Business owner, Mark Culpepper, stocking up on optimism from show

By Worth Wren
19 Jan 1992
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Page 24
Copyright 1992, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Mark Culpepper, a former agriculture teacher whose son is showing two beef heifers, is an optimist.

He says he has felt the economic recession up close, seeing his business revenues plunge by 80 percent. But he now thinks the gloom may be clearing.

Culpepper, 32, and three partners founded Data Tech Services of Boyd in 1986 to install computer and telephone cable for businesses.

Boyd is in Wise County, but in its early life, Data Tech found most of its work on the East Coast, Culpepper said.

The company's total revenues hit about $1 million in 1987, when Data Tech had 17 employees, he said.

Three years ago, Culpepper said, Data Tech found more of its services in demand in California. Now the company has performed jobs in 27 states.

But "the bottom fell out" in 1989, when annual revenues plunged to less than $200,000, and 1990's performance wasn't much different, he said.

The company cut down to six employees, including the four partners.

"We just couldn't find the work," Culpepper said.

But his business prospects are looking brighter, and the Stock Show is yielding some optimism.

Data Tech's 1991 revenues were up slightly, and based on early demand, 1992 should generate more income, Culpepper said.

"Texas work is picking up for us," he said.

About 90 percent of Data Tech's work is now in Texas, and most of the 90 percent is in the Metroplex, he said.

So Data Tech recently advertised a job opening for a cable installer. The company is adding television cable installation services. And more than 20 area residents applied for the job, Culpepper said.

A few of the applicants were former General Dynamics employees who had not worked for months, he said.

Here at the Stock Show, so far, there has been no decrease in the number of children exhibiting cattle. The number of young exhibitors of beef-breed heifers approached a record high this weekend, show officials said.

Culpepper said younger children are showing more interest in livestock show projects than many of today's older teen-agers.

That interest seems to come in cycles among children, he said.

Justin Culpepper, Mark and Diane Culpepper 's 9-year-old son, will show two polled Hereford heifers at Will Rogers Complex this weekend.

It will be Justin's first outing at the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, said Evan Culpepper, 55, Justin's grandfather, a Wise County resident and American Airlines employee since 1964.

The two heifers came from Granddad Culpepper 's herd of 15 registered polled Hereford mama cows.

With Justin's show ring entry, Evan Culpepper is starting his second journey through the livestock show circuits. Other, younger grandchildren are likely to follow Justin's path, said Culpepper, an airline fleet service crew chief.

Jane Culpepper Kea, now 23, Evan Culpepper 's daughter, was a Stock Show veteran as a teen-ager.

Her crossbred steer won a reserve breed champion ribbon, and her polled Hereford heifers placed high in several shows.

Kea is now studying home economics and education at Texas Woman's University in Denton and is thinking about being a kindergarten teacher, Culpepper said.

Culpepper Ancestry. Mark Culpepper is found in our Family Tree as Mark Evan Culpepper, descendant of four generations of Evan Alexander Culpeppers.