Bob Lee and Country Coach ...a Story of Entrepreneurship

Country Coach: a story of entrepreneurship

The story of Country Camper, all the way back to the Barbie toy of Bob Lee’s daughter for which the company was named, has always captured my imagination, my interest, and inspired me throughout my journey in this great industry.

Country Camper was founded in 1973 with two employees building slide-in campers. It grew to a corporation spanning over eight city blocks in Junction City, Oregon and employing 1500+ employees at Country Coach’s peak manufacturing years. Country Coach’s product lines encompassed both front and side door entry diesel pusher luxury motorcoaches from 32’ in length to 45’, with up to 4 slide rooms. Country Coach built at least twelve different Class A models (and even briefly a Class C Max)*, along with the custom-tuned proprietary DynoMax chassis. The motorcoach company became one of the industry’s premier manufacturers of luxury diesel pusher motorcoaches.

“There were definitely some challenges to overcome,” said company founder Bob Lee’s wife Terry Lee. “When we had the gas crunch in the late 70’s/early 80's, we also built trailers and park models too; we even put our employees to work fabricating stove inserts.....anything to survive the industry downturn.”

Terry worked in the company and served as corporate secretary and treasurer for the first 20 years of the company’s history. The Lees, along with brothers Ron and Lenard in early years and in later years, Bob and Terry’s daughters Kenda and Brenda, ran a family operation.

For many years, Bob and Terry logged 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year on their motorcoach, traveling to industry shows and club rallies, where they’d park beside Country Coach owners. “Motorcoachers are the best source of information as to what is most important to have designed into their home on wheels,” Bob always said. So he and Terry would listen, gather ideas; and then take that input back to his Country Coach team. The next model year debut usually found many of those motorcoachers’ suggestions incorporated into the new coach designs.

Pictured: Pat Mason, Bob Lee, Tom Slagle, Ron Lee, Gary Obermire, at Country Coach Friends Club Friendship Rally

Recognition came from many avenues. Country Coach was presented the Oregon Governor’s Award for Corporate Excellence in 1984, the Private Industry Council’s Outstanding Employer Award in 1987, the U.S. Senate Productivity Award in 1988, Oregon’s Private 150 Award in 1994, and RVIA presented Bob Lee with its “Distinguished Service to the RV Industry” award in 1995. Bob Lee was inducted into the RV/MH Heritage Hall of Fame in 2000 having held positions of leadership for nearly 30 years on the Commercial Council for Family Motor Coach Association, Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, and the Oregon Reinforced Plastics Association. Lee also chaired the Annual RVIA Manufacturers Shows, held each year in Los Angeles, CA and Louisville, KY, for many years.

Bob Lee was always one to share the credit with brother Ron Lee (VP of Engineering and Manufacturing for many years), Ed Read (then VP of Production), as well as the entire engineering, design and manufacturing team for the old world craftsmanship and significant product innovations Country Coach brought to the industry. Those innovations included a coach systems monitor with speech processor; air leveling for the motorcoach; HVAC control technology; and hydronic heating coach systems, as well as introducing code-compliant custom bus conversions built on a production line.

Bob Lee sold Country Coach to National RV Holdings, Inc in November, 1996. He continued to serve as Chairman Emeritus in an advisory capacity at Country Coach for several years. In November 2009 due to unfortunate economic factors, the company was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and closed its doors.  In January 2011, Country Coach Corporation (CCC), a service and parts facility, opened within buildings on a portion of the original Country Coach campus in Junction City, Oregon. CCC company owner Ron Lee (Bob Lee’s brother) completed the manufacture of a new Country Coach Allure motorcoach in 2015 and sold the company to Winnebago Industries later that year.

 

*Original Country Coach lines included over the years Country Coach Prevost Conversion, Concept, Rhapsody, Lexa, Affinity, Magna, Intrigue, Allure, Tribute, Mystique, Max, and in the early days the Country Camper.        

