Editor’s Note: Arizona Boating & Watersports is pleased to announce that Tempe Marine is now owned by Scott McGraw. Following is his interview with us in late April.

Q. Scott, you are the new owner of Tempe Marine. How long have you been the owner, and from whom did you purchase the business?

A. I purchased Tempe Marine in January from Susan and Gary Williams, who started the business in 1977.

Q. How did you get started in the marine business? What is your background?

A. I was a sales rep for Skeeter Boats before purchasing Tempe Marine. Mark Kile, who is the Western States Sales Manager for Skeeter, hired me to help with several of the mountain states, including Arizona.

After getting to know Susan and Gary — and learning of their desire to retire — I reached an agreement to buy them out, and it's been a pretty exciting time every since.

The closing was just a week and a half before the Phoenix Boat Show, which is a pretty hectic time in the boat business. But, we pulled it off and had a great show.

Q. Tell me a bit about your family.

A. I've been married to Marcia for 14 years and we have three kids: Taylor, 11; Josh, 8; and Sarah, 6.

Q. Where are you from?

A. We're originally from Michigan, where I was involved in the newspaper business. We ran a group of community weekly newspapers in Southwestern Michigan for about 10 years.

Q. What are your interests/hobbies, etc? Are you an angler/boater yourself?

A. I grew up on the water in Michigan, so I've always been an avid boater. I spent my youth skiing and fishing all summer long.

I've owned boats since I was 10 years old when I bought a row boat and stuck a 4 hp Johnson on it. My most recent boat before buying a dealership was a Skeeter SL210 Fish-N-Ski, which was a great boat.

I could fish out of it, yet still take the family out on the lake for tubing or just riding around. Arizona is a great place for boating.

Q. Tell me a bit about Tempe Marine, its products, services, etc.

A. Tempe Marine is a full-service boat dealership. We sell Skeeter and Champion bass boats, Crestliner aluminum and pontoon boats, and Hurricane deck boats by Godfrey.

We also carry Yamaha, Evinrude, Johnson, and Mercury motors. In addition to the sales of boats, we service all makes and models of boats. Tempe Marine is the largest marine service center in Arizona with 14 service bays.

Q. What are your hours of business?

A. Tempe Marine is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A. Where are you located, and how else may our readers contact you?

B. We're located at 1800 N. Arizona Ave. in Chandler, which is just south of Warner Road. Our phone number is (480) 782-6813 and our website is www.tempemarine.com.

Q. What suggestions do you have for our readers re: purchase, maintenance, etc.?

A. Boating is a great family activity everyone in Arizona should experience. We offer fish-n-skis, pontoons and deck boats to help families create lasting memories on Arizona's waters.

Tempe Marine's strength has always been with bass fishing in Arizona. We sponsor three major circuits here — the Arizona Bass Fishing circuit, the Monterey Bass Company circuit, and the Pro-Am/Couples circuit.

Randy McIlrath has built these circuits up well, and we're proud to sponsor them along with Skeeter Boats. In fact, we give away a boat each year for the ABF circuit and the Monterey circuit.

We've also been a sponsor of Cardinals’ Coach Dennis Green's Charity Fishing Tournament. In fact, Coach Green is an avid bass angler and is on our Skeeter State Team.

A. Scott, please add anything else that you feel is appropriate and of interest to the readers.

B. A new relationship we've recently started is with the "Shake, Rattle, and Troll" radio program. We're also pleased to have Don McDowell and Darla Bardelli (of "Outdoors Arizona" and "Outdoors In America") fishing out of a Skeeter 21i from Tempe Marine. We're proud to partner with a program that benefits the Arizona angler so much.

Tempe Marine Has New Owner