Bayou Icon | Debbie Sawyer

article by Georgiann Potts
pPhotography by Kelly Moore Clark

Debbie Hardy Sawyer is no stranger to hard work. She has spent her life doing hard work both to further her career and support her community. An exceptional businesswoman, Debbie developed a stellar business career beginning with retail sales and then later specializing in industrial sales and manufacturing. A major door opened when she agreed to “fill in” with her husband, Bill, at Sawyer Industrial Plastics while the company sought a permanent customer service manager. Today Debbie is president and owner of the company, overseeing the day-to-day operations. But she has also always found time to do hard work for this community. Debbie says that volunteering is a significant part of her life where she finds fulfillment in helping causes, people, and the community at large. Because of her business success and her generous heart, Debbie Hardy Sawyer is our Bayou Icon for March. 

It doesn’t take long when talking with Debbie Hardy Sawyer about her life and career until her maternal grandmother’s name, Mable Edgar Sample, comes up. Sawyer readily admits that this grandmother who she lovingly called “Big Mama” was her greatest supporter and first mentor. “Big Mama’s guidance taught me early on to stay away from drama and focus on the goodness in people,” Sawyer explains. “I remember the lessons of humility she taught me and the importance of surrounding myself with positive, forward-thinking people.”

When Debbie was a child, she remembers Big Mama telling her that in order to help yourself, you must help others. Now that she is an adult, Debbie understands what Big Mama meant. “I now understand that if you help others, it gives you rich fulfillment in your own life,” Debbie says.

Growing Up Years
Debbie was born in Houston, Texas. Her father was John Monroe Hardy, and her mother was Joy Sample Hardy. When she was five, the family moved to Monroe. Her father was given the option to relocate to either Shreveport or Monroe with his job as a Sales Representative for Missouri Pacific. He chose Monroe primarily because his mother’s maiden name was “Monroe.”

Debbie says that her family has traced their ancestors back to U.S. President James Monroe, so she has always felt a kindred spirit with the city. In a way, this town’s name and her father’s family name being the same helped early on to spur Debbie’s contributions to the community. “Family is central to my values, and I’ve always felt a responsibility to contribute to this community, carrying on the legacy of my father’s family name,” she says.

Summers were special times for Debbie as she was growing up. She spent them on her maternal grandparents’ farm in Glenwood, Arkansas. That farm had an apple orchard plus a variety of farm animals – Shetland ponies, quarter horses, cows, chickens, and pigs. It was, Debbie remembers, “a perfect environment for kids.” Through these summers Debbie developed a close bond with her grandparents “Big Daddy” (Richard Sample) and “Big Mama” in Arkansas. She lived close to her paternal grandparents, Ross and Edith Monroe Hardy in Houston, so they were also close.

When Debbie was just four years old and the family was still living in Houston, she showed both creative thinking and an entrepreneurial streak. She collected interesting rocks on her grandparents’ Arkansas farm and brought them back to Houston. There, on the sidewalk in front of her home, the little girl set up a “rock store” to help her family financially. “Apparently I thought that having a side business would bring in more money to buy much wanted toys!” Debbie says with a laugh. On her first day going to kindergarten, she asked her mother to watch over her “store.” When she got back home, Debbie was delighted that all of the rocks were gone and there were pennies in their place. “Mom intended for this to end my business venture with my giving up my store, but my only thought was that I needed to get more rocks and maybe hire my mom fulltime!”

Education Adventures
Debbie attended Lakeshore Elementary, Sherrouse Elementary, and Lexington Elementary. Her middle school years were spent at Lee Junior High, and then she went to Neville High School to complete her pre-college education.

There were several teachers who were important mentors to the young girl. During her elementary school years, Debbie loved Ms. Evans, Mrs. Poole, and Mrs. Seiler. When she was in Junior High, Debbie came under the influence of Mrs. Zoro who helped her understand the importance of math. At Neville, Joe Caskey and Dot Johnson were influential mentors for her. They shared, Debbie remembers, valuable life lessons on both leadership and teamwork.

Debbie has always been a “joiner” – relishing in belonging to a variety of different collections of friends – and that was evident early on. She participated in the Girl Scouts, the Law Enforcement Explorer Post, and church. Debbie’s talent and love for music meant that she was a very active participant in her church choir at College Place Baptist Church. Darrell Washam, church choir director and youth director there, had a major positive impact on her life. Debbie also thoroughly enjoyed being a Neville Tiger and have remains friends with many in her class even today.  She loved being in her school band under the direction of Joe Caskey and learned so much from him about striving for perfection. During her senior year, she served as the Neville High School Band Drum Major.

