Tag Archives: Don Fuchs attorney

An Excellent Public Servant and Three Outstanding Entrepreneurs – Part II

Posted on by
7

In my first post on this topic, I told you about my admiration for a law enforcement officer and a small business entrepreneur in West Linn, Oregon.

I’m proud to know both Chief Oddis Rollins and Scott Andersson of Ace Computer Repair, LLC. https://thebeerchaser.com/2026/06/23/beerchaser-notables-an-excellent-public-servant-and-three-outstanding-entrepreneurs-part-i/

Chief Oddis Rollins
Scott Andersson

Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. This is a long post. If you’re receiving it through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative isn’t clipped. (# External photo attribution at the end of the post #1)

Both young Elliot Schwartz, a recent Lakeridge High School grad and Don Fuchs, a former colleague at the Schwabe law firm, also deserve commendations for their entrepreneurial efforts and to be “honored” as Beerchasing Notables.

You’ll Take a “Shine” to Elliot

I first met Elliot over one year ago when he came to our house and pitched his window washing service. He greeted me by my first name and gave an eloquent and somewhat aggressive pitch on why we should join our neighbors and hire him.

My first reaction was “This young guy seems pretty brash.” We didn’t need the service then and I turned him down. Then about one month ago, Elliot brightened our doorstep again. I’d seen him doing a number of my neighbors’ homes with his team and I decided to give him a try.

Part of the rationale was that my wife of forty-six years had informed me if she ever saw me on a ladder again, that I (not her) would be leaving the house and moving to an apartment. (#2 – #3)

Elliot

Well, he did an outstanding job and Elliot insisted that before I paid him, I walk around the house and inspect his work. And our windows did shine. I thought Elliot had an interesting story, so I invited him in to interview for Thebeerchaser.

So how did 18-year-old Elliot become an entrepreneur? Perhaps he was born with a passion for sales because he started selling candy in second grade, followed by opening successful lemonade stands.

His parents were very supportive although they didn’t tell him what to do – he wanted to do it. His dad makes his living as leadership coach and it’s evident that some of this rubbed off on Elliot.

His siblings went to private school at the prestigious Oregon Episcopal School, but the young entrepreneur wanted to go to public school and chose Lakeridge where he lettered in soccer.

From his freshman to junior years, he worked part-time in commissioned sales reselling Nike shoes and did pretty well. After seeing others advertise residential window washing on social media, he decided at the end of his junior year to form his company.

In that short time, PaineCrime Window Cleaning has hired two technicians (window and roof cleaners) and a door-to-door sales rep. (Check out his website) “Streak-free, spot-free glass for homes and businesses across Lake Oswego, West Linn, and the greater Portland metro.”

He developed his logo himself through AI and now also has merchandise. The reviews on social media are excellent – here’s two examples:

“The work these guys did was outstanding. My windows have never been cleaner. I would highly recommend them and definitely going to be using them again!”

“PaneCrime Window Cleaning services my business in the Irvington area and does an amazing job! Very thorough job cleaning of the exterior windows, punctual and great to do business with!”

Talking to this remarkable young man was a pleasure. He stated:

“My grandfather, Robert Abel Davies III, has been a huge inspiration to me from an entrepreneurial perspective throughout my life. He told me that I should always strive for excellence, and everything else will follow. That philosophy has really guided how I approach PaneCrime Window Cleaning and everything else I do.

His five-year plan includes starting college at San Diego State University in the fall majoring in finance and accounting. It wouldn’t surprise anyone who knows him to see him have a successful career in sales.

He keeps a journal for self-reflection and states he loves learning from other people and states, “I want to continue spreading positivity.” (#4 – #5)

I’m sure that Elliot’s parents are proud of him. I am too and I just met him. Give him a call for windows “So clean, it’s criminal!”

Don Fuchs – Lawyer turned Entrepreneur

I spent the last twenty-six years of my career working at an outstanding regional law firm based in Portland – first as Business Manager and the last thirteen as the Chief Operating Officer. Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt – now known as Schwabe – had a great team-oriented environment and I’m proud to say – Management had an open-door policy. (#4)

During that time, I saw many excellent law school students start their careers as summer law clerks, join the firm as associates and go on to become partners. Others, after an initial tenure at the firm, moved to careers in public service, as in-house counsel for our clients or became corporate executives.

Some of my favorites were undergrads at the Business School at Willamette University and then earned their law degree at the school. Willamette University’s joint JD/MBA program through the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, has an excellent reputation.

