Carl Wicsencr At Work . ..
Wiesener Always Wanted
To Be A Pharmacist
By TODD GOSSETT
Staff Reporter
Kings Mountain pharmacist Carl Wiesener has
never thought about being anything else.
Wiesener, owner of Mountaineer Pharmacy, has
worked in the industry for the past 42 years.
A native of Tennessee, Wiesener graduated
from the University of Tennessee’s Health Ser-
vices Center in Memphis in 1942 with a degree in
pharmacology.
He soon had to make a decision. The war was
on, and he would soon be a member of the armed
services. Military pharmacists in those days
were enlisted men and didn’t make that much
money, Wiesener said. So he signed up for Naval
Officer’s School and spent the rest of the war as a
spy boat captain in the North Atlantic and
Pacific.
After the war, he went back to Tennessee and
worked at a drug store for a couple of years
before taking a job with the company that even-
tually brought him to Kings Mountain.
As a medical service representative for Abbott
Laboratories, Wiesener was headquartered in
Kings Mountain and traveled to 14 local counties
in his job.
After 10 years with Abbott Laboratories,
Wiesener became pharmacist for Eckerd Drugs
in the Akers Center and later at Dixie Village,
both in Gastonia. He stayed with Eckerd for 10
years, and then started working for a pharmacy
in Shelby.
After a couple of years there, Wiesener decided
to open up his own pharmacy. He chose Kings
Mountain because: the town had only two phar-
macies at the time -- Griffin Drugs and Kings
Mountain Drugs he said.
In 1969, the Mountaineer Pharmacy opened it’s
doors for the first time.
Crosby Completes
Telephone Course
--Marine Lance Cpl. Charles P.
Crosby, a resident of Route 1,
Dallas, recently completed the
Telephone Switchboard Repair
Course.
During the 16.6-week course at
the Marine Corps
Communication-Electronic
School, Twentynine Palms,
Calif., Crosby received instruc-
tion on the mechanical and elec-
trical theory of operation,
testing, troubleshooting and
repair of switchboard systems.
A 1985 graduate of North
Gaston High School, he joined
the Marine Corps Reserves in
March 1987.
Kenny Ollemi
In West Germany
--Army Spec. Kenny Ollemi,
son of Doris E. Ollemi and grand-
son of Clara A. Williams of Rural
Route 4, Kings Mountain, has ar-
rived for duty in West Germany.
Ollemi is a finance specialist
with the 106th Finance Service
Unit.
Wiesener grew up in a family of pharmacists,
he said. Two uncles and two cousins were in the
business before him. He worked at the family
pharmacy when he was growing up and this
helped influence his decision to become a phar-
macist. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to
do.”
Wiesener likes everything about being a phar-
macist, he said, especially meeting people. “I
really don’t have any qualms about it. T like it
all,” he says. He also was never too concerned
with making lots of money in the pharmacy
business. “I never did get rich, but I never
wanted to.”
One change Wiesener said he’s seen in the
business since he began was that you don’t ex-
tend credit today like you used to. “We were a lot
more lenient on charging. It may have taken
them a while, but they paid it. Today, if they
don’t have good credit references, you don’t even
talk to them,” he said.
The Mountaineer Pharmacy generally has
local customers, Wiesener said. His service area
besides Kings Mountain includes Shelby, Grover,
Cherryville, and Charlotte, he said.
His customers are ‘‘a long line of regulars.
Others fill in as those pass on,” he said.
Besides being a pharmacist, Wiesener has
been involved in such organizations as the
Masons, the Optimist Club, Veterans of Foreign
Wars, and the American Legion.
He doesn’t have much time for such things
now, he said. ‘I open at 9 a.m. and close 5 p.m.
six days a week and I’m available 24 hours each
day.”
Se reverici really does like his business. He
doesn’t know when he’ll retire. “I haven’t
thought about it yet. I'm 69, I guess I ought to be
thinking about it,” he says.
HEALTH
VIEWS
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Harper’s
Prescriptions Pharmacy
709 W. Mountain St. 739-3687
ee or or ar
¥
»
Wednesday, July 20, 1988-KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Page 7C
He is a 1984 graduate of Kings
Mountain Senior High School.
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