amado, az — In the late 1970s, Steve LeFevre had just been hired by Superior Sales in Sacramento to sell product in the Midwest.

“They gave me 12 midwestern states and a Blue Book,” he recalled.

Working that territory, persistence paid off. For a notable example, he said, “I was on the phone with Roundy’s in Wisconsin every day for two years before I got an order.”

Michelle LeFevre often accompanies her husband Steve LeFevre to conventions and business meetings, including the October PMA Fresh Summit in Orlando.His overall memory of older times in the produce industry is that “we did our business with a handshake and a kiss.” Maybe not so much the kiss, but neither were there written contracts.

Yes, he said, times have changed since.

This is a time for reflection for LeFevre, who retires Dec. 31, 2018 after almost 19 years with Wholesum Harvest, based here in the Nogales area. He retires as the vice president market development. LeFevre and his wife, Michelle, were living in Monterrey, CA, in February 2000 when Theojary Crisantes, Sr., the founder of Wholesum Harvest, persuaded him to join the Wholesum team in Nogales.

“Theo is the only guy in the world who could have talked me into moving from Monterrey to Nogales,” LeFevre noted.

When he started at Wholesum the staff basically was Ricardo Crisantes, Steve and an office assistant. “That was fun, creating something from nothing,” he said.

In 1975, LeFevre joined the produce industry on the street at the Los Angeles market, working for his stepfather at now-closed Hall, Hass & Vessey Ltd. He stayed with the company until his stepfather died. Then he joined Superior. He knew the Bakersfield firm because he’d traveled from Los Angeles to buy their products.

Suddenly, “they offered me a job. We’d just bought our first house and hadn’t moved in!” LeFevre called Michelle, who he’d married in August 1974, and broke the news. The young, pregnant woman accepted the move. At their new house in Los Angeles “we had a moving in-moving out party.”

Michelle’s patience was tested by moving more than once. In the first month when they moved to Arizona in 2000, she was bitten by a scorpion and bitten by a bat. She was almost bitten by a rattlesnake.

Michelle not only has patience but charm. LeFevre said he learned long ago that, during business dinners, he should place Michelle next to the group’s toughest buyer. “I’d tell her ‘Break ‘em down, Babe!’ and I sat at the other end of the table. …I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today if not for her pushing me from behind.”

Michelle and Steve LeFevre have four sons, Michael, who has two children and works in Seattle in human resources for a company that supplies Microsoft. Matthew, with two children, is a firefighter in Sacramento. A father of three is C.J., who is an executive chef in Columbus, OH. And the youngest, Taylor LeFevre, is a senior majoring in biochemistry at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

“The best part of me is out there through the four boys,” LeFevre said. “The best part is to see them grow and their families grow. That is the rewarding thing.”

Steve and Michelle will enjoy a pop-up camper that they bought a year ago. While camping in their retirement, they will travel to see their grandkids.

“I promised a grandson that the next time I saw him, I could stay for longer than two days.”

The couple also plans to stop across the nation at national parks and to visit the many friends they have made throughout the country. LeFevre said “there have been lots of offers from people we’ve known who say, ‘Come by and see us!’”

The pair enjoy backpacking. Their camping rig also accommodates bicycles and a kayak.