It was to the firm’s benefit to have young lawyers who, besides being skilled in legal theory, understood the requirements of running a business. In Schwabe’s case, when I retired in 2011, we had about 150 lawyers and five offices. Three of my favorites from Willamette Law School with Business School credentials were Don Fuchs, Jeff Hern and Tom Tongue. (#5 – #7)

Don Fuchs
Jeff Hern
Tom Tongue

Both Hern and Tongue are now partners and have thriving corporate practices – Tongue also was appointed as Schwabe CEO in 2025 and Fuchs is now CEO of Harris Thermal Transfer Products – an Oregon corporation based in Newberg.

But I want to focus on Fuchs today, because he is an unintriguing entrepreneurial story as well as one of family values. The first time he visited my office with some suggestions shortly after he started as an associate in 1998, I have to admit my reaction was similar to my initial encounter with young Elliot Schwartz – “This guy’s a bit cocky and brash.”

When Don returned with some constructive ideas – rather than just gripes – I was impressed. That said, I have to admit that his record as a four-year letterman (1990 – 1993) on the Linfield University Basketball Team, predisposed me to listen. This was affirmed when I saw how his elbow jumper helped our Lawyer’s League basketball team. (And he was a good teammate.)

I got to know Don well and I was saddened for the firm, but happy for Don, when he told me he was leaving to pursue his dream for the start-up Legal Anywhere – which he co-founded in 1997 and continued building while also meeting his billable goals as a new lawyer.

Legal Anywhere® became the market leader for enterprise collaboration and file sharing for law firms and corporate legal departments around the world. (#8)

In 2003, he became the Chief Sales and Strategy Officer, a position he held for almost fifteen years until the investors sold the company to High Q. He managed the sell side of the merger and acquisition process.

I’ll use AI to summarize Don’s career:

“(He’s held) senior leadership roles in global software sales, business development, and sales at various companies, including Opus 2, HighQ, and Legal Anywhere. He also co-founded and served as CEO of BK Direct and Compli Corporation.

Fuchs’ background is unique — he began his career as an attorney, later founded and sold legal technology companies, and then transitioned into running a 140-year-old family-owned manufacturing business – Harris Thermal Transfer Products, founded in 1885 and acquired by his family in the 1980s.”

In 2022, his career had a major transition – from software to heavy industrial manufacturing, when at the request of his dad, he took over as CEO of Harris Thermal Transfer. He wasn’t pursuing this position, but his family loyalty trumped his affinity for technology.

A few of the pictures below are from a recent visit I had with Don at the impressive Harris facilities and offices. He was definitely in his element. (We also agreed that we were both too old for a game of one-on-one.) (#9 – #10)

The company designs, fabricates, and repairs custom thermal‑process equipment for industries such as power generation, renewable energy, oil & gas, chemical processing, water treatment, food & beverage, mining, and pulp & paper.

You can see why family values are important to Don. (#11 – #12)

I’ll finish with a digression from his professional exploits….

His four years lettering for the Linfield Wildcats under legendary Coach Larry Doty, demonstrate his character, persistence and sense of humor. His freshman year, Don felt that he wasn’t getting enough playing time and Coach Doty seemed to ignore his pleas.

He informed Coach he was going to invoke a personal hot-water boycott after practice and games going forward until his playing time increased. Don told me that it was the middle of winter and he would exit the shower hyperventilating.

I asked him why the coach would care and he replied, “I was young and foolish and this was my first foray into sales and marketing…” It did get at least get the attention of Coach Doty and his teammates who “enjoyed seeing me frigid.”

Notwithstanding the boycott, his playing time the first two seasons didn’t end up to his satisfaction, but in his third season (1992-3) the Wildcats finished with a 28–0 record in conference play, winning the conference title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.  “Fuchs’ consistent scoring and rebounding helped maintain the team’s high level of play throughout the season.” (Linfield University)

He was team captain the last two years and the only basketball player in Linfield athletic annals to receive the Don Porter Scholarship Award for the highest GPA all of his four years. (#13 – #15)

So #24 ended with a great college basketball tenure as well as an impressive and ongoing professional career. And don’t be surprised if Don hires Elliot Schwartz when he returns to Oregon from his studies at San Diego State.

External Photo Attribution

#1. West Linn Police Department Website (Police Home | City of West Linn Oregon Official Website).

#2 – #3. PaneCrime Window Cleaners (PaneCrime Window Cleaning: Streak-Free Windows Guaranteed).

#4.  Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons – PacWest Center 

#5. Linked-in Site for Don Fuchs (Don Fuchs | LinkedIn).

#6 – #7. Schwabe Law Firm Website (Counsel and solutions tailored to our region and your industry).

#8. Facebook Site for Legal Anywhere ((26) Legal Anywhere: Overview | LinkedIn).

#9 – #10. Harris Thermal Website – (Oil and Gas Industry Solutions – Harris Thermal).

#11 – #12. Courtesy of Don Fuchs

#13.  Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Linfield wildcats wmark.png – Wikimedia Commons) This logo image consists only of simple geometric shapes or text. It does not meet the threshold of originality needed for copyright protection, and is therefore in the public domain. Source: Linfield University – 2025.

