Leroy started working at Shank Door on March 5, 1973. He was the third employee. The second one soon quit and moved down South. That left Leroy and Ira Mast working for the owner, Ralph Shank. Ralph operated the business out of his home. In 1974, he built a garage next to the house. This was the warehouse.
On Leroy's first day, Ralph took him to a job and told him to watch while he installs a door. He slapped it up and then said, "Now you do the next one," and left. That was Leroy's training. Today, an installer has at least six weeks of training working with another installer.
A few years later, Ralph sold the business to Ira Mast. He lived on the farm next to Ralph and was married to Ralph's niece. The business grew and Ira built a larger warehouse on the farm. On October 22, 1982, the warehouse caught fire and was completely destroyed. Help poured in to clean up and rebuild. The new enlarged warehouse was finished in two months, at the end of December.
Leroy installed garage doors and openers for 22 years. In the beginning, he had his own truck and paid his own gas. There were no paid vacations or holidays, company tools or ladders, medical insurance, uniforms, cell phones, retirement plans, or company trucks. These benefits were added gradually as the company grew.
There was not enough work at home to keep our boys busy in the summer, so Leroy took them along to work as they grew old enough to help. It was good for them to work with their father and they learned to help themselves with tools.
Leroy got his first cell phone in 2003. It was a Nextel which also had a two-way. All the years he had been on the road installing, there was no way to reach him. This was a problem especially when we were expecting a new baby. Fortunately, the babies never decided to come while he was at work. The company phones kept being upgraded until he had a smartphone.
Leroy was 51 in the spring of 1995. Installing was becoming too heavy work for him and he had trouble with his shoulder. Ira told him he could work in the warehouse. No one was keeping order in there and it was becoming a problem. He agreed and was a warehouse worker and go-fer for another 26 years. He got his first company truck in 1995.
Every day was different as a warehouse worker. Leroy waited on customers at the counter, put things away, burned trash, picked up and delivered things, repaired tools, recycled materials, and other small things that kept order in the warehouse.
He drove his first company truck until February 2016 when someone crossed the road and hit him head-on. The truck was demolished and the company bought him a brand new 2016 model.
Leroy has been considering retiring "at the end of the year" for several years. But when the end of the year came, he kept on going. After more than forty years, it was not going to work very well to quit suddenly. In 2020, he cut back to three days per week and worked from Tuesday through Thursday. That gave him four-day weekends. As the end of the year approached he again debated whether or not he would retire. He decided he would stretch it out a few more months until March 5, 2021, so he can say he worked at Shank Door 48 years.
Yesterday he was honored at the regular monthly company meeting/breakfast and received a nice retirement gift. This 5 ft. poster displayed pictures from his 48 years with the company. Also on display were some of his old work orders, canceled paychecks from the 70s, and some of the old hand tools he used in the early years.
The garage door business is up and down, literally and figuratively, as it fluctuates with the economy. Some of the early years were a struggle but things improved as the company grew and it provided us with a comfortable living. We are grateful the company provided work he could do when installing got to be too heavy and they kept him on as long as he wanted to work.
At the age of 77, he has earned his retirement. He is leaving with a sense of satisfaction in seeing two of our sons carry on with the company. Daryl does service work and Gene is in management.
It's going to be an adjustment for us to begin this stage of life as retirees. Leroy plans to do some volunteer work at CAM. He has been doing more to help me around the house as my back and hip are reducing my capability. It will be good for him to learn to help himself a little more in this department. It is hard to believe we have come to this turning point in life. Who would have thought 48 years could pass so quickly! God has been faithful through all these years and He will carry us through whatever the future holds.
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