After graduating from Neville, Debbie enrolled at Louisiana Tech University. There she joined Alpha Chi Omega sorority and developed a network of friends. One of her professors, Dr. Linda Sivils, was a tremendous influence. Through Sivils, Debbie’s interest in business and marketing developed.

While at LA Tech, Debbie participated in an internship at Lewis & Company in Ruston. The company, a department store now closed, provided an excellent experience for her. 

After graduating from LA Tech (BA in Merchandising and Minor in Marketing) and studying overseas, she earned an internship as a sales trainee and became a new employee trainer for the Personnel Department at Saks Fifth Avenue in Houston. Following that internship, Debbie wanted to move back to Monroe and took a position at Selber Brothers of Monroe in retail sales and in the Buyers Program.

Debbie did graduate work at the University of Louisiana Monroe in Education. There Dean Catherine Vaughn was a mainstay in ULM’s education department and was helpful when Debbie enrolled in their education program. Debbie credits Dr. Sivils and Dr. Vaughn for helping to shape both her education and career paths. She also enjoyed taking classes with Dr. Jim Potts while at ULM. Her friendship with Dr. Potts remains today, as he became a mentor to her while he was working as Vice President for Workforce Development at the Monroe Chamber of Commerce.

Growing a Career
Debbie began her career in retail sales with stints at Saks Fifth Avenue and Selber Brothers.  After several years she moved to outside sales when she went to work at Butler Paper, a division of Georgia Pacific Corporation. At Butler she worked for Gene Simmons who became an important career mentor for her in outside industrial sales. During her 14 years at Georgia Pacific, she was one of the first women sales representatives traveling in a 3-state area including north Louisiana, south Arkansas, and east Mississippi. For her work, Debbie won numerous awards for sales and marketing.

Love, Marriage, and Children
While Debbie was working for Georgia Pacific, two of Debbie’s best friends and mentors, Ken and Diane Wagley, helped to guide her and challenge her in her career. They also just happened to know a fellow they thought Debbie should meet. They introduced Debbie to Bill Sawyer and their friendship quickly grew until one evening when Bill proposed at Warehouse No. 1, their favorite restaurant. The two married in 1986 and honeymooned on Kauai, Hawaii. “I had always dreamed of a honeymoon in Hawaii and Bill delivered, as he always has,” Debbie says. “Bill has also been a mentor to me as I have learned so much from him over the years. “One of the things that attracted me to him was his knowledge.”

The Sawyers have three children – Michael, Brad, and Jennifer. Their sons reside in Monroe with their families, and their daughter and her family live in Nashville. Debbie is called “DeeDee” by her grandchildren as well as other youngsters she has mentored through the years.

For a time, Debbie decided to suspend her career temporarily in order to focus on her family. The suspension was short-lived because she truly loved working with people and missed that very much. Debbie “accidentally” reentered the work force by filling in with her husband, Bill, at Sawyer Industrial Plastics. That “fill in” position turned into a 34+ year career.

Sawyer Industrial Plastics
Sawyer Industrial Plastics was founded in 1977 by Bill’s parents Bill and Yvonne Sawyer, Sr., together with Ed and Joy Nolan. Today it is a composite materials manufacturer providing products primarily for the paper industry. Debbie’s career there has flourished. Since joining the company in 1990 she has worked as a sales manager, vice president of marketing, and today is president and owner overseeing the day-to-day operations.

Debbie’s focus has been setting up, developing, and promoting international and domestic sales. To accomplish this, she has developed multiple programs and procedures which are now standard in the industry. Debbie has also been instrumental in setting up company operations that included import, export, and product training for distributors and technical sales representatives. To do this, she has traveled worldwide to train partners. In 1996 she began developing overseas distribution with Europe. Since then, she has added additional countries to make company sales reach worldwide. “I’ve been privileged to travel and do business across four of the seven continents, in many countries, and working with our representatives all over the world,” Debbie says. “I am really good at driving on the wrong side of the road, in Scandinavia, Europe, and Australia. I never tried driving in China.”

