Pictures from the Past—December, 1978-Fred Shieman

 

 

 

“Western Association of Equipment Lessors elected a new slate

of officers for 1979 at the Maui Conference.  The income president is Fred Shieman of California Group Services in San Francisco. Shieman has been active in WAEL since its early formative days, and served the association as vice president for 1978 and earlier as secretary treasurer.

 

 

“WAEL's new president started his firm, a real estate financing development operation, in 1971. IN the early years the firm concentrated in construction equipment, leasing and conditional sales contracts.  They developed some combination types of financing of real estate and equipment along with concurrent equipment leasing, and later provided some leasing services for manufacturers and equipment vendors.

 

“Fred graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and reports he has one wife, two children.  They live in Walnut Creek, and Fred is still not used to the commute to San Francisco where he opened offices a year ago.  His hobbies include flying, sailing and working.”

 

 

While flying by himself, Shieman's plane crashed due to bad weather conditions.  According to Duane Russell, CLP, who submitted the above poem for the February, 1990 UAEL Newsline, “Fred died doing what he loved.  He loved flying.”

 

High Flight

 

A poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

 

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

 

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

 

Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth

 

Of sun-split clouds—and done a hundred things

 

You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung

 

High in the sunlit silence, hov'ring there,

 

I've chased the shouting wind along and flung

 

My eager craft through footless halls of air

 

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

 

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

 

Where never lark or even eagle flew.

 

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

 

The high, un-trespassed sanctity of space,

 

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

 

 

At the time of his departure, Fred D. Shieman was chairman of the board, Matsco Financial Corp., Walnut Creek, California. His son Matt assumed his father's position, including becoming more active in several leasing associations and community organizations; grew the company into a national entity via the securitization market, then sold it to Greater Bay Bank, a conglomeration of San Francisco Bay Area banks, originally in San Mateo and Santa Clara County, now growing into other counties. He continues as the leader of the Matsco Companies.  Through rough weather, Matt Shieman continued to pilot the direction, growing the Matsco Companies into “... the leader of professional practice lending for the dental community since 1983. Working with the veterinary community since 1999, Matsco has already established itself as the premier specialty lender in

that market.”

 

 

• Practice acquisition & start-ups

• Expansion and improvement projects

• Equipment purchases

• Commercial real estate purchases

• Business refinancing & lines of credit

 

“Matsco is the only practice financing company endorsed by American Dental Association Member Advantage.”

 

Fred would be very proud of his son Matt and the solid company

he has built to carry on the Shieman tradition of leadership

and personal involvement in the industry and society.