Many people have heard of "The San Franciscan Roaster" but have no idea who "Coffee PER" is. So here is the story....

It begins about 25 years ago when an out-of-work oilfield technician flopped on his bed after paying the last of his bills with the last of his money for God-knows how many times in that business and with a quick thought uttered a prayer..."Lord, there has to be a better way to provide for my family"

Interestingly a short time prior to that on a family trip to California this man, Sherman Dodd, was introduced to a man in the coffee business and the usual "what do you do for a living" conversation happened and that seemed to be the end of it. But a short time after that little prayer Sherman recieved a call from the coffee agent asking him about this and that regarding his technical skills, then offered him a job as a technician installing an industrial coffee roasting plant. Sherman, knowing nothing of the industry, but needing a job, took it at once.

When he arrived at the facility and saw the crates of shiny equipment, stacks of pipe, fittings, eletrical cables, etc., it was clear to him he was out of his depth, and clear to the coffee company technicians too...yet they kept him on and before long, all found that Sherman had a real mechanicle know-how that came naturally.

Now Sherman, who dropped out of school at 16 to go to work, got his GED at 22 to work in the oilfields, had by this time travelled the world working with various oil companies and operations. He had picked up a lot of practical experience on the road (thus he refers to himself as being a "roads" scholar) and that, combined with a natural mechanical genius made him quickly popular with the coffee roaster manufacturer and at the end of the job he found himself working for Probat.

to be continued....