Page 4 - The HandPrint_March-April

Employee Spotlight

By Jessica DeSantis, Operations Administration—Manufacturing

Bill Novak, Facilities Engineering Technician,
and Debbie Novak, HR Specialist II, have been
at GOJO for a combined 16 years. They first
met in 1983 when they were both working at
Wright Tool & Forge in Barberton. Debbie was
working in customer service, and Bill was a new
employee in the tool crib of the forge
department. Bill was told to call Debbie in
Purchasing for help, but he made a mistake and
called the wrong Debbie. It turns out she was
the right Debbie after all!
Bill and Debbie were married on October 8th,
1994 in Barberton by Lake Anna. Throughout
their marriage they have worked to catch,
rehabilitate, and find homes for 56 stray cats.
Debbie fell in love with a few of them and
brought them home for pets. Currently, they
have two cats, Colby and Buddy. "With our
lifestyle, cats work out well for us," said Debbie.

Bill and Debbie do indeed have a busy lifestyle.
Debbie does Jazzercise exercises 9 hours per
week. She even used to be a Jazzercise
instructor. Bill's hobbies are fishing, fishing, and
fishing. Although he prefers bass fishing, Bill
spends most of his time bow fishing for carp. He
has made it his mission to clean out invasive
Pictured above, left to right: carp from our local waterways and calls himself
• Bill and Debbie dressed the "Carp Killer." Together, they love to camp.
to the nines for their They have been camping at the same place
annual family reunion since 1991, and every year they host a family
• Bill partaking is his reunion at the camp. Each year their reunion
favorite hobby, fishing! has a different theme. Some of their past
• Debbie leading a themes were carnival, medieval, Gilligan's
Jazzercise class dressed Island, zombie, movie, space, and pirates. They
as a Hershey’s Kiss
because, why not? always go over the top with costumes, themed
• Bill and Debbie camping food, and games. It's no surprise Bill and Debbie
were a great asset to last year's GOJO
Employee Luncheon Team.
After Wright Tool, Debbie worked in Human Resources for JR Engineering, and Bill spent 15 1/2 years
working in the fire protection business doing sprinkler and fire alarm servicing. When Debbie came to GOJO in
2008, she soon went home and told Bill he should come to work for GOJO, too. Bill swore he'd never work at
the same place as Debbie again. Two years later, Bill's fire protection system expertise made him the perfect
candidate for our Facilities Maintenance department at Lippman Campus. Bill loves the wide variety of tasks
he encounters in his job, and Debbie loves getting to help a wide variety of people. You might say GOJO and
the Novaks are a match made in heaven.
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