I can’t begin to tell you the story of how
Jaffa Printing began without telling you a little about Grandpa Charlie. It's one of my favorite stories about overcoming adversity and never giving up.
Grandpa Charlie had a difficult childhood. He lost his mom when he was only 8 years of age and his dad a year later when he was 9. With both parents deceased he was left to be raised by his step mother who wasn’t very good to him. Even as a child he knew the odds were against him. He had to grow up fast in order to take care of himself.
At a young age he applied to get a job as a paper boy at the local newspaper. It was a crushing blow for him to learn that some other boy got the job, someone bigger, stronger more apt to do the things newspaper boys have to do.
The disappointment of not getting the job set something off inside him that day. It opened his mind to bigger things. He became determined to be more than just a paper boy.
Around the age of 13 he made plans to start his own printing company. A company that in his mind would someday put the newspaper that refused to hire him out of business. He was just a boy when he started his own business, Jaffa Printing Company.
Jaffa Printing had it’s humble beginnings in the garage of his home in the Avenues. Grandpa Charlie started off printing business cards and flyers. Although he never printed any newspapers, the business gradually grew to include all kinds of printing.
Eighty-four years after he first opened the doors of his business you can still hear the sound of the printing presses & smell the thick smell of ink as you walk through the door.
The process has changed with technology but Grandpa Charlie’s legacy lives on as we provide quality printing at affordable prices.
P.S. Several years ago a stone table along with some furniture with drawers full of handset type from our early days was donated to This is the Place Heritage Park and can be viewed ironically enough at the Deseret News Print Shop there.
