Willam A Sloane

I was born in Detroit and later moved to Farmington where I completed high school in 1961. I was very active in the Boy Scouts, achieving the Eagle Scout and Silver Star awards. From here I joined the Marine Corps earning a top secret security clearance to work with the government. With an honorable discharge in hand I ventured into college life at Justin Morel College on the MSU Campus. I graduated with degrees in Sociology, Psychology and Business Administration in 1971.

Exhausted!!! I decided I needed to embark on my “first retirement." I took a year plus off to travel, visiting Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Columbia, Peru and all over Mexico. In mid-1972 I returned home and joined the work force. First stop as an Assistant Plant Manager of specialty metals where I ran the mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph to assess metals. Next I hired in at Ford Motor in Ypsilanti where I was responsible for the McPherson Strut introduction on the assembly line. I was later hired by Great Lakes Steel to do the startup of the newest Arc Furnaces that are used to melt steel in an argon atmosphere. Tired of the snow I accepted a job with Guardian Industries in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Here I was in charge of two horizontal tempering furnaces and one vertical. I was able to help increase output by 26% and reduce glass breakage by 6%.

Loved the Florida weather but missed my family so in 1985 I moved back to Michigan. By this time my Brother-in-Law Ted had started Reddi-Ride Transportation. This business was the first of its kind in the area and growing fast. To keep Reddi-Ride efficient and to keep up with the growth he asked me to become his partner. Together we made Reddi-Ride strong and have been growing and expanding ever since.