ASHLAND — Ron Cartee Sr. counts himself as lucky to have grown up at a time when local boys had the option of going to work instead of college.

He did both.

“Now,” he says with full confidence, “you better go on to college.”

Cartee, who operates 24 Tri-State area Arby’s restaurants along with his wife Diane and son, Ron Jr., knows the value of hard work and the lessons taught and enforced by family.

“I worked for Jesse Stuart every summer, and he got me on at Armco Steel. I also measured and solicited tobacco,” said Cartee, who can’t hold back a smile when he says he is 65 years old but thinks of himself as 35.

He earned a degree in business from Morehead in 1965 and married his wife Diane more than a year before graduation. Each summer during his studies, he came back to the area for foundry and construction jobs, measuring tobacco and taking advantage of any chance to earn a bit of overtime pay.

After college he went to work as a union pipefitter and figures his many assignments have had him on the job somewhere inside every manufacturing plant along this section of the river and several others. With their young son, Ron Jr., tagging along, he said they worked extensively over a wide range of territory before settling back into this area.

In 1975, the Cartees decided to pursue a plan to build houses and develop a Portsmouth subdivision.

“She built the houses and I worked as a pipefitter,” Ron Sr. recalled, explaining the housing market was good because local hospitals offered their doctors and administrators 100 percent financing and they built “first class homes.” The local housing market became considerably more complex when interest rates hit 21 percent, he said, although they still managed to do well with their properties.

In 1989 the family signed on to develop a Taco Time restaurant in Portsmouth after a brief flirtation with a fledgling company known as Taco Bell.

“We always had an interest in Arby’s as well,” said Ron Jr., whose parents recognized his love of the roast-beef specialty restaurant when he was quite young.

“When Ron Jr. was 6 years old, he loved Arby’s. When we would go to Cincinnati, that was what he wanted,” his mother remembered and giggled a bit as she recalled, “Arby’s was 69 cents then and that was expensive.”

“It just lingered in the back of my mind,” Ron Jr. said, grinning.

With success at Taco Time, the Cartee family found financiers more friendly and willing to invest in their restaurant ideas. Despite the dominance of Rax in the roast beef market, the Cartees built their first Arby’s in 1990.

“Fortunately, my parents were willing to work with me,” said Ron Jr., explaining he had recently earned a degree at Marshall University.

The family had six Arby’s locations by 1993, eight stores a year later, and 24 total locations within the next 14 years. Despite tough economic times, Ron Sr. said they will move ahead with their plans to build 11 more stores within the next five years.

“My thinking is we’re going to keep on building restaurants and when it rebounds, we will be ready for it,” Ron Sr. said.

Family remains the central concept behind the Cartees’ business approach.

“What makes a good family is sticking together. When we were growing up we had parents who taught us good work ethics,” Ron Sr. said, adding his father’s instructions about how to operate different types of heavy equipment and tools has served him well throughout his life. “Diane was raised the same way.”

Diane may joke she is the hardest worker in the family, although she is serious as she credits the efforts of everyone in their family’s organization.

“My job has been hard work and perseverance in both the building and restaurant business. I love the accomplishments in our family business life, but I want to always remember the wonderful people I have worked with to make business successful,” she said. “Accolades have not been my goal in life. I would rather give praise to those people around me that have helped to make our family business a success. This means those many people that have worked in many areas of the business.”

When they aren’t working or prospecting future plans, Ron and Diane Cartee say they most enjoy spending time with their grandchildren, such as during a recent trip to New York City to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Ron Sr. said he remains confident people who are willing to work hard, study and apply themselves can still accomplishment great things in this nation.

“We’re in America. The world is yours,” he said.

The Cartee family was recently recognized in Orlando, Fla., with a President’s Award, the Arby’s company’s highest honor. The company president personally selects the winner as the single franchise, which meets a set of stringent standards in a system that operates more than 3,700 stores worldwide. The Arby’s President’s Award is only awarded once every two years.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.