About Us
Bear Onsite founder Theo Terry,
III, brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the
company. A registered sanitarian, Terry has worked more
than two decades in the industry, in both the public sector
as a public health environmentalist and regulator, and in
the private sector in marketing, management and product
design and development.
Terry has also been in the
forefront of developing training programs along with state
and national onsite organizations to advance the skills and
knowledge base of installers and other professionals in the
decentralized wastewater industry.
Terry’s experiences working in
both the public and private sector give him a unique
perspective in developing products for the industry: meeting
the needs of installers and pumpers for ease of installation
and addressing regulatory concerns for maintenance
and protection of the system.
Early in his career, Terry
recognized that education and training programs were
necessary to advance this increasingly technical
industry. As manufacturers developed new products for
the market, both installers and regulators needed to become
familiar with the products
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Founder Theo
Terry, III
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and
their applications to decentralized systems. In 1995,
Terry’s interest in providing quality educational programs
for industry representatives led to the formation of the
Kentucky Onsite Wastewater Association, with Terry as its
founding President. Entering the private sector with Zabel
Environmental Technology, he continued to work with other
states in the formation of onsite associations in Georgia,
Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Tennessee, where he
currently lives and serves as the 2009 Tennessee Onsite
Wastewater Association President.
Throughout his career, Terry has
placed an emphasis on learning, both for himself and others
in the industry, and has written numerous articles for
The Zabel Zone, a proprietary publication of Zabel
Environmental Technology, and as a regular contributor to
industry publications such as Onsite Installer
magazine.
For the past several years,
Terry has concentrated on developing new products for the
industry. While at Zabel, Terry was credited as being the
sole or co-inventor on ten patented products, with several
filter products being part of those inventions. Just before
joining Ring Industrial Group, Terry provided technical
assistance to Best Technology with the design of the GF-10
filter, and during his tenure with Ring Industrial Group, he
applied for six more patents on behalf of the company.
Subsequently, each of these three companies has been sold,
taking Terry’s inventions to new owners.
In 2008, Terry was faced with a
decision: either continue to develop products for others, or
apply his knowledge of the industry to form a new company,
and work for himself. Out of this entrepreneurial spirit
was born Bear Onsite, LLC. With three patent applications
already filed for products, and two more currently in
development, Bear Onsite is already positioned to become a
leader in the onsite wastewater industry. Terry is pleased
to introduce the first of these patent-applied-for products,
the first true filter for the industry, the multi-level
filter cartridge.
What’s In a Name?
Many people have asked about the significance of the company
name. Terry explained that when he decided to form his own
company in 2008, he wanted to choose a name that would be
distinctive and easy to remember, but also one that
reflected his story, and his commitment to the onsite
wastewater industry.
From the time he was a young boy, Terry said, a distinctive
area of darker skin pigmentation became noticeable on his
right shoulder and arm. It became a family joke when his
mother, Leona, claimed she must have been “marked by a bear”
when she was pregnant with him, and gave that as the reason
for Terry’s patch of unusual pigmentation. From his father,
the young Terry also heard stories about his
great-great-grandmother, a full-bloodied Cherokee. Native
American cultures across the United States viewed bears as
symbols of power and authority, and his respect for this
aspect of his heritage also influenced his interest in the
symbolic nature of bears.
In deciding on his company’s name, Terry decided to combine
“Bear” with a specific identifier for the industry—“Onsite.”
Once the company name was chosen, Terry wanted to continue
his story in designing Bear Onsite’s logo. In the foreground
of the logo is a large pine tree, signifying the time that
Terry spent as a public health environmentalist. Then you
see a stream, and on the other side, two other pine trees,
signifying the two private companies—Zabel Environmental
Technology and Ring Industrial Group, that Terry worked for
prior to forming his own company. The bear in the logo has
crossed over the stream; Terry explained that when he made
the decision to leave public health and go to private
industry, many of his fellow regulators accused him of
“crossing over to the dark side.” Now, however, just as
Terry has done in founding Bear Onsite, the bear is heading
off into new and unconquered territory, seeking higher
ground!
The border encompassing the company name in Bear Onsite’s
logo also has significance. If you’ll notice, the color
moves from left to right as you’re facing the logo, from a
darker brown, to a lighter shade of brown, to a pale blue
that becomes a strong, vibrant blue on the right-hand side.
This color change is symbolic of what happens to wastewater
as it passes through Bear Onsite’s initial product offering,
the ML3 filter: it goes in soiled, but comes out clean.
Learn more about our products
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