Merritt selected Small Business Person of the Year

A.P. MERRITT

A.P. Merritt Jr., president and CEO of Merritt Tool Company in Kilgore, has been named the 2008 Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. SBA's Dallas/ Ft. Worth District Office. The Dallas/Fort Worth District covers 72 counties of north, central and east Texas.

In 1988, Merritt Tool was a national winner of the organization's Small Business Subcontractor of the Year competition for contract work performed for Boeing Helicopter Company. The company was one of only 197 small businesses out of several hundred thousand government subcontractors nationwide at the time to win this award.

Merritt will be honored at the 2008 Salute to Small Business Awards Luncheon on May 1 at the Sheraton Arlington Hotel in Arlington.

"It is such an honor to receive this award - all of our employees work very hard to make Merritt Tool successful," said Merritt. "I know my dad would be very proud of what this company has become."

It was A.P. Merritt Sr. who founded Merritt Tool in 1928 as an oilfield tool manufacturing company. The company's early success was due to the "gold fishtail" bit used to drill hundreds of oil wells in East Texas. The company diversified, and Merritt Tool was awarded its first government contract in 1949 when it was chosen to repair and manufacture bomb loading carts at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio. The company is now involved in multiple civilian and defense aerospace cont racts, ranging from the Boeing 737 to cutting edge military technology, such as the F- 22 Raptor, the V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft and the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Merritt is a lifetime resident of Kilgore, and holds a Bachelor's of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston. He became general manager of Merritt Tool in 1968, and president in the late 1970s, and currently serves on the board of the Gregg County Appraisal District. He and his wife Susie Elder Merritt, have two daughters and eight grandchildren. He enjoys quail hunting.