Fortunately, their industry was critical during the pandemic so there were no layoffs. There were challenges, however, including raw material delays. Even so, Sawyer Plastics had a well-earned reputation and that respect meant that the company was able to sustain global changes in the paper industry. 

A Generous Heart
Debbie has always loved volunteering and doing volunteer work is very much a part of her value system. “Volunteering is a priority for me, driven by a sense of gratitude for the success I’ve been blessed with,” she explains. “Putting God first, followed by a focus on marriage, family, work, and then pursuing volunteer efforts reflect my values.”

Among her many volunteer activities are these: developed and implemented the first Workforce Investment Board for Ouachita Parish 81; developed, promoted, chaired, and even coined the name “Northern Exposure” for an annual lobbying business trip for 12 parishes in North Louisiana; chaired the Rivertown Awards Ceremony; chaired the local Junior League’s State Public Affairs Program; tri-chaired and developed the fundraiser for the Red Cross known as MASH BASH; developed and served as a committee member for North Louisiana Rural Redemption; helped with the First Ouachita Parish Woman’s Symposium; worked with Children’s Coalition; aided in getting CASA to Ouachita Parish; co-chaired Fashion Fusion Charity Fundraiser; and helped form the details for LA Tech ACT and created ways to help with funding which are still being used today.

Debbie, along with Doretha Bennett, also championed the formation of the Manufacturing Alliance in NELA which she named NELA-MAC; Northeast Louisiana Manufacturing Alliance and Consortium. She developed a manufacturing workforce sustainability pilot program designed to help small, local manufacturers build a bridge among manufacturers, the education sector, the Workforce Commission, and the local workforce by training the workforce in manufacturing plants in real life conditions. Debbie’s hope is that this effort will help keep the local workforce in our area by showing them opportunities in manufacturing.

A personal passion of Debbie’s is helping cancer patients. As a result, she was a charter board member of the Louisiana Cancer Foundation and the Cancer Foundation League. She has chaired numerous CFL committees, developed and chaired the Angel Wings Charity fundraising project, and now serves as CFL’s president.

In 1997 Debbie became the first woman to receive the Jim Shipp Young Business Leader award. Other awards have come her way, but the Shipp award acknowledged all of her work within the community, not just in her career. Debbie has also been recognized for her work with the Monroe Chamber of Commerce (steering committee, manufacturing alliance), the West Monroe Chamber of Commerce (political action committee), Quota International, Leadership Louisiana, Louisiana Roundtable, Leadership Ouachita, Ouachita Parish Red Cross (board member), Girl Scouts of America (lifetime member and board member), and countless other groups. More recently while on the Board for the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, Debbie developed a Strategic Revenue Program to help sustain the Symphony for many years to come.

A Life Beyond Work
When one stops to consider the breadth of Debbie’s work and volunteer life, it is easy to assume that she is nearly perfect. Such is not the case. She readily admits that although she enjoys cooking, she is still trying to master the art of not burning the bread!

Debbie also laughs at the memory of her first formal meal for her young family. She prepared Chicken Cordon Bleu, but quickly discovered the little boys wouldn’t try anything with that name. In a stroke of inspiration, Debbie renamed it “Chicken and Cheese” and it remains one of the family’s favorites.

Debbie enjoys traveling (not long ago a lifelong dream of touring the Greek isles was fulfilled) for pleasure as much as for work. She also enjoys making things, repairing things, and especially spray painting.

Bill and Debbie enjoy their weekends. They spend the morning discussing their week and planning fun often involving their children and grandchildren. For the Sawyer clan, family traditions are important. They love doing a taco bar in honor of Debbie’s mom, and making Thanksgiving snacks for all to enjoy. They also make candies such as white trash during the Christmas holidays for friends and family.

Debbie has never forgotten those special individuals who have helped her grow and mature. When Debbie was in her 20’s, Roy Heatherly (today President and CEO of the Monroe Chamber of Commerce) helped guide her during her Toastmasters training, helping her to gain confidence to prepare her first speaking assignment. Among many others, she also remembers Greg Kahmann and Dr. John Sutherland at ULM for their invaluable guidance and support.

Debbie says that she cherishes the opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of others. Unlike so many, she has seized nearly every opportunity to do just that and has made an immeasurable difference for countless individuals fortunate enough to come under her care. Aren’t we blessed to have her working here with — and for — us all for the greater good?