Before email and fax we used the telephone and memorandums, however Mr. Harold Kraft also did business with his plane! This is how the Ward/Kraft Legacy came about!

It was a Thursday in the early 80's and Mr. Kraft was in Ohio visiting the Fredericktown plant when he received a call from Mr. Tom Bilyeu with Tabco Business Forms, Inc. (a Terre Haute, Indiana distributor). Mr. Bilyeu was in need of an exact repeat of a sensitive product for his customer (a computer service bureau who was imprinting tax forms for a local municipality) who had been given erroneous information to imprint on the forms. By law the forms had to be in the mail that weekend, and they needed them by Friday to have them processed and in the mail on time. Mr. Kraft consulted with his customer service and production team, made the decision to immediately have the job produced and promptly (and personally) delivered it to Terre Haute the next morning on his flight back to Ward/Kraft's corporate headquarters in Kansas. From this point on the relationship and legacy between Ward/Kraft and Tabco was etched in stone.

To show his thanks and appreciation, Mr. Bilyeu had a caricature of Mr. Kraft and his plane created, which is proudly displayed in all divisions of Ward/Kraft, Inc.

Around 25 years later, another opportunity came about for both Tabco and Ward/Kraft to work together to provide a timely delivery of product for one of Tabco's clients. Kris Bilyeu, Vice President and one of Tom's two sons involved with Tabco contacted Amy Clark, Office Manager of the Ward/Kraft Ohio Sales Team, about a laminated card and key fob combination that needed turned quickly. The order came in (normally a 6 week production time in the industry), and 10 production days later, Troy Duprey, General Manager of Ward/Kraft's Commercial division, loaded up the Ward/Kraft plane and personally delivered more than 35,000 printed, laminated, die cut and trimmed cards. Tom Bilyeu, his two sons Brad and Kris, and grandson Mark, all had a hand in unloading the aircraft on the tarmac at the Terra Haute International Airport.

The end result was another very happy Tabco client, and the satisfaction of the Tabco and Ward/Kraft teams knowing that even after 25 years of changing environments in the industry.some things DO NOT change.The Ward/Kraft Legacy lives on.