# 14. Golinfieldwildcats.com  ( Doty earns record, Wildcats snap losing skid – Linfield University Athletics).

#15.  1992-93 Linfield Basketball Team courtesy of Don Fuchs.

Beerchaser Notables – An Excellent Public Servant and Three Outstanding Entrepreneurs – Part I

Posted on by
4

Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. This is a long post. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened.

Followers of Thebeerchaser.com know that periodically, I depart from my joyful journey of expounding on the ambiance, history and staff involved with bars and breweries. I caption these side trips “Beerchasing Notables.”

They are individuals or groups, who may or may not have anything to do with bars or beers (one of them in these two posts is a great young man who isn’t even old enough to legally raise a mug…). But they have interesting stories worth sharing.

Past recipients of this “honor” – most of whom I’ve known – have included, war heroes, authors, athletes, academicians – even my graduate school professor of Public Finance (Dr. John Walker) and the crew of the USS Constitution to name just a few.

To get the entire list, hit the tab “Beerchaser Notable” in the header for some examples. (# (External photo attribution at the end of the post – #1)

Four All-Stars

So stay tuned for narratives and photos of Oddis Rollins, West Linn Chief of Police; Scott Andersson, founder and owner of Ace Computer Repair LLC in West Linn; Elliot Schwartz, a new graduate of Lakeridge High School, owner and founder of PaneCrime Window Cleaning; and Don Fuchs, lawyer and CEO of Harris Thermal Transfer Products.

Police Chief Oddis Rollins

In the title of this post, I used the term, “public servant.” Some may conclude that the description is demeaning or negative; however, I would strongly counter that assertion. (#2)

To me, it implies a person who is “dedicated, committed and essential to community wellbeing, emphasizing their role in delivering services, maintaining systems, and acting in the public good.” www.publicservants.com.

I might be biased because my wife, Janet and I, met in 1979, while both working in local government and went on to earn graduate degrees in Public Administration. Our combined service in governmental organizations was just over twenty years. (You can tell from the newspaper photos below that this was a long time ago….)

In fact, Janet served for several years as the Assistant City Manager in West Linn. We ended our careers in non-profit education administration and legal management respectively. We valued our time and greatly respected our colleagues in the public realm. (#3 – #4)

I first had contact with Captain Oddis Rollins before he was Chief, when I worked for several years trying to get a signaled crosswalk in what was a very hazardous West Linn intersection near our home – obviously not a high priority for an Assistant Chief.

He did a wonderful job keeping me informed and helping to push it through the City bureaucracy as well as promoting enforcement of speed limits and the plans for a new motorcycle traffic officer who would include that area in his patrols. I’m convinced that the end result, shown below, saved some lives.

The Police Department has a good record of community outreach with programs such as “Coffee with the Chief” and Patrol Ride-alongs.

In 2022, I had a forty-minute chat with Rollins’ predecessor, Chief Peter Mahuna in his office over coffee. Since I both enjoyed and learned lot from my coffee with Chief Mahuna, I repeated the experience with the new Chief earlier this year. (#5)

“Join us for Coffee with the Chief – a relaxed, come-as-you-are chance to connect over a cup of coffee.

Whether you’re curious about community outreach, crime trends, neighborhood concerns, or just want to chat about sports or whatever’s on your mind, the Chief is happy to talk. No agenda, no speeches – just good conversation, good coffee, and a chance to get to know each other.”

It was no surprise that Oddis Rollins, after serving as Interim Chief, was promoted after an extensive recruitment for the Police Chief position in February 2026.

He had served ten years as a police officer and detective with the Tigard Police Department, sergeant at West (WLPD) since January 2015 and WLPD captain since August 2018.

Chief Mahuna

Both guys were athletes in college – Mahuna at Pacific University and Rollins at Gonzaga and as you can tell from the pictures above, both have impressive physical bearings which are matched by their personalities and command presence.

Oddis Rollins told me that he originally was a pre-med major but in an Emergency Room internship, a guy came in with a compound fracture. “I looked at the bone sticking through the skin and took a header!”

He graduated in Exercise Science, but then was not enamored with physical therapy as a profession, so six years later began his law enforcement career. (#6)

Rollins appointed as Chief

West Linn is a dynamic suburban community of 28,000 residents twelve miles south of Portland. Serving as Police Chief is a challenge as one has multiple and demanding constituencies ranging from the citizens, the City Manager, to the City Council and the Police Department personnel – often with competing priorities.

I was extremely impressed with the Chief’s philosophy and what I have seen in social and print media. For example, each week he does a video entitled “One Minute with the Chief.” They are varied and well done as you can see from the following example which I think is outstanding: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1294436402900614

I think Oddis Rollins will have a very successful tenure in position and my community is fortunate to have him. (#7 – #11)

Ace in the “Whole...”

