Talking shop with Earl Norman, chairman of Benton Hill Investments Co.

Earl Norman founded the company now known as MedAssets and, since selling it in 2001, has focused his efforts on commercial real estate. He says he's partially retired now, but still comes to the office almost daily and stays busy volunteering with his church as well as the effort to bring a community college to Cape Girardeau.

Q: Tell me how you started Health Services Corporation of America (HSCA), now called MedAssets.

A: I was working as a salesman with Addressograph-Multigraph Corp. and pooled orders on forms for hospitals to get them a lower price. I did it for them as a favor. Jim Striker at Southeast Hospital said to me, you've done this on forms, but we need it on everything we buy. HSCA did hospital group purchasing on everything from MRI units to toilet paper. We negotiated prices on more than one million products for hospitals. We represented 1,500 hospitals across the country and 15,000 other health entities such as physicians offices, nursing homes, etc.

Q: How did you become interested in the real estate business?

A: We've invested in a significant amount of real estate in the Cape/Jackson area over the years. We decided to establish Lorimont Place Ltd. as an in-house real estate company when I owned HSCA. When we sold the company in 2001 to John Bardis and MedAssets, they didn't want a real estate company, so we kept that business and set up Benton Hill Investments Co. to handle the proceeds of the sale.

Q: Which areas of the community do you think will see new commercial development?

A: We have property on South Kingshighway and Interstate 55 and property on East Main in Jackson. Both are prime places for future growth.

Our strength is in accumulating property, clearing it and selling it for development. I think Cape is ready for another growth spurt, but we have do certain things to make that possible. At the top of the list is to solve our east/west transportation issue. Goods going east or west from here have extra transportation costs.

Q: What do you enjoy about living in this community?

A: I moved here with my wife in 1963. The thing I appreciate about Cape Girardeau is it is a city that really produces entrepreneurs. There was an opening for me to be part of that and people encouraged me along the way.

The city is named after an entrepreneur. We're the right size. We're not so big that someone's already done something, When there is a need, there are innovative people who are willing to take the risk and do it. I had no money, I really didn't have the education for it, but I was willing to take the risk and it worked out for me very positively.

Q: Why is having a community college in Cape Girardeau something you've volunteered your time to work toward?

A: It goes back to something I did with HSCA. To give something back to our profession I stared a health careers foundation. It helped single parents to get an education in a health-related field. We raised between $12 and $15 million and helped educate about 5,000 single parents. That's one of the things I'm the proudest of in my business career. Quite a number of people in this area received those scholarships, but a key factor was having a community college structure to provide that training. That's why I joined the Community College Coalition in Cape. Community college has more practical courses of study that lead to real jobs in our community. A 4-year college degree will qualify you for jobs in St. Louis or Chicago, or Denver. There's a need for both, but we need both here.

Q: Tell me about your work with your church as a Jehovah's Witness.

A: We don't have paid ministers, so several of us, including me, share the responsibility on a rotating basis.

Q: What activities do you enjoy when you're not working?

A: I'm a season-ticket holder for Cardinals and a big baseball fan. I go to Cardinals Legends Cape with my son every year and I still play second base at camp, at age 73. I exercise every day. I just come in to the office and hang out. I think the worst thing a retired man does is invade the space of his wife. That makes the wife unhappy. It's nice [for the man] to have a place to go where she can have some space. We'll have been married 50 years this December.