Roger Garner
Roger Garner went fishing or hunting every Friday.
Triangle Reprographics president Roger Garner owned many “firsts” in his career. He had one of the first Opticopy systems, he introduced the first Canon color copier to Florida, and he bought the first Cactus wide-format color system.
But Garner, who died on New Year’s Eve at age 75, is best remembered for being kind to his employees.
“I think what everyone knows him for best is taking care of the employees,” says his son, Reg Garner, vice president of Triangle Reprographics, which is located in Orlando. “There are countless stories about him helping employees out of a jam.”
Reg Garner remembers that his father often thought of his employees as family. One employee who worked at Triangle two decades ago was so moved by Garner’s kindness that she posted this on her Facebook page when he passed:
Last night, around 9:45, one of the kindest men I have ever had the pleasure of knowing lost his battle with cancer. Many years ago, while I lived in Orlando, I was fortunate to get a job with Triangle Reprographics, and one of the owners was Roger Garner. I was going through a divorce, had just learned of the seriousness of my daughter's disability, had no home and was truly lost. That job kept me going and one of the nicest perks was meeting Roger, his son, Reg Garner, and Roger's wife Joanne. Roger and Joanne helped me in so many many ways, when I was virtually a stranger to them. That's just the kind of people they are. Roger's with God now, and no longer in pain. I know you are supposed to rejoice when someone has gone home to be with God, but all I feel is this huge hole in my heart. But I will always, always hear him tell me ‘you'll be OK, just have faith in God and yourself, and we're here if you need us.’
Garner founded Triangle Reprographics in 1972 with his wife, Joanne Garner. He took risks with new technology – such as the Opticopy pin register system – that put Triangle on the cutting edge of reprographics.
“We were right there on the forefront,” Reg Garner says. “We all thought he was nuts! He went out on a limb to bring in new technology. But he had the vision and knew we needed to do something different.”
Reg Garner says his dad bought the first Canon color copier in the state of Florida in 1986 or 1987, and then bought the world’s first Cactus system in 1991.
“We were the beta test site for Cactus,” Reg Garner remembers, adding that Triangle was a founding member of ReproCAD. “We jumped in [to large-format color] with both feet. We got a little edge on everyone in that.”
Roger Garner, who died of lymphoma, continued working at Triangle until a couple of weeks before Christmas, his son says.
“He was working every day except Friday,” Reg says. “He always went hunting or fishing on Friday.”
(To read a more formal obituary of Roger, click here)