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Ed Swanson retires from Dakota Drug
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By ZACH ANDERSON, Daily Leader News Intern
| 08/03/2009 |
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Ed Swanson (left) and Bob Schamber have worked together for 38 years at Dakota Drug. Swanson retired on Thursday.
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Swanson moved to Madison and bought the Casey Drug business on June 27, 1971, renaming it Dakota Drug & Jewelry in 1976. In 1981, Swanson purchased the building from Lois Casey. Swanson had operated under the name Casey Drug from 1971-76.
"People -- that's what I am gonna miss more than anything else; the people I work with and see every day," Swanson said. "It's just time to retire. I'm 65 years old."
Swanson was born in Tyler, Minn., and raised in Russell, Minn., where he graduated from high school. He graduated from the University of Minnesota pharmacy program in 1967. Once he graduated, he was looking for work when he found the Casey Drug store in Madison.
Swanson tells his children that they had better find a job they enjoy, because if they enjoy their job, it won't feel like work.
"You have to enjoy what you do. If you wake up dreading to go to work each day, that's not good," Swanson said.
He said that he enjoyed his job and the people he met and worked with over the years.
Bob Schamber, current owner of Dakota Drug, had been working at Casey Drug since 1967. Schamber and Swanson became friends and have continued their friendship for 38 years since Swanson bought the drug store in 1971. Schamber bought out half of the business and became co-owner with Swanson in 1993. In 1998, Schamber bought out the business entirely.
Before Casey Drug, the store was called Porter Brothers Drug and Jewelry. J.F. Casey purchased the store in 1939 from Norman Porter and watchmaker Don Porter. Casey and his son Delos together operated the drugstore in the Porter building. In 1961, Casey Drug and Jewelry moved to the current location.
Several changes came through 38 years in business.
"We started out with a manual typewriter, then moved to an electric typewriter," Swanson said. Now the drug store business is all on computer.
Swanson plans to spend his retirement golfing and going to Florida for about six months.
Cindy Rheault will be taking over as pharmacist for Swanson. Rheault and her husband Jim have three children and two grandchildren. Her parents are Oluf and the late JoAnn Hansen. She is a graduate of Madison High School, spent two years at Dakota State University and graduated from South Dakota State University with a bachelor's degree in pharmacy in 1991. Rheault did her intenrship during pharmacy school in the former Madison Drug Store in Madison, working under the late Larry Leighton and Marlin Brozik. She also worked in Brookings at the K-Mart Pharmacy for 10 years, then was a floating pharmacist, going to K-Mart stores around the state for seven years. After that, she spent two years at Econo Foods in Watertown in the pharmacy.
"I'm just helping to fill the void with Ed retiring," Rheault said. "I am enjoying working back in my hometown."
Swanson's last day was Thursday. Dakota Drug served coffee and cookies to recognize Swanson's retirement.
"I enjoyed the people. I appreciate all the business and the customers we have had over the years," Swanson said. "I will miss the people."
Dakota Drug isn't the only business in town which had the Swanson name attached to it. In 1975, Swanson and his wife Sandy started Sandy's Hallmark. They sold it five years ago to Grapevines. Before the store was Sandy's Hallmark, it was Grimstvedt's Coast-To-Coast Hardware.
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©Madison Daily Leader 2009
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