How many times have you called a large corporation such as an airline to make a reservation or clarify an issue. Or maybe it’s just to have a simple question answered which their AI chat feature doesn’t get right.

The last time I called Alaska Airlines to check on how to use a companion fare, the cheerful automated persona (who would not make a good companion for anyone…) cheerfully stated, “Our attendants are all currently busy. Your waiting time is thee hours and seventeen minutes.”

Three-hours and seventeen minutes?!

Of course, they always give you the option to hang-up, and they’ll put you in a return-call queue. But I’ve found the probability of that happening is only slightly better than me being able to read every chapter in War and Peace during the wait-time. (#12)

Last year, I had a problem with my Windows desktop, so I accessed the Microsoft chat feature. The conversation began: “You are chatting with Ibrahim Abdulla. Your case number is 102,577,875,296 – 04/16/2025 2:26 PM.”

Shortly after I ended the chat, I realized that I forgot to ask Ibrahim one question, so I initiated another dialogue – this time the response – only five minutes later was, “You are chatting with Juliana Elizabeth. Your case number is 102,577,877,834 – 04/16/2025 2:31 PM.”

It made me wonder how many techies were handling these calls and where they were located, since in that five-minute span “they” collectively handled over 2,500 additional inquiries. For the most part, I solved my problem, but since then I decided to get smarter.

The solution was only three miles from my house. That would be Scott Andersson and his son, Sean, at Ace Computer Repair LLC!

From my several long conversations with him in his shop and a house call where he “saved my bacon” on a printer/scanner problem for which no one else seemed to have the solution, I’ve concluded that Scott is an entrepreneurial genius who eschewed the corporate route.

Since founding his shop in 1980 (the oldest computer shop in West Linn) he, along with his son, Sean, have built their shop’s reputation as one of the best technical problems solvers in Oregon – with no advertising – just referrals. “My customers work for me and hand out about 1,000 business cards per year.”

A California native, he went to Troy High School, where he played tight-end on the football team and took classes at Cal State-Fullerton before graduating and moving to Oregon in 1976.

Rather than go the traditional college route, he started taking classes at Portland Community College and transferred to the Engineering program at Portland State. This was after he got distracted by a “beautiful lady named Sally” to whom he’s now been married for forty-six years. (Sally had a successful heart transplant thirty-two months ago at Oregon Health Sciences Center.)

I’ve been amazed at the clients who drop in when I’ve visited him. They range from old guys like me who are marginally conversant with technology and have laptop or desktop issues, to young computer jocks or small businesspeople who have esoteric software or network challenges.

Scott handles everything (virus removal, hardware repair, network design, hard disc replacement, etc.) except cell phones and video games although he does do a lot of flight simulator work. And don’t forget global ham radio which is a story in itself.

The picture was snapped when he made a house call to fix my printer/scanner and I persuaded him to have a Benedictine Black Habit (check out his right hand) so I could interview him for the blog. (That was only part of his tip because his charge was so reasonable.)

About 40% of his clients are remote, so if you are in Keokuk, Iowa or Santa Fe, he can help you. Alternatively, people like me who are within about ten miles can get Support on Site (SOS), and Scott says he was the first in Oregon to offer SOS at a flat fee.

Another factor which sold me on Ace is Scott’s commitment to recycling. Not only have I taken old computer hardware there, but other things which I don’t want to end in the landfill. He works with a non-profit to repurpose these items.

Being from a Navy family, Scott has a heart for veterans (“I take care of my veterans…”) and I’ve seen a number who are not only there to get a laptop fixed, but to just share a story. And Scott is very good at that.

In Closing

My crosstown high school rival – West Linn – is a great community as evidenced by the Beerchaser Notables you’ve met in this post – Chief Oddis Rollins and Scott Anderson. Stay tuned for Part II where you will meet two additional entrepreneurs who have great stories.

External Photo Attribution

#1. Public domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_flag_with_white_star_in_centre_1x2.png) This logo image consists only of simple geometric shapes or text. It does not meet the threshold of originality needed for copyright protection, and is therefore in the public domain. Author: CentreLeftRight – 30 January 2020.

#2. City of West Linn Website (City of West Linn Appoints Oddis Rollins as Chief of Police | City of West Linn Oregon Official Website).

#3 – #4. The Enterprise Courier photo archives.

#5. Wikimedia Commons (File: Coffee cup and saucer.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author:  Navaneeth Krishnan S – 31 July2023.

#6 – #11 West Linn Police Department Facebook Photos (https://www.facebook.com/WestLinnPD).

#12.  Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Clock-pendulum.gif – Wikimedia Commons) I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. Author:  ЮК  26 February 2009.