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11/07/2023 01:31 PMOnce, people believed the Earth was flat. Ivoryton resident Ethan Goller, president of Structural Graphics, has his issues with flatness but in advertising.
Structural Graphics creates a variety of three-dimensional advertising and informational designs for corporations from the pharmaceutical and automotive industries to colleges and universities. Ethan describes what the company does as paper engineering.
The firm’s pop-up university and college mascots, according to Ethan, are used in everything from acceptance packages to development and alumni engagement. What’s more, the advertisements can not only pop up, they can also fold flat for mailing.
On Sunday, Nov. 12, at 5 p.m., Ethan will be providing information in a different way at the Essex Veterans Memorial Hall. He is the first speaker in a new series, Voices of Service. The veterans’ organization describes the series as a chance to highlight individual service and the impact of that service on the speakers’ personal lives, as well as on the wider world.
The lecture series was planned, and Ethan scheduled as the first speaker well before the present international situation, but Ethan’s experience speaks directly to the present moment. As a 19-year-old, he served for 2 ½ years in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The military service was a direct result of an eight-week trip in the summer of 1974 to Israel with a group of young people from Ethan’s hometown of Kansas City, Kansas. It was offered to young people who had gone to religious school, had a bar or bat mitzvah, and after that, continued on to Hebrew High School two nights a week and confirmation.
Ethan says he did not know much about Israel until he went there.
“The 5,000 years of history had a profound effect on me,” he recalls.
He went home determined to return. He compressed his high school senior year so he could graduate a semester early to get to Israel. He stayed six months and then planned to come home for a month to see his family.
While home, a close friend convinced him to try college. He attended Kansas University for one semester, pledged a fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and made friends so close that he sees them to this day when he returns to Kansas City. Still, in the end, he went back to Israel and worked as a welder at a kibbutz in the Galilee while doing his best to learn Hebrew.
Almost immediately after applying for Israeli citizenship, Ethan received his IDF draft notice. (He retains dual Israeli and U.S. citizenship.) Most recruits served for three years, but since, at 19, Ethan was a year older than most, he was told he needed to serve only 2 ½ years. He protested, saying he wanted to serve three.
An army officer listened to Ethan’s request.
‘“He told me I should do 2 ½ years, and then if I wanted to do another half year, I should come back and tell him,” he says. Ethan, who served in the Combat Engineers, never did that.
Ethan’s lack of Hebrew fluency was initially a problem in his military service. But he learned not to mention it. If he did, the response was not an explanation.
“I got 150 push-ups and a four-kilometer run,” he says.
After completing military service and spending some four years in Israel, Ethan returned to the United States.
“My parents were here, my family was here. There are more opportunities here. The United States is like no other country in the world,” he says.
He attended college again, both at the universities of Denver and Colorado, but left some 18 credits shy of a degree. He explains that he already knew what he wanted to do. Both his father and grandfather had been in the printing business. He had started working at the family factory as a 13-year-old.
“I loved graphic arts,” he says.
His knowledge of the printing business led him into advertising. One assignment included a move to the East Coast, first to Hoboken and Montclair, New Jersey, before Ivoryton.
He started with Structural Graphics as vice president of operations and eight years later became president. The firm, which is 47 years old, has production facilities in both Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico. Besides its custom services, Structural Graphics has an e-commerce site, Red Paper Plane, which enables users to create their own pop-up advertising products.
In addition to a local staff in Essex, Structural Graphics has a core of artists and designers who work remotely.
“We were into hybrid working before COVID,” Ethan says.
He admits people sometimes ask why Structural Graphics’ headquarters is located in Essex. His answer is simple: “Because we live here.” Ethan’s family includes his wife, Rona Malakoff, and their adult son, Mack. Ethan and Rona met on a blind date at a once-classic location, the Oak Room at New York’s Plaza Hotel.
Ethan has been an active local volunteer, a member of the Essex Fire Engine Company #1 for 24 years, with four years as one of the assistant chiefs. He served on the Essex Retirement Board for 10 years and continues to serve on the Board of Finance.
Ethan’s leisure activities have included hang gliding, scuba diving, and sky diving. He also, at one time, had a private pilot’s license.
“All adrenalin rush,” he admits, adding he no longer is involved in any of them.
He abandoned skydiving after 135 jumps, not because of the danger of the sport but because “it was boring except when you were in the air,” he says, explaining the number of people the airplane could take aloft at one time made the skydiving more of a waiting game.
“You spend three hours for one or two jumps, so I stopped,” he says.
These days, Ethan is an archer, shooting a compound bow at the Niantic Sportsmen’s Club to which he belongs. He also plays the guitar and the keyboard and jams with other musicians who, he says, “tolerate his lack of skill.”
These days, he admits, people sometimes ask him about plans to retire. He has none.
“I love what I do,” he says, “I love coming to work.”
Voices of Service
Ethan Goller
Sunday, Nov. 12, 5 p.m.
Essex Veterans Memorial Hall
3 Westbrook Road
Centerbrook
Admission is free and open to the public