanan sold the business to A.N. Deringer, Inc., of St. Alban’s, Vt. Deringer has offices coast-to-coast along the U.S.-Canadian border as well as in other U.S. air/vessel ports.

McLennan

Stuart Sr. and Stuart Jr. were on board the Segeza on October 23, 1978, when the Russian ship called on the Port.

Stuart A. McLennan became a vessel agent after military service in World War II and, in 1959, opened an office under his own name. Mark did not intend to follow in his father's footsteps. "I could see all the time it consumed," he said. "He was always working and rarely had time to do things other fathers seemed to be doing with their kids."

Nonetheless, Mark, a Duluth East High School graduate, worked as a deckhand on lakers for three summers while attending the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Then, with one quarter to go for an accounting degree and his father encouraging him to join the business, he decided "rather than doing something else, I'd give it a try."

That was in early 1973. He learned about saltwater ships and the grain trade from his father and about the laker end of things from Jerry Grandmaison, who was with S.A. McLennan from 1959 until his retirement in 1997. When Stuart died of a heart attack in 1989, Mark chose to continue the business under its original name.

Along the way, David Sauer, who had spent several years with the USS Great Lakes Fleet and the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, succeeded Mr. Grandmaison as operations manager, and the business has continued to evolve ("We're working a lot more now on the shipper's side of the ore industry," Mr. McLennan said), but the family heritage is still evident.

On the day in 1959 that Stuart McLennan went into business, his sister, Madeline, a member of the firm for many years, gave him an office plant. Forty-five years later, the plant continues to thrive on Mark's desk.

Hilleren

Scott and Chuck Hilleren

Raised in rural Benson, Minn., "Chuck" Hilleren was stationed at an Air Force base in Turkey when he saw a ship passing through the Dardenelles Straits. "Just look at that," he recalls saying. "I was amazed."

He would have been more amazed to realize then that his career would be spent looking after ships and that one of his sons would follow him into the business.

Working at the Duluth Air Base following military discharge in late 1972, Mr. Hilleren stopped at a Duluth bar and happened to meet former Guthrie-Hubner, Inc., owner Sven Hubner and operations manager Robert J. Baker. "Sven (although born in Denmark) and Bob are among the most patriotic people I've known," Mr. Hilleren said. "When they learned I had been in the Air Force, they bought me a drink. One thing led to another, and I started working for the company in March 1973."

Spurred by strong world grain demand and a huge U.S. wheat sale to the then-Soviet Union, Mr. Hilleren's first year was one of the busiest in St. Lawrence Seaway history.

"We worked 20-hour days," he said. "I hardly had time to get married … took a two-day honeymoon in Brainerd, came back to work.

"But every day was something new, and I liked being on the waterfront, working with the crews, the longshoremen, the elevator people."

Eventually, in 1991, he bought the business from Mr. Hubner (who had acquired the business from its founder, Alastair Guthrie, in the 1970s). Meanwhile, Chuck's wife, Jeanne, also joined the firm. And in 1998, Scott — oldest of three brothers — came on board. Will Scott someday succeed his father?

"No one would be better qualified," the elder Hilleren said. "I'm getting tired of late nights and early mornings, and he's learning well."

Sydow

Of the four Duluth agents, Dan Sydow has the greatest longevity in the profession. He started with Phelps Steamship Agency in Milwaukee in 1965 and joined FedMar in 1966 — first in Chicago and then was transferred to Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago again and, finally, Duluth-Superior in 1974.

The Sydows - Steve, Dan and Luke

"I had a young family and thought Duluth was the best place to raise my children," he said. "And a big part of it, too, was my love for hunting, fishing and the outdoors."

Dan and Karen Sydow's sons, Steven and Luke, were born in 1966 and 1967. Both were ski jumpers in their early years, and Steve went on to win several major tournaments and was a member of the U.S. National Ski Jumping Team for three years. Luke switched to alpine skiing when he was about 12 and continues to be active in the sport.

Dan Sydow said he discouraged them from getting into the shipping business and, instead, stressed formal education. Steve has a bachelor's degree from UMD and a master's in public administration from Northern Michigan University in Marquette while Luke has a bachelor's and master's in

landscape architecture from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

So what went "wrong"?

"We were really busy in about 1997, I needed someone, and Steve was seriously interested," Dan said, "and in 2000, Luke was living in Boulder, Colo., things were going well here and he wanted to come back to Duluth. It just worked out."

It isn't as if either was totally unfamiliar with the industry. "They grew up with me missing funerals, weddings, special things, because I had a ship to look after," he said. "Ships were on their minds before they could talk. Maybe it's an osmosis thing."