The story starts with the history of my great grandfather, which was Frank Homer Wingate, and in history shows that he actually had he was actually working at a pharmacy over on East Pearl Street, right around where the Crosby's bakery is now.

But when the year when the clock struck 1900, he had the opportunity to start his own pharmacy right on Main Street.

The pharmacies back then had the beautiful soda bars and they had the fountain chairs and they had mobile fixtures where they had different health and beauty aids and different merchandise.

And and that was the heart.

But the interesting thing is the picture shows that all the pharmacists back then were a black cap.

And the black cap signified you being a pharmacist.

But the other interesting thing is that the pharmacist was always behind the wall.

He never was in the general public where the patients and customers could see them.

And so that was an interesting thing.

And so then the second generation starts, and that would be my grandfather, who was Homer Frank Wingate.

And Homer was born in 1890.

Homer's board in Sanford, Maine.

He was an amazing entrepreneur.

He did a lot of things outside of pharmacy for the Nashua community, which a lot of people that I've been around here will remember.

He actually started the first radio station that Nashua ever had.

It was called WOTW and was named after his Aunt Orlena Trestle Wingate, OTW.

So Homer ended up retiring.

He went up to Cape Natick, Maine, and that's where he lived for the rest of his life with his wife, Genevieve.

So then comes my dad, Dearborn Wingate.

His mother's name was Catherine.

He was an only child, and so he went to the Massachusetts.

College of Pharmacy, as did his father and his father.

Homer and him worked together for one year from '50 - '51, but my dad took over.

One of the things that he claims that he did, which was first for New Hampshire during his watch, was he started the delivery service.

You know, back then, people came to the store, you know, pharmacies did mail order products, and he went to the people, whether they were old people or, you know, maybe young mothers.

But he actually started this delivery service around town, remember?

He had a fleet of these old Volkswagen bugs.

And Greg and I, when we were in high school, you used to drive those around in the summer it was really fun.

So that was Dearborn.

And then I came along.

I'm the fourth generation.

Like I said, I have a I'm one of four children.

And I went to local schools.

I went to St Christopher's parochial school, then I went to Bishop.

Guertin and right here in Nashua, very active in sports.

I was a quarterback of of Bishop Guertin and actually quarterback the first winning team Bishop Guertin ever had.

Very proud of that.

But also a co-captain on the basketball involved involved with the schools politics.

I was a vice president for all four years.

And then from there I went on to Syracuse University and I thought I'd like to I think I might want to be a veterinarian.

So I took a major in zoology, and in order to go to veterinary school, you had to have 1200 hours of working with animals.

So if you think about it, you work 40 hours a week, times ten weeks.

That's 400 hours.

That's one summer times three summers.

Then you can actually apply.

But then after I left Syracuse, I went to the University of Washington in Seattle, and I did a pharmacy business program.

And when I graduated from that, got very friendly with Dean Campbell.

I would call him one of my three mentors that really did a lot for my life and my growth in my life.

And he was a dean.

He had a lot of people in the community brought projects to him.

So is there anybody you think that could help this?

So what?

So Dean Campbell asked me with my background to set up this project, was setting up the first hospice program in Seattle, and then all of a sudden, the clock struck 1984 and my dad called me, says Gary.

He says, You know, this is my dad.

He says, you know, I just want to let you know, I'm 58 years old.

And he said, you know, kind of huffing and puffing and things are changing.

And I don't think I'm ready for it.

He's like, What?

He goes, Well, you know, in the old days, you know, everybody paid cash and now they got these insurance companies and they come in and and you have to write all down all the things.

And a lot of times they were rejected.

He says, second thing, I'm still using typewriters.

You know, a lot of people are starting to get computers, and I'm not really interested in learning how to do a computer.

So he says that's making it a challenge.

And the other thing is these chains are coming and it's always been independent pharmacies.

And now there's there's a CVS and a Rite Aid and a Walgreens.

He goes, I'm just you know, it's just too much.

