Roy Bain, Riverside President of HAAC is awarded lifetime membership
Roy Bain was Riverside President for the 1973-1974 Hearing Aid Association of California.
Feedback published by the Hearing Aid Association of California.
Convention Issue, September 1974.
Roy Bain was unanimously voted a Life Membership by the Board of Directors for the Hearing Aid Association of California. Roy's effort in defeating the Senate Bill 173 was greatly appreciated. Along with, his many years of service to the HAAC, as President, Past President, and numerous other roles.
WHO'S IDEA WAS THIS, ANYWAY?
Irving Stone
Irving Stone was an American writer known for his biographical novels of famous historical personalities, including Lust for Life about the life of Vincent Van Gogh, The Agony and the Ecstasy about Michelangelo and The President's Lady about Rachel and Andrew Jackson. These and many other of his novels became movies starring great actors such as Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Rex Harrison and Susan Hayward.
In Irving and his wife Jean's home, perched above Century City, was a wall Irving referred to as The Stone Wall. It was a huge bookcase housing Irving's books. Many had been translated into a few hundred different languages.
Radio and television personality, Art Linkletter had gone to Irving Stone's house for a book review for his book, Old Age Is Not For Sissies. While there Art became aware of Mr. Stone's serious hearing problem. Art called Roy and asked if he would go and help his friend with his hearing problem. Art's agent, Irving Atkins, set an appointment but because of a misunderstanding they arrived an hour late. Mr. Stone had diabetes. They being late caused him to eat later than his usual schedule. His housekeeper brought tea on a tray. Showing his displeasure, Mr. Stone shoved the tray a little on the table striking a figurine which Roy later learned was pre-Columbian and very expensive. The figurine survived. They had a cup of tea with orange juice in it. Roy discovered that orange juice in tea was rather good. It was a new experience for Roy.
After tea Mr. Stone brought out a shoebox with six or more sets of hearing aids in it and asked in a sarcastic tone, "Now what are you going to do for me?"
Mr. Stone had been a patient of the House Otological Medical Group (OMG) in Los Angeles. Dr. Howard House, founder of OMG was world renown for his early work with middle-ear surgery. OMG also enjoyed an excellent reputation for its professional patient care. After looking over his box of hearing aids, Roy told Mr. Stone that his hearing aids were manufactured by some of the major manufacturers and Roy doubted that he could do much better. Roy then said,
"Let's just talk and figure why they are not helping you."
Quickly Roy discovered the problem, Mr. Stone had little finger dexterity and couldn't operate the switches and volume controls. Mr. Stone also commented that the doctors at OMG seemed more interested in promoting their books than his hearing.
Roy returned to Nu-Ear, the company Roy co-owned and directed his engineer's to build Mr. Stone a set of hearing aids which fit totally within his outer ear with no switches or volume controls. They were rechargeable with no batteries to change. These were probably the first hearing aids of this design.
When Roy delivered his new hearing aids to him, Roy told Mr. Stone, "All you have to do is to slip them into your ears and hear."
They worked great. He loved them, and Roy had a new friend.
thank you roy, from the bottom of our hearts
Irving wrote a wonderful letter to Art Linkletter praising Roy's work.
united
Member of 100,000 Mile Club
The first meeting Roy attended as Beltone's West Coast Representative was held at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco. He was a bartender at the hospitality suite the night before. It was there that Roy met most of his dealers and their spouses for the first time. The next morning he was to have each of them stand at the beginning of the meeting and introduce themselves. Roy decided to do it a little different. Roy had each person stand as he called their name. There were 54 people in attendance and he only missed one, Fred Holden's wife, Sarah, from Stockton, California. Knowing he had just met most of them the night before the dealers, and his boss's at Beltone were surprised by his memory. It made a very positive and lasting impression. Funny thing, today he remembers Sarah more than anyone.
PAQ System
While running the sales portion of Beltone's National Training Center a small group created a sales presentation named PAQ. It stood for Problem Solving, Anxiety Raising, and Qualifying as an expert. That system (50 years later) still exists throughout the industry today.
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