 

Bob Lee passed away October 8, 2017 and will be sorely missed in the RV industry. Godspeed and blue skies to Mr Lee as he enters Heaven's Highway.                      

 

Bob Lee Heads Out On Heaven's Highway

On Heaven's Highway:
Bob Lee, RV Industry Pioneer

Bob Lee headed out for heavenly highways on Sunday October 8^th. We miss him already! I have a trove of memories and lessons learned from this man. We all have Bob stories to tell, don't we?! One of the smartest days of my life was the day I said “Yes” during an interview at Country Coach, Inc.  You know I took the original Country Coach job interview as a “favor” to a job placement manager at Trend Business College, whom I feared might not give me a “good job interview” if I didn’t’ go to this one. What a good thing this turned out to be!

The story of Country Camper, all the way back to the Barbie Toy of Bob Lee’s daughter for which the company was named, captured my imagination, my interest, and my journey began. Through the years, I met hundreds of Country Coach owners and other brand motorcoach owner friends. Among my most inspirational people I will say without hesitation was Bob Lee himself.

I remember a plant meeting, where Bob shared of his boyhood years on the farm and how when they were planting seed when they’d empty a gunny sack they’d hang it on a fence post. Over time there got to be a lot of seedbags on fence posts. He said we never really noticed the eyesore. He encouraged us to go back to our departments and look for gunny sacks. He encouraged us all to strive for excellence in everything we did. Another time he talked to us about building every motorhome as if our own mother would be driving it. His stories took root with me; I learned a lot from Bob.

Bob was a team builder. He came into the marketing wing late one December afternoon in the early 90’s and saw an assembly line of busy hands at work labeling postcards. It was the last day before a holiday closure and we had 17 different dealer mailers printed that we were attaching customer labels to. All had to be done and ready to post during closure for winter shows happening at dealer locations. He pulled a chair up next to me at that assembly line and started labeling postcards. It was the employee Christmas party that night and he wanted his employees out of there at a decent hour so we could get home too and ready for our Christmas party. He was a “rollup his sleeves” kind of guy.

Bob played hard too. I remember a show in Montana where a late afternoon water fight broke out just before show’s close. There were four or five salesmen against three marketing folks. Balloons were flying; then Bob got into the fray. He started filling water balloons for me and my team! Most likely in other companies, it might result in some heads rolling for not tending to the business at hand til the show officially closed for the day. In our case it resulted in the company owner himself taking note of the stacked numbers in favor of Sales staff …so he manned the spicket to fill the water balloons. No damage to coach interiors or exteriors occurred, but there were a lot of wet salesmen…They didn't toss balloons back with nearly the same fervor once Bob joined my team. For that few minutes we played just as hard as we all worked during that show!  The end of the show I learned, “We were going to be flying home on the private plane, not commercial.” OK, I thought, that will be fun! Well, that was until we got to the airport and I realized it was a little four-seater plane I could look over the top of practically (not nearly big enough to appease my apprehension of going from Montana to Oregon in a small aircraft). It took every bit of self control and "mind over matter" to load up in one of the two back seats of that little plane! I have to say the scenery was amazing. We landed safely in Eugene Oregon as scheduled with me none the worse for wear. In fact I consider it among the once-in-a-lifetime experiences I was only able to experience because of Bob Lee!

I regret a job I didn’t take. After the original Country Coach closed in bankruptcy one day I got a call from Bob. He wanted to talk to me about an idea he wanted my help with. It was to create a coffee table book on the story of Country Coach told in tandem with the story of the industry’s development during those same years. I wanted to say YES in the worst way. Who wouldn’t want to work with Bob on such a project.  I quite literally had made a verbal commitment to another offer of employment the day before. I kept my word with them but still regret not having collaborated with Bob on that coffee table book.

Thanks for so many memories, Bob, and Godspeed. May blue skies and sunshine greet you on Heaven’s Highway. 

A private service will be held at a later date.  In Lieu of Flowers, you may send memorials to Junction City Local Aid in Bob’s memory. JCLA , P.O. Box 493, Junction City, OR 97448