Page 27 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2023

Pat and Bill Descher at their retirement party held at their first store in Gautier Mississippi.
It’s about people. It’s about watching them grow, thrive, and be part of the community. They come back and visit after college. After starting their families. And it’s just wonderful.
– Pat Descher
community and trying to get to know people and get them to work for us for so long I probably can’t stop. I’m sure I’ll still ask people, ‘Do you want a job?’ ‘Okay, then you need to call one of my sons.’”
While Pat’s focus was community support, educational programs, and employee recruitment, her husband’s priorities were on the financial side of the family business. “I was the final say when it came to anything that we were going to do that was new and different,” Bill said. “I made sure the finances were there and everything was adequate so that we could continue to upgrade and remodel the restaurants as the years went by.”
And he agreed with his wife, adding the heart of the franchises have always been the employees. “They keep you very young,” he said. “We’ve enjoyed watching them grow and many of them going off and then coming back. They’ll stop in to say that things have been going really well for them and they learned a lot of things when they were employed with us.”
Bill will continue to be a consultant to their sons Gregg Descher and Jeff Descher, who took the reins of the last two franchises on September 10. “That was the exact day we opened our first McDonald’s in Gautier in 1980, so it seemed fitting,” Pat said. “It’s also my dad’s birthday.
He’s no longer with us, but he was so proud when we opened our first McDonald’s.”
And now that they are officially retired, the Deschers are planning to spend lots of time with their seven grandchildren.
“We enjoy seeing them participate in school activities, so retirement is going to give us a lot more time to do that,” Bill said, adding he’s also planning to sneak in a golf game or two when time permits.
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