Introducing - Grays Harbor Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Treasurer

Gloria Brown - Techline/Cellular Connection, Inc., Co-Owner

I have served on the Grays Harbor Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors since 2002 and I am currently the Treasurer for the Executive Board. 

I also serve on the Board of Directors for the Aberdeen Rotary Club.

My husband Jerry and I own Techline/Cellular Connection, Inc. in Aberdeen.  We are both life long Harbor residents.  We have 5 children and 10 grandchildren.

We started building and selling computers out of our home in 1985 and started a BBS (Bulletin Board Service) in 1986.    In 1987 we started our computer retail store upstairs in the old Reiner’s Harbor Honda building.  I continued working for Reiner’s as I had done since 1972 and supervised our one full time employee (with Jerry working after his regular job and on weekends) in our upstairs business.

In 1990, we added cellular service to our location and moved downstairs in part of the front of the Reiner’s building.  By this time we had 3 full time employees.  As our business grew, we realized that we needed more room than the small space that we had.

In 1994, we took a huge chance.  We owned a house and a duplex across the street from a WalMart store that had just opened.  We purchased another house and duplex on the property next door, tore down all of the buildings and built the current Techline Building.  It was a big step for us.  I quit my job at Reiner’s and started managing Techline full time.  This was a very good move for us because of the great location. Our business plan was to offer what big competitors cannot – service.  We sell only products that require customer service.

We took another gamble in 1995 when we decided to be the first to bring the Internet to Grays Harbor.  We brought in enough connections for 120 users and sold them all in the first week and it was a race to keep up with the demand from then on.

In 2002 we, with 3 partners, formed a new corporation, Techtell, Inc.  This is a Network Operations Center and operates out of the Satsop PDA site.   It is a 24 x 7 monitoring service.

Our internet service is now a stand alone service, Techline.Com, LLC.

Separating the three companies allows us to better manage each of these services.

We have belonged to the Grays Harbor Chamber of Commerce since 1990 and feel that we have greatly benefited from our membership.

December 2006