STRICTLY BUSINESS: EDWARD LOWE, A LOVER OF CATS, NO STRANGER TO CAPE GIRARDEAU

Edward Lowe was no stranger to the Cape Girardeau area.

Many remember the day in 1989 when Lowe and his wife, Darlene, wheeled into Cape Girardeau in their motor home. The motor home was loaded with cats.

Lowe, inventor of Kitty Litter, then in his mid-60s, delivered the cats to a new feline research and development facility at 300 Airport Road.

As Lowe began unloading the cats into their new home, one of the cats, Panther, twitched his tail and started purring.

Lowe's cats live in great style.

Edward Lowe died Thursday at his home in Sarasota, Fla., at the age of 75.

It hasn't been that many years since Lowe was in the Cape Girardeau, Bloomfield and Oran areas, looking over his domain of Edward Lowe Industries Co., which manufactured Kitty Litter, a clay-based cat box filler.

Lowe, an inventor and entrepreneur, developed Kitty Litter in 1947. He later added Tidy Cat to the products manufactured here, in Southern Illinois, West Tennessee and Santa Rosa, Calif.

Lowe was also keynote speaker at Southeast Missouri State University's 1988 Marketing and Small Business Conference.

At that time Lowe could tell you exactly how many bags of Kitty Litter had been made by his company -- "We have sold exactly 24 billion, 297 million, 442 thousand (and, still counting) bags of litter."

Two years later, in 1990, Lowe Industries sold and became the Golden Cat Corp., and Lowe settled back to serve as a director of the new company.

"I have achieved many of my business and professional goals," said Lowe in September 1990. "It's time for me to give something back, to help develop and maintain the values that will allow others to succeed."

Lowe was not idle in his retirement. He continued operation of his Edward Lowe Foundation and his American Academy of Entrepreneurs, both based in Cassopolis, Mich. He split his time between Cassopolis and Sarasota.

Just last year, Lowe published "Hail Entrepreneur!" a guide to small business survival skills. Earlier in his retirement, he wrote "The Man Who Discovered The Golden Cat," an autobiography.

I was reminded about a week ago, when Kenny Rogers appeared at the Show Me Center of a conversation with Lowe.

Seems Lowe was a fan of Rogers.

Both sported gray beards, and Lowe bore a definite resemblance to Rogers.

"I'm often mistaken for Rogers," said Lowe, who recalled a number of instances when people would approach him and ask if he was "really Kenny Rogers, the singer."

On one trip, when Rogers was on a trip in Michigan, he was stopped by a passerby and asked, "Say, aren't you Edward Lowe, the Kitty Litter Man?"

Lowe loved cats. He had several of his own, as well as 150 at his Cassopolis research center.

The cats at his two research centers -- Cassopolis and Cape Girardeau -- are well fed and pampered. Although the cat-box filler business was a serious one for Lowe, he refused to do anything that would cause discomfort to his favorite pets.

The Golden Cat still has a facility on Airport Road, which employs 32 people. Another nearby industry on Nash Road, Texberry Container Corp., which makes plastic containers for Golden Cat, and other companies, employs about 15 people.

Same career? "You bet"

If you could start your career over, would you do anything differently?

All things considered, are you satisfied with your job?

Quizzing people from the top down, we found that more than half of the workers in the Southeast Missourian offices at 301 Broadway would choose to remain in the same career, even with the chance to do it all over again.

Answers ranged from "You bet," to "I wouldn't change a thing" among the 50 percent who indicated they would remain in their present positions.

Thirty-one percent of those questioned would strike off in a different vocational direction, ranging from teachers to nurses to landscape architect.

But, overall, 70 percent of the employees indicated that they were satisfied with their jobs "most days."

These questions were among those on two separate national surveys conducted for "Accountants on Call (AOC)" by the Gallup Poll people. The surveys on career choices were part of the AOC's ongoing "Profiles of the American Worker" series which summarizes the opinions, attitudes and behavior of employed Americans concerning workplace issues.

If you're typical of the American worker, chances are you wouldn't change a thing.

For the national survey, the question posed to workers was: If you were just starting out and could choose your life's work all over again, would you choose the same line of work, or a different line of work?"

The AOC survey found that nationally 51 percent of Americans would still be doing what they are doing. Another 47 percent say they would change vocations. Two percent did not answer the question.

The differences in the survey here may not seem significant, but they show a marked difference from previous surveys conducted in 1988 when the original survey showed that only 44 percent would remain in the same profession, while 51 percent were willing to change careers.

Things were different in 1988, noted AOC president and CEO Stewart C. Libes.

No one was really sure what was going to happen next, or whether the company for which they worked would survive tough economic times, he said.

Today, however, the economy appears to be growing, and people are more apt to stay the course and try to become successful where they are.

The survey revealed some other statistics.

Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of college graduates would stay in the same line of work, compared with 51 percent of those without a college degree.

Workers with an annual household income of $40,000 or more and those in professional and business occupations are more likely to say they would choose the same line of work.

And, 60 percent of the part-time employees surveyed say they would remain in the same line of work.

Satisfaction guaranteed?

Meanwhile, roughly half of the employed adults in the United States say they are satisfied with their jobs, and 38 percent say they are somewhat satisfied with their jobs.

Only 12 percent say they are dissatisfied with their job, nationally, leaving only 1 percent without an opinion.

Some of these statistics may be hard to believe by listening to complaining around water coolers and coffee gatherings, but I'm reminded of an old adage from my Army basic training days concerning complainers.

"Don't worry about the complainers or gripers," I was told by my NCOs. "But, watch the quiet ones...they may be up to something."

While little difference was found between the sexes regarding job satisfaction, age, income and education played a major role in how people feel about their jobs.

Adults 50 and older are more likely to say they are very satisfied with their jobs than are adults under 30 (68 percent vs. 38 percent.) Again, as income increases, so does job satisfaction, with 57 percent of those who earn $40,000 or more a year reporting they are very satisfied, compared to 35 percent who earn less than $25,000.

Education also makes a satisfaction difference. Fifty-seven percent of college grads say they are satisfied, compared to 46 percent of those who attended college and those with a high school education or less.

Even marriage has a mellowing effect on whether Americans are genuinely satisfied. Fifty-six percent of married individuals say they are satisfied, and only 41 percent of the unmarried report that level of satisfaction.

Reported job satisfaction remains similar to the levels reported in a 1988 survey, in which 46 percent say they were satisfied and 41 percent somewhat satisfied.