Dexter Pruitt had to grow up fast.
The owner of several very successful Ada businesses, Mr. Pruitt, 75, was only 15 when his mother died. He believed he had choices to make, and he made them quickly.
“After my mom died, my dad and I really didn’t have a place to land,” he said. “It was kind of a stupid decision, but I thought I needed to get out into the world and work.”
At 15 and having just completed the eighth grade, he joined the Army National Guard.
“I lied about my age to get in and I spent my 16th birthday at Fort Sill,” he said. “They didn’t find out I wasn’t 18 until they mobilized the unit and they discharged me.”
The mobilization in advance of the Korean War sent the 16-year-old veteran back to Ada.
It was 1949 and the young Mr. Pruitt was hot on the trail of his next job.
“It was clear to me I had to work to live, and I was fortunate to land a job with Spann Motor Company,” he said.
The local Dodge dealer employed Mr. Pruitt to drive big trucks from Detroit to Ada to deliver cars and trucks to the dealership.
“We made five dollars a day, plus expenses,” Mr. Pruitt said. “Boy, we thought we were getting rich! Of course, you had to make it back to Ada within five days to collect. That was a challenge in those days.”
At 17, he began working for a company laying natural gas pipeline. He had picked up the welding trade from his older brother, A.D., who worked at Ada Iron and Metal.
Mr. Pruitt built pipeline up through Nebraska and Iowa.
“Then I came back to Ada in 1952 and I met a little ol’ gal, and I decided it was time to stay put,” he said.
The “little ol’ gal” was Betty Pruitt, his wife of 58 years. The couple still lives in Ada.
While working for the Sachs family at Ada Iron and Metal for the next nine years, Mr. Pruitt displayed some entrepreneurial spirit by opening a grocery store at Sixth and Broadway.
“That’s when Broadway was a two-lane road,” he said.
He learned that the grocery store was “a real tough business.”
But his promise had been noticed. A local businessman, Asa Hutchinson, approached Mr. Pruitt and offered to back him in any business he chose.
“I thought about that a while,” he said, “and I decided if I could make a living for two people, I could probably go out and make one for myself.”
It was 1962, and with great enthusiasm – and virtually no capital – he started a welding supply and scrap metal business.
He knew the business would be tough to get going, and he soon realized the hours were punishing.
“When you’re in business for yourself, it simply takes complete dedication,” he said. “You are just working all the time.”
About a year after he started the business, older brother A.D. joined him.
“He decided he would come over and starve to death with me,” Mr. Pruitt said. “But he was a bookkeeper and that helped tremendously. I didn’t know much about accounting at the time, so I worked and he kept the books!”
Local business people who have been around a while will tell you Mr. Pruitt is very good at spotting opportunities.
“I guess I can recognize a good deal about fifty-five percent of the time, which is good enough,” he said.
In 1964, he determined he could build structural steel buildings out of old oil derricks. He would negotiate the purchase of the old steel, then use the material to build the buildings he sold to clients.
“We got the cost of materials down to about nothing,” Mr. Pruitt said. “That turned out to be a great deal, and we built good buildings.”
From that point forward, Mr. Pruitt has grown his local businesses and answered opportunity’s knock.
He owns Pruitt Company, the welding supply company started in 1962, as well as Pruitt Care, a local medical supply company managed by his daughter, Tammy Prentiss.
He also has a real estate investment company.
What are the secrets to business success?
“You’ve got to get into something that pays you 24/7,” Mr. Pruitt said. “From the day I started, I always looked for good opportunities to invest in. I looked for something that would make money.”
Business, he said, hasn’t really changed in the 47 years since he started the welding supply business.
“Money is relative,” he said. “When I started, a loaf of bread was a dime. Now it’s two dollars. But we had to work just as hard to make that dime back in 1962 as we have to work now to make two dollars.”
For people just starting in business, Mr. Pruitt preaches self-control.
“I made payroll to welders for five years and all that time they were making more than I was,” he said. “You must live a little lower than your means, and always be on the lookout for good opportunities to invest in.”
Today, Mr. Pruitt still rises early and works a 10-hour day.
“The only opportunity in life to really get ahead is to own your own business,” he said. “And it becomes a situation where it’s not about the money. It’s about providing for your family and just doing a good job.”
