Maneuvering through the minefields - Westfair Communications

Hal Kurfehs has a trio of passions that keep him busy during his off hours from his position as vice president of Coldwell Banker Commercial, Scalzo Group in Bethel. One is studying military history ”“ “If I had 20 lifetimes I could never read all the books I have” ”“ and collecting historic military paraphernalia such as helmets and muskets. Another is travel, especially if it”™s to military sites or museums. The third is serving his community as chairman of the Brookfield Economic Development Commission, which can sometimes be like a battlefield itself.
“It”™s like a constant fight,” Kurfehs said. “Every town has a lot of different currents going through it, and it”™s kind of a passion to try to get things through the process that would normally be a tough fight, trying to navigate the different currents to achieve an end.”
Kurfehs came to this last passion late in life, just a few years ago. In fact, he spent most of his life in advertising and marketing, churning through a series of companies that began when he was working his way through St. Peter”™s College in Jersey City, N.J. “I graduated high school in 1957 and didn”™t have the financial backing for college,” he said, “so I was working for American Tobacco in New York in sales administration and going to school at night.”
Two years after receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing in 1962, he decided to accept a scholarship to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned an MBA. “I realized after working for four or five years that I could be better served with an advanced degree,” he said.
When he graduated, he spoke with an Army recruiter about joining the military on the officer level rather than as a drafted grunt. “I would have gladly served,” he said, but the Army was slow in responding. While he waited, he married his sweetheart of seven years, Linda, who “was all for my going into the service.” At the time, however
married men weren”™t being drafted, and by the time they were a year later, Kurfehs was a dad. Instead, he returned to American Tobacco as an assistant product manager for two cigarette brands, and was promoted to product manager in charge of marketing, advertising and, “to some extent, production” of two other brands. “It was almost like being president of your own company with one or two brands,” he said. “I had an awful lot to say about how the brands were produced and marketed. It was kind of a neat job.”

Smarter guys
He left the tobacco company in 1967 to join a Manhattan advertising agency. “I realized the guys in the agencies were smarter than the guys on the corporate side,” he said. He rose to account executive working on national accounts such as General Foods and Texaco. As account executive, he was “the contact person between the client and the agency, and got involved with marketing, media planning, creative direction ”“ the whole bit,” he said. “You”™re the guy who orchestrates the whole relationship between the client and the agency.”
Back in the mid and late ”™60s, he said, “you were very mobile because headhunters were all over the place, always calling to see if you would like to see this one or that one. You could move up in salary and grade quickly.” By 1968 he was with another agency, then a year later joined a startup computer software company as vice president and director of marketing. It proved to be the best and worst of decisions. Worst, because the company floundered and he was out of a job; best because the software company was so cutting edge ”“ an English-language, interactive interface “that was unheard of then” ”“ that it attracted national attention and Kurfehs became “very, very visible,” he said. “I was only 30.”

He lasted until 1970, went back into advertising for a bit, then joined Ethan Allen Furniture in Manhattan as a board member and director of advertising. The company moved to Danbury and Kurfehs moved his family to Ridgefield, “but whether it was wanderlust of whatever,” he joined a Canadian home furnishings company as vice president and general manager of the retail franchise division. After two years, he returned to Connecticut in 1977, where he purchased a small book company in New Milford that dealt with collecting military paraphernalia.
“I called it the Fairfield Book Co. and expanded its scope into military history as well,” he said. When Kurfehs bought the publishing company, annual sales were “maybe a couple hundred thousand.” He boosted sales to more than $1 million, then added a second company, Harlin House Ltd., for Harold and Linda, that dealt with general antiques. “Things were going pretty good until 1982, when we had a terrible recession with double-digit interest rates and double-digit inflation,” he said. “A small-business loan was 21 percent.
“I couldn”™t expand and I could not get a loan, and I was ready to talk acquisition,” he said. Prentice Hall was interested in buying his business, and on the day the board was to seal the deal ”“ “You”™ll be a millionaire tomorrow,” one Prentice Hall executive told him over the phone before the meeting ”“ it decided instead not to make any acquisitions because of the recession.
“I had been talking with this other guy,” who brought significant money into the business in exchange for a 50-50 cut. “He seemed like a very charming guy,” Kurfehs said. “He said he didn”™t know the business and wouldn”™t interfere.” We all know where this is going, of course. By Christmas of that year it was obvious the partnership was a disaster, and the business was liquidated because of the investor”™s interference.

Mine fields
Kurfehs returned to Ethan Allen for a spell but left after two years to join a commercial real estate agency down county, then 10 year later, joined Paul Scalzo”™s real estate company in Bethel in 1996. “He had been after me to go with him, and I finally agreed to do so and I”™ve been here ever since.”
About the same time, Kurfehs became involved with land-use issues in Brookfield, was elected to the town”™s planning commission ”“ he”™s currently vice chairman ”“ and was appointed to the Economic Development Commission three years ago, becoming chairman last year. But his lifelong passion ”“ “As I kid I would take out library books on military history” ”“ is military history in general, the Civil War in particular and collecting military paraphernalia, “I have a cavalry helmet from the Napoleonic days, some Civil War cartridge boxes and muskets,” he said. Some dress helmets, he said, “are absolutely beautiful, works of art.”
As for those Economic Development Commission and planning commission battles, “my passion is to be able to maneuver through the minefields, not to win, but to decide in such a way that all the sides feel satisfied, not irritating one crowd, but making them feel as good as you can.”