SMITH AND WATSON PRINTING - Key Persons

Melvin Joseph Sires, Sr. (B: 4-3-1882 - D: 2-27-1945) began working for Charles Smith & George Watson when he was a young man. After the death of Watson in 1919, Melvin Sires purchased Smith & Watson Printing from Watson's wife for the sum of $6,000. Charles Smith, who was a working partner continued working for Melvin until the 1930s.

Ralph Murrah Sires (B: 3-23-1910 - D: 3-28-1994) was sent by his father, Melvin Joseph Sires, Sr. to Mergenthaler Linotype Company in New Orleans, LA to learn the linotype (new way of setting type) operation for the printing trade in the early 1930s. In 1945, when his father passed, Ralph and his brother Melvin Sires, Jr. became partners of Smith & Watson Printing. Ralph Mathews "Chip" Sires, Sr. (B: 3-26-1942 - D: 10-25-2008), son of Ralph Murrah Sires worked in the business off and on during his high school years. In 1962, Chip decided to leave his present job and join his father in the family business. After the retirement of Melvin Sires Jr. in 1981, Ralph Murrah Sires and Chip became the sole owners of Smith & Watson Printing. In the mid-1980s, Ralph Murrah Sires retired, leaving the majority of his shares to Chip and the remainder to Chip's son, Ralph Mathews "Mat" Sires, Jr. In 1981, at the age of 16, Chip asked his son Ralph Mathews "Mat" Sires Jr. to help with the family business alongside him and his grandfather. Upon completion of high school, Mat was preparing to join the military when his father approached him with a business offer he couldn't turn down. Chip offered Mat a full-time position in the family business, the opportunity to become a partner, and the promise that he would one day own the business when he retired or passed away.