Sometimes the Family’s Firstborn Son is a Daughter

Kathryn Klinger and Marcia Huntley have never met, but they have much in common. Both are in their late 30s and majored in English literature at college. Both say they never intended to join their family-owned businesses, but both ended up as presidents.

Klinger is president of the New York-based skin-care and beauty company named after her mother, Georgette Klinger. Last March, Huntley became president of Tubular Specialties Manufacturing Inc., a Los Angeles pipe and supply company after her father retired.

Both women grew up in and around the family business, but neither was pressured to join her parents. Klinger said she planned to be a television journalist after graduating from Kenyon College in 1973. When she returned from her graduation present--a long European holiday--she had no firm plans.

At the time, her mother was having problems with the manager of the Beverly Hills salon and asked Kathryn to help out temporarily.

“My mother never said ‘my dream is for you to take over,’ ” said Klinger. “She was very smart about it.”

Klinger went out to California to fire the manager and fill in for her. “I just got stuck,” she said with a smile.

In a strikingly similar scenario, Huntley graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1973 with no specific career plans. She said her parents, Alice and Cliff, “twisted her arm” and encouraged her to spend a couple of weeks helping out at TSM while she decided what to do.

“They already had my name plate made up when I got here,” laughed Huntley.

In the past 16 years, she has worked her way up from an account executive to executive vice president and finally, to president. At one point, her husband, who is an artist, worked with her in the business, but the arrangement didn’t work out.

Both Klinger and Huntley said working with their parents has its ups and downs.

“You know them so well you know exactly how far you can go without hurting their feelings,” said Klinger.

Klinger said she is glad she and her mother work on different coasts because “we both have very strong personalities” and different styles. She said her mother is more unstructured and creative, while she is more organized and systematic.

Huntley said she and her parents generally agree about how to run the business, although her father would like to trim the number of employees and reduce overhead.

Although Huntley has 110 employees working for her, she said the truth is, “you are still the daughter--I am concerned about what my parents have for lunch.”

The Huntleys, who bought the company in 1966 after the founders died in a plane crash, recently moved to San Diego County. They now spend every Wednesday at TSM and keep in close touch with Marcia by phone.

“We tried not to push Marcia to come into the business,” said Cliff Huntley. “But we made it easy for her to stay.” Alice Huntley said she is proud of how her daughter is running things. “It was time for us to move on and it was time for her to try her wings.”

Like the Huntleys, Georgette Klinger said she never pressured Kathryn to join her in the skin-care business. “I am a strong believer that you should not make children do what you want to them to do,” she said. “It is very important for them to express their own individuality.”

Klinger, who opened her first salon in 1941, said her young daughter spent most afternoons doing her homework in the Manhattan salon. When Kathryn was finished, she would work in the stockroom or help answer the phones at the reception desk.

“I am very happy she is in the business,” said Klinger. “We really complement each other and she probably has a better business sense than I have.”

Kathryn Klinger, who has a 5-year-old son, said she doubts that she will encourage him to join the family firm.

“I don’t think it’s suited for a boy--this business is such a personal thing,” said Klinger. “I wouldn’t say no, but I would insist he have outside experience.”

Klinger said she doesn’t regret giving up her plans to be the next Diane Sawyer. And she expects her mother, who is chairman of the company, to be involved for several more years. At one point her mother thought of retiring, but changed her mind.

“I think she will be lost without the business,” said Klinger, who smiled when she was asked what’s the best thing about running a family business.

“Job security.”