Photos by Wendy Stewart Adam Litke and Loren Cohodes got their start in the pool industry in different ways. Litke’s father, who was a high school principal, made him find a summer job when his biology grade wasn’t up to his standards. Litke made a good impression at the company, All Seasons Pools & Spas;…
Photos by Tom Weinstein Mark Howard’s neighbors were pool guys. While growing up in Phoenix, during his high school summers and on weekends during the school year, Howard worked for two brothers who lived near him. After graduating, Howard briefly worked at a print shop but found it insufferable. “I couldn’t stand being cooped up,”…
Photography by Josh Goetz When Jennifer Del Vaglio was working as a lifeguard at a country club, she never dreamed it might turn into a pool career. She did, however, meet her husband CJ there, who ended up being the true catalyst. The couple was working in Connecticut — Jennifer as an event planner at…
Photography by Raul Mendoza Along with his family and crew, Miguel Mercado has carefully developed the Dorian Construction Group into the pre-eminent outdoor living design construction company in El Paso, Texas. Primarily, the company handles pool construction, pool refurbishment and transformation, outdoor kitchens, fire pits and ponds. “I started out more than 25 years ago…
Morehead Pools in Shreveport, Louisiana, is a family business — with a crazy family tree. It was founded in 1960 by Hall Morehead and developed a winning reputation — until the early 1970s when Hall Morehead and the business had accrued significant debt. Margaret Moore, Morehead’s operations manager and bookkeeper, saw an opportunity to save the…
Photography by Scott Murrish Jack manilla had it all. After years of working for large corporations and “chasing the golden ring,” as he puts it, he had acquired large homes, condominiums, boats, cars and other toys. But he ended up in business with people whose values were in stark contrast to his, so he cut…
Photography by Kris Knutson John Oldfield started small. After working two years for his father-in-law Dick Nichols, owner of San Jose, California–based Genie Pool & Spa Service, Oldfield purchased seven pool-service accounts from him in 2005. “There’s not a better guy to get your feet wet with,” Oldfield says of Nichols. “You couldn’t ask for…
Photos by: Derek Salyer Scott Waldo’s pool industry resume is varied, to say the least. He started in pool construction at age 13; was selling pools by 17; tried wholesale distribution; built pools in Nigeria, Africa; worked for a company in Florida, then moved back to Texas to open some of its locations. By 1998,…
Photos by: Thomas Weinstein When Tim Murphy started his pool company in 1991, Maricopa County — which includes the Phoenix metro area — issued 8,000 pool permits. Presidential Pools and Spas at one time had 350 employees, 10 dump trucks and almost as many shotcrete rigs for its in-house crews. It built 2,200 pools in…
Photos by: Robert Lipscomb Winky Vaughan grew up in the pool business: Her parents owned a swimming pool company in northern Virginia. When she graduated from Virginia Tech, she decided that she wanted to own her own pool company. In 1977, she and her husband Jim started National Pools of Roanoke. Soon, her parents —…
Photos by: Timor Raz Robert Blanda knows he is in good company. As the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals’ Certified Pool Builder of the Year for 2014, Blanda joins an elite group of eight previous winners. “I feel very honored,” Blanda says. Blanda, who owns Mill Bergen Pools in Brooklyn, N.Y., began his career…
Photography by Travis Carroll In 1985, Joan Struckhoff persuaded her husband Fran to purchase the pool division of the company for which she worked. At the time, Fran was working in sales in a different industry. “I said, ‘I really want to do this, but I’m going to need some help,’ ” says Joan Struckhoff….