49 Years at Crescent Plumbing Supply: Here's to you, Jerry Canoy

Have you spent nearly half a century in any spot? This guy has.

Where have you spent 49 years of your life? Have you even spent 49 years on this planet?

Along with a remarkable case of endurance and unwavering belief in the company and its goals, or a promise of an entire pot of coffee waiting by his desk in the morning, Jerry Canoy has spent nearly half a century at Crescent Plumbing Supply as a sales representative. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that he picked up a piece of pipe or a box of fittings along the way, but he’s the one who calls out into the leaking faucet, wild for a way to fix someone’s plumbing issues. The number of fixes he’s spread out around the St. Louis area is limitless and hard to count.

Through multiple ownerships and buildings, Jerry has been there pushing the product out into the masses and taking the calls. He’s the salesperson that plumbers come into the office to see, possibly for their job needs but more likely to shoot the shit. There’s a value in all of that work, because it gives owners like Joe and Steve Rotskoff the idea that people do stick around if the name on the front of the jersey never wavers.

Jerry looks like a guy who could step off the 2025 rock right back into the 1960s without missing a beat. With a walk that carries purpose and a voice that could open up a listener’s morning on the radio airwaves, you can’t miss him… even in a giant warehouse. Instead of calling over the radio for a product check like some, Jerry charges the warehouse floor like a point guard, asking who’s picking an order and if he can change it.

Technology restraints don’t slow him down, even the very impossible ones. For the past year and a half, Crescent has transitioned to a digital platform with scan guns and new-age software, making it easier to place orders while standing a block away from the counter. Instead of ripping pink sheets from yellow sheets and listening to an angry printer on its third marriage, new orders fall into a warehouse worker’s scanner in sync with demand. Jerry is the kind of old-school horse that will walk up and ask if I can edit an order on the fly while picking it, and wonder why it’s unlikely. The man needs to impose his will, and that’s part of his appeal.

He’s not stuck in the past ways of doing things; he has little regard for the hoops that one has to jump through at times to get the job done. After 49 years in one spot with one team, I can hardly blame the guy for the thought process. Back when he started, egg prices didn’t drain bank accounts, and social media hadn’t yet ruined everything. When I told him I had a blog, he wanted to know how one would start such a thing. Back in the day, or on a Tuesday, writers used a typewriter to tell their tales.

Could you consider the time switch for a moment? When Jerry started working at Crescent in 1976, Rocky was still nine months from release. Somewhere, Sylvester Stallone was still sleeping in his car. Heck, I was still six years from release myself! When he started, Arnold’s dialogue was still being dubbed, and Martin Scorsese wasn’t a legend. Ozzie Smith didn’t take his first backflip leap at Busch Stadium until years later.

All of those comparisons exist to convey a single message: something like this should be celebrated. My parents worked for decades at hospitals on Kingshighway, but they didn’t come close to 49 years. Pro basketball players couldn’t stick to one profession like Jerry; they had to diversify into movie roles and even make an attempt at the music industry. Canoy is a model employee because he has never left, a virtue that most humans don’t lend to a company. Pujols and Hull left, but Canoy stayed.

I need Jerry to stick around until he hits 50 years, albeit semi-selfishly. Seeing him every morning is like a connection between “stay calm” and “it’ll be alright.” When you see people like Jerry five days a week, the number of interactions adds up to be higher than the number of times you see your friends and family. A daily dose of Canoy is required for the adulting motions to kick in at the day job.

He may be an old lion still taking swings at the plate, but it’s the sense of humor and resilience to change that powers local companies like Crescent, keeping them alive for over 120 years.

Before I wrap this up, I’d like you to consider that last part. The company has been in operation for 120 years, and Canoy has been a part of that for over a third of its existence. If that’s not impressive in a time and place where the next best thing is constantly pursued and loyalty is taken for granted, I don’t know what is.

Here’s to you, Jerry Canoy. What’s your name?!