But he said, I'd like to offer, you know, if you'd like to buy it.

So back then, I should introduce my wife, Brenda.

So Brenda was from Maine and I was from Hampshire.

We met in Seattle.

We're married now, have three beautiful kids.

And so we said, What do you think?

We've been out here for ten years.

You know, I've always I've love I mean, I'm an entrepreneur by nature.

I have our own store.

I've learned a lot with the chains and, you know, my passion for business and, you know, veterinary and all that.

So I say, let's just give it a shot.

And I had a plan just already.

So I brought in all this technology.

We started doing medical supplies with fittings and billing.

We started doing nursing homes and assisted living, special packaging consulting.

We did traditional pharmacy where you did a dispensing of the med and the consulting.

But my big thing is in 1986, two years later, I started compounding kind of thinking about going back to the future.

My great grandfather did that with his powders and we actually had these bulk powders.

Of course, you know, we had the FDA and USP and all these regulations and and basically we just we get the powders and we make a lot of different dosage forms.

We do like little gummy, chewy treats and we do little mini tabs and we do liquid suspensions and flavor for humans and animals.

We actually do trandermal creams.

You rub into cat's ears and things, you rub on your skin.

And and we actually are one of two sterile compounding pharmacies that the FDA approved in the state.

So we do injectables and eye drops and all that.

So but the net net net is we do we did pediatrics, we did podiatry, we did women's health, we did hospice, we did human.

Of course, my big thing was veternary I really enjoyed that.

So we kind of always just kind of built up the business and and all of a sudden, ten years ago, I have three lovely daughters, Catherine, Lauren and Natalie.

Catherine, they all worked in the store in high school that worked in college.

A couple of them delivered in the summertime.

They get a feel for the pulse of the business, but there was no pressure to get them involved.

So they were taken care of.

But I had to say, you know, I'm getting I'm getting older.

I had to think about my exit strategy.

It wasn't going to be a Wingate, but I did find this guy, Derek Anderson.

So it'll be ten years ago, this June 25th that I sold the store to him.

And he, you know, we lived the same life in the sense that he when he bought it, he had three girls under the age of five.

You know, I lived that life.

He had a wife that was a pharmacist.

So was very helpful for back up.

And and he actually owned a pharmacy.

He lived in Derry, New Hampshire, but he had a pharmacy and in Brookline, Massachusetts.

And you can imagine the commute as the years went on.

So and we had such a great store and he's such a great guy.

And we we got along really well and we overlapped with our talents.

Who of, you know, h.r.

And business planning and regulation, all this stuff.

So it worked out.

So I carved out the retail store and sold that, and then I sold the pharmacy to Derek, and he's still around.

We're doing well.

So I guess in closing, you know, through the years, I was fortunate to be recognized for a lot of awards in the state.

They had the.

Pharmacist of the Year award that I was, and I came back about five years.

I was I was proud to get that.

And then, a, they had a innovative pharmacy award where I because of my compounding and all the innovation that we did, I was cited by that.

And then I think the most prestigious of all the awards is the Bola.

IG Award, and that is underwritten by Abbott and Wyeth.

Abbott and Wyeth, the two pharmaceutical company.

They took one pharmacist in every state and they were selected and they flew you to the headquarters in Philadelphia and then wined and they dined for the whole weekend.

But the thing that I like about that, you had to be a pharmacist, but as a pharmacist, I did community service and I was involved.

I coached my girls basketball teams and one of my daughters was in the Children's Playhouse and I did a lot of marketing for them.

I work for the Front Door across the street.

I was one of the original presidents and went through the boards, did a lot work with them, work with the why with children's obesity.

But I worked a lot in the community, very proud of all of that.

And and then recently I just got the Lifetime Achievement award.

It was awarded in December.

Very proud.

So I guess, you know, I guess one of the interesting things is when I bought the store in 1984, there were 125 independent pharmacies in the state of New Hampshire, and now there's 11, one of which is us.

And we're still there.