Where Are They Now?

Garry Couch has gone out of his way to experience new things in life. He’s managed factory workers in Dublin, tried his hand at management in the Metroplex, traveled the state with an oilfield parts company, owned a game ranch in the hill country, and made countless friends along the way.

While he was in high school, Couch played every sport he could. On the weekends he would help his father out with the family business, Couch Garage and Body Shop.

“I remember playing a football game on Friday night and getting all beat up, and then waking up at 7am to go to work in the shop,” he said. “Oh, it hurt, but I have good memories of [that time].”

Couch graduated from Dublin High School in 1971, and took a job at the (now closed) sewing factory in town, Southwestern Apparel. The factory workers — around 100 women and less than a dozen men — made womens clothes for JC Penneys and Sears.

After a few years in Dublin, the company moved Couch to their headquarters in Garland, where he worked as the production control manager. He was responsible for sending out orders to different facilities.

Living in Garland was a lifestyle adjustment, and Couch and his wife Mickie found themselves missing the slower pace of their hometown. “We lived there for about two years and decided the big city was not for us,” Couch said.

He and Mickie moved back to Stephenville and Couch started working for Norton (now Saint-Gobain) making sandpaper. “It was different — I had never made sandpaper in my life, so that was a new one for me,” he said.

He enjoyed spending time with his new coworkers there. “Anytime you get a new job, you’re going to meet new people, and that’s always fun — meeting the new folks and making new friends and spending time there with them,” he said.

Couch had only worked for Norton for two years when his former supervisor at the sewing factory asked him to come back as the facility manager. So Couch went back to his old company, but this time as the boss.

Around this time, many apparel companies started outsourcing their sewing to Taiwan or other countries where they could get away with paying workers less than the American minimum wage. Southwestern Apparel was no exception, and in 1982, the company shut down its Dublin factory for good.

That left Couch looking for a job. “I had a couple of odd jobs in between, and then started working at TechnipFMC in Stephenville,” Couch said. “I spent the next 27 years with them.”

TechnipFMC makes parts for the oil industry, especially cables and pipes. The job took Couch out to West Texas, to a small town called Greenwood, where he worked as the sales manager for the region.

When the oil industry faltered, the company moved him back to Stephenville where he began working in customer service for the division of the company that made pumps.

In 1993, TechnipFMC started a project called Integrated Services, which provided trained technicians to travel the country and work hands-on with different clients at their job sites. Couch was promoted to a manager for the project.

“We had mobile units that we sent out all over the United States,” Couch said. “They’d work on rebuilding the parts that we made at TechnipFMC. They’d be gone about two weeks at a time and then they’d come home for two weeks. It was hard keeping up with those guys. When you supervise them, you want to be there with them and talk to them, but we very seldom saw them so it was hard.”

For the last 14 years of his career, Couch worked as the sales and service manager of the South Texas region in Alice, Texas.

The part that Couch liked best about TechnipFMC was the culture. “They let you do your job, and they didn’t put their thumb on you,” Couch said. “And it was family oriented. We always had company picnics and things like that, and everybody knew everybody.”

The downside to the job was that it required him to spend a lot of time away from home. “I was a weekend husband there for a while,” he said.

In 2011, when Couch was 58 years old, he decided to retire to spend more time with his family. The Couches moved to Kerrville, where their daughter Keedra lives with her husband and their two children.

“You know that old saying that says you’re not supposed to follow your kids?” Couch said. “Well, nobody ever told me that I couldn’t follow my grandkids. So we moved out there and we have enjoyed every minute we’ve been here, which is 14 years now.”

Couch’s retirement has been eventful. For a while he owned a game ranch out in the hill country.

“We had all kinds of animals out there, from sika deer to axis to whitetail and hogs,” he said. “At the time my grandson was about 10 or 12, and I loved going out to the ranch with him. I don’t know that I ever harvested an animal after he grew up — I just loved going out there and sitting in the blind with him.”

Couch and his wife sold the ranch a few years ago, and built a house in Kerrville. “It’s what we call our forever home,” he said.

He enjoys spending time there with his wife, or going to visit their daughter. “She has a place down on the Frio River down in Leaky,” he said. “It’s got beautiful clear water. We go down there on some of the weekends and float the river or sit in the river and visit. It’s like a vacation every weekend.”

Couch and his wife take more extensive vacations from time to time. This summer, to celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary, the Couches went on an Alaskan cruise. Next year, they’re planning a trip to Nashville for their 50th anniversary.

Couch met Mickie when he was in high school in Dublin. “She was a year younger than me,” he said. “We started dating when I was a sophomore and she was a freshman. We broke up a few times like you do as kids, but we’ve been together 49 years now.”

When he’s not spending time with his family or outdoors, Couch has another hobby: “I like to tinker with old cars,” he said. “I’ve always been mechanically inclined, and I’m always fixing up some kind of old car. I fixed up a ‘58 Chevy pickup one time. It was a show truck, because once I finished it was too nice — I didn’t want to drive it.”

Couch and his wife attend Riverside Church of Christ in Kerrville. “A few years after I married Mickie, I found the Lord, and that’s probably been the biggest inspiration in my life,” Couch said. “God has helped me through a lot of decisions that I’ve made since then, and it has been the most wonderful thing.”

Looking back on his life, Couch is glad he was able to experience different places and different types of work.

“I would tell a new graduate from Dublin to go out and see the world before you decide what you want to do,” he said. “There are so many different jobs these days in different places, different kinds of jobs that you probably didn’t even know about. So try a few different things before you settle in on a career.”

Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.