“Many of you know him as ‘The Hulk’,” said Benco Dental Managing Director Rick Cohen, introducing CenterPoint Distribution Center Material Handler Mike Halchak at the company’s home office in Pittston, Pennsylvania,  Wednesday, August 19.

Rick, along with Lou Mangino, VP Operations for the nation’s largest privately owned dental distribution company,  and George Rable, VP Culture and People, shared a few memorable stories of Mike’s time at Benco with the standing room only crowd of associates and presented Mike with a gift and cake in appreciation of his 30 years of service to the company.

Mike’s Marine Corp discipline, and generous donations to Toys For Tots every year, “undisclosed, but a lot,” said Rick, stood out during Mike’s Benco tenure. Rick also mentioned the nickname, which he traced to a friendly disagreement in the 1990s between Mike and another warehouse associate regarding professional wrestling. (Mike thinks it’s fake.)

Benco Dental Managing Director Rick Cohen turns the program over to Mike Halchek, who is retiring after 30 years with the dental distribution company. From a handwritten speech that had been folded in his back pocket, Mike offered humorous sentiments.

From a handwritten speech that had been folded in his back pocket, Mike offered humorous sentiments about his hiring manager Bob Stabinski, Benco Chairman Larry Cohen, and all the support he has received since 1985, which he likened to a Marine slogan.
“I was in the service for awhile. The Marines always yell ‘Gung Ho,’ which means work together. If you don’t work together as a team you will not survive as an individual. I tell a lot of people to come to Benco. Come to work every day and you will be here a long time,” said Mike.

The colleagues who lined up Wednesday (and in an impromptu parade around the perimeter of the building on his final day, Friday) to wish him well in his retirement spoke volumes.

“We’ll miss you in the warehouse. You’re someone who we always knew we could count on,” added Rick.