Open Book: Lou Slater

In the belly of Spartan Stadium, you’ll find a bustling service garage with a tight-knit group of workers led by a man that goes by “Lou”, all dedicated to serving MSU. As one of his employees put it, “He is the coach and we are the players”.

The ‘coach’ the employee was referring to is Lou Slater – the man who “makes decisions and manages people” in the garage. After watching Lou get barraged with calls, asked for advice, and coworkers joking with him while he prodded back; it was apparent that Lou was respected, liked, and an integral part of the business.

Lou Slater was born and raised on his father Louis Slater's dairy farm around the Muskegon area – something he looks fondly back on and credits with giving him his hard work ethic and passion for equipment and mechanics. As a kid on the dairy farm, Lou was drawn to big equipment, saying, “If it has a key, I learned how to operate it.” As Lou got older, he ventured out from his father's farm to work for his uncle Leon's excavating business.

It was here that Lou explained how he got his background in business and became mechanically inclined. He went further, saying that Leon taught him a great deal of things and that he was like a second father. After several years of building experience and working with his uncle, Lou chose to move on from the excavating business and try something new with his knowledge and background in mechanics.

Lou landed a job as an experimental prototype mechanic where his first project was working on a new type of turret gun for the U.S. military. Although this job was interesting and challenging, Lou later returned to the family dairy farm to work as a manager. When asked if he wanted to return to the farm, Lou closed his eyes and said – “Yes. I came back because I missed it. There’s nothing that smells better than fresh plowed dirt in a field on a spring morning. Or fresh cut hay in the summer. Or fresh cut corn in the fall. I just wanted to be a part of that again.”

It was apparent that the family’s dairy farm held a special place in his heart.

Lou came to leave the farm again after meeting his wife Amber and moving to Lansing. Here, Lou started as a lead mechanic on second shift, eventually transitioning to first shift and managing three departments for a shipping company. It was this experience that gave Lou a foundation in management and business (outside of farming of course). After some time, he opted to take the position of truck shop manager on third shift when he was offered the opportunity. 

This new position however, slowly began to burn Lou out - his workday started at 10:00pm and ended at 7:00am. Lou observed that he was never one for late nights and having to sleep during the day - this schedule not only conflicted with that, but took away from time with his family. "Some really enjoy that schedule, but it's just not for me," he said. Reflecting on that time in his life, Lou said: “No matter how bad things get, I always remind myself that I don't want to go back to third shift. — That keeps me going through tough times,” as he laughed to himself.

With time, Lou decided to make another change, bringing him to where he is today – happily managing the service garage.

When asked what his favorite part of the job is, Lou hardly missed a beat before exclaiming it was the people. He explained: “These guys make me look good. It’s not me doing it, it’s them. I’m just in the background moving stuff around to make sure that they’re successful, and in turn, they make me look good. They’re the reason that we’re in business, why we have money in our account and how people at the university are getting around.”  

Describing his management style, he essentially described something like the golden rule – treat employees how you would want to be treated. He added, “I’ve worked for bad bosses and managers (we all have) – I always told myself that if I ever managed people that I would treat them differently than what they’re used to.

Outside of work, Lou is a doting and supporting father to three kids, a caring husband, and a “gear-head” – working on numerous projects such as restoring a motorcycle and working on engines. Lou explained that his wife calls him the “neighborhood good guy”, blowing out neighbors’ driveways and mowing their lots if they are unable. He said, “They don’t even need to know that it was me, I would rather they didn’t. Knowing that when they come outside and are surprised that they don’t need to shovel or mow is good enough for me.”  

After all these years of experience, Lou was asked to give one piece of advice pertaining to work or life itself. After mulling the question over he said, “I’ll give you a piece for both. The first is for work – we spend more time here than we do with our own families… we might as well make a joint effort to make work as enjoyable as possible.”

In terms of life advice, Lou had one word that he said would take you as far as you want to go – listen. Listening, he explained, is what allows us to understand others and build on what we know.  

When the interview concluded, a photo of Lou was needed for the article. Lou allowed his photo to be taken but insisted on a team photo of the service garage. This is indicative of the kind of person and manager that Lou is – unwilling to take the sole credit for his successes and wanting to share with others.