By Cathy Miller

One of Warren County’s better-known denizens, Marian Bredin, is instantly recognizable by her faint Southern drawl, warm demeanor, and beautiful necklaces! Over time, the longstanding Washington resident has remained a business leader and a supporter of several local nonprofits. Now sailing into retirement, we take a look back at a celebrated career.

A Southern Child
Marian was born in New Orleans. Her father’s career as a government employee entailed frequent transfers, so around the age of 2, Marian and family moved from Louisiana. She considers Texas to be her home state, as that is where she entered elementary school. Returning to New Orleans as a high schooler, she then went on to Louisiana State University, where she majored in accounting.

Heading back to Houston after graduating from LSU and earning a CPS certificate, she was hired by Uncle Ben’s Rice, a Mars affiliate, to work in their data processing department. Five years later, Marian accepted a new position with Mars in Elizabethtown, Pa. Although residing in Lancaster, she often ran into Jim Kennedy, from the Mars Hackettstown office, at company meetings.

Gradually a relationship developed and Jim, who passed away in 1993, and Marian were married. She said, “That’s what brought me to this immediate area. I left Mars soon after we were married, staying only a short period to finish a project.”

She met her current husband, George Bredin, in the mid-90s. “We’d been together for quite a while and vacationed in Aruba many times. During one trip, George proposed to me. We returned home engaged but were in no hurry to set a wedding date.”

They were married in Riverside, Ca. in 2004.

Making A Good Impression
When she started Good Impressions Printing and Mailing in 1977, Marian became one of the first female owners of a printing business in the country.

“It’s almost by accident that I got into printing,” she recalls. “Jim and I went to one of those ‘Own Your Own Business’ shows. I had to decide what I wanted to do after Mars. Printing seemed like a good option. We decided against a franchise, instead working with a consultant who helped get us up and running.”

She started Good Impressions with Jim’s help, renting a storefront on Main Street in Hackettstown across from the former site of Knechel Ford.

In 1984, Marian and Jim purchased the business’s long-time location at 325 West Washington Avenue in Washington. She said, “We relocated our main office there while keeping the storefront in Hackettstown and a third site in Clinton. At some point it became apparent we needed everything to be under one roof. When you’ve got three locations and need to visit them all, you’re never in the place you want to be.”

Though she specialized in business and accounting, Marian nonetheless was involved in all aspects of print production: “Early on I did some typesetting and paste-up because there were only two people in the shop, a press operator and myself. I waited on customers. I did the layouts. I did proofreading and editing. It was a big turning point when I hired somebody to work the front counter!”

Not that she wanted to give up all of her original responsibilities. Marian still fearlessly takes her red pencil to text in need of paring down or sprucing up!

Newsletters were a turning point for Good Impressions. Marian said, “We started with ‘The Panther,’ my first newsletter, over 20 years ago. It went to every residence in Panther Valley. We also published one for Hackettstown, and one for Washington, eventually merging them into ‘The Messenger.’”
 
“We haven’t always done mailings. As a member of the National Association of Quick Printers, I always attended their annual meetings. One session was a presentation on bulk mailings. When I returned, I said this is what we have to be doing.” Not wanting to become a big mailing house, she chose to be a niche for people like Panther Valley and local businesses that wanted to promote their business in a tight area.

“Everything we know, we learned because a customer wanted it, so we figured out how to do it,” Marian admitted. “Thinking back, I wonder, where did I ever get the nerve?”

George is also a familiar face at Good Impressions, driving the company Mini Cooper and working around the shop. Marian says of George, “[He] is very good mechanically. He could always repair the equipment and was (and is) a wonderful sounding board.”

A Changing Business
Over the years, the digital world has rapidly integrated the printing industry. “What remains the same,” Marian noted, “is connecting with the customers, helping them visualize what they want, and expertly producing the final product.”

Some parts of the business have completely vanished. “We rarely print resumés now. Everybody has the ability to make a nice looking resumé. Three-part carbonless forms are gone. Nobody needs them since everything’s stored on their computers.”

Something that is still relied on? Business cards.

Affiliations and Awards

If there’s an award for it in Warren County, Marian has probably earned it.

An active member of local Chambers of Commerce for years, she took leadership roles in the Hackettstown Area Chamber of Commerce, Warren Hills Chamber of Commerce, and the now-dissolved Warren County Regional Chamber of Commerce. She was recognized many times over those years with awards for leadership and service (1987-’91), as well as the coveted Women in Business Award (1988).

She was a Board Member with the National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP) from 1979-1986, receiving their Quick Printer of the Year award in 1986 and Distinctive Service Award in 1995.

More recently in 2015, Marian was honored twice. The House of The Good Shepherd presented Marian their Distinguished Friend of The House Award and she was also inducted into the Hackettstown Regional Medical Center Foundation’s Warren County Senior Hall of Fame.

In 2016, Marian, a founding member of the Washington Borough Business Improvement District (WBID), was presented their Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, the Warren County Community College Foundation inducted Marian into the Warren County Hall of Fame.

She has also been active in the Hackettstown Rotary Club since 1985, served on Abilities of Northwest Jersey, Inc.’s Business Advisory Committee and Norwescap Food Bank’s Culinary Celebration Committee, and worked on the Washington Celebrates America Committee for many years, among other business and volunteer groups.

Two of her fondest associations are with Norman Worth, President and Managing Partner of WRNJ Radio, and Jim Travis of SASCO Otterstedt Insurance, both of whom have been good customers and good friends for years.

Facing New (Ad)ventures

Wendy Witner and Bonnie Groff, both members of the Good Impressions team, have recently taken over Good Impressions Printing and Mailing. Although the name was changed to Good Impressions Print Communications, LLC, Wendy and Bonnie will continue to provide printing and mailing as usual. For their customers, it will be a seamless transition.

After closing out Good Impressions, Marian’s next venture will be Shabbecong Properties, LLC, named after the creek meandering through the tract on Washington Avenue. “I won’t have regular hours, I’ll be in the office as needed,” she said. Shabbecong Properties owns the building that housed Good Impressions and now rents to residential and commercial tenants, with four businesses, including Good Impressions Print Communications, and two apartments.

George Bredin is deep into sailing, so besides visiting Aruba, Marian and George relish sailing vacations. She mused, “We’d go to the British Virgin Islands for our sailing trips where we’d charter a sailboat with friends, spending a week with George as our captain. Aruba is nice, it’s more developed. BVI is where you really feel like you’re in the Caribbean.”

When asked about rest and relaxation, Marian said happily, “George does all the running around. I don’t go anywhere! We sit out on our patio every evening and enjoy a drink,” and that seems to suit her to a T! Although it’s been a while since their last sailing trip, she admonished, “Never say never.” As for Aruba, Marian and George haven’t been in three years, but hope to go back once travel gets easier.

After 40+ years in the printing business, it appears Marian Bredin has “stopped the presses!”