The Hardest Thing I've Had to Do
 Three weeks ago, my father Ron Wenner passed away. Without a doubt saying goodbye to my father was the hardest thing I've had to do so far in life. Besides being a father, a friend, an Air Force veteran, community member, woodworker, outdoorsman, engineer, tinkerer and countless other roles, you may know him from the Festool Owners Group (FOG) forums, or from the time he spent in the Seneca Woodworking booth at trade shows we attended. He was the inventor of the Domiplate and a constant source of inspiration for Seneca Woodworking. Peter Halle shared the news of his passing on the FOG when it happened so his friends there may have already heard the news, but it’s taken me some time to get to a point where I could write this email. Since I founded Seneca Woodworking in 2011 I’ve enjoyed working with both my father Ron and my brother Kyle over the years. Working with family has its ups and downs, and fortunately the time we did spend working together was full of good memories. With the passing of my father, showing up to the shop every week has meant being forced to confront that elephant in the room daily.
The last two years have been the most challenging two of my life so far. Between the challenges of becoming a first time father with the birth of my daughter, trying to run a business in a challenging market, and caring for dad when he needed me, it hasn’t been easy. Seneca Woodworking is a small company; small enough that I’m still involved in most aspects of operation. While Seneca has more tools to create to carry on Ron’s legacy, right now we need some time to heal.
I saw a quote by the artist Banksy recently that resonated with me: “If you’re tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” In the coming weeks we’re going to scale things back a bit. I need some time and distance from the business; time to connect more with my family and recover before I can return to leading Seneca Woodworking and creating more new tools. I’ll follow up in another email with more about what this means exactly.
In the past few weeks I’ve been amazed at the number of stories I’ve been told about dad, especially ones about random acts of kindness he performed but never bragged about or even shared. If you happen to have any of these stories or other memories of dad, I’d love to hear them.
-Ryan
 |