Reunion in Print | Contracting Business

Bob Schwed, Joseph Miller, Jim Wheeler, Dominick Guarino, Mike Murphy and Michael S. Weil would eventually serve as editors-in-chief: Schwed in the early 1980s; Miller from the mid-1980s to March 1988; Wheeler from April 1988 to 1992; Guarino from September 1992 to 1998; Murphy from 1998 to November 2004, and Weil from December 2004 to September 2014. In their monthly commentaries, lead editors Wheeler, Guarino, Murphy and Weil were very adept at addressing industry issues related to business management, trade show attendance, government regulations, system performance standards, peer group networking and more. Wheeler received a Neil Award for Outstanding Journalism for a series of articles he wrote in 1990 about the then-upcoming phaseout of CFC refrigerants.

Following Mike Weil’s departure in late 2014 to join National Comfort Institute, Robert Mader served as editorial director, while also serving as editor-in-chief of Chicago-based CONTRACTOR, until his sudden death in February of 2021. Mike Eby,  a veteran industry editor covering the electrical industry, succeeded Mader as editorial director of Contracting Business, CONTRACTOR and HPAC Engineering. He continues in that role today.

A Merry Band 

Mike Weil and the editors who served under him make up my fondest CB memories. Mike hired me in 2005. Thank you, Mike! I came on board to work with Ron Rajecki, Valerie Stakes, Kate Kelly, Pete Grasso and our fantastic graphics designer Connie Conklin. By the way, other designers through the years were Lori Lipton; Carolyn Steinbicker; Jack Tetalman; Ashley Doles; Susan Lakin and Julie Whitty.

Gwen Hostnik, Marge Dietrich, Andrea Begany-Garsed and Steve Palmison were our fantastic administrative, marketing and Comfortech show support team.
We editors were close in age and had fun. Publisher Joe Fristik managed to put up with our occasional antics, probably because he knew we would get down to business when necessary. Joe joined Rheem in 2011, and passed away unexpectedly in March of 2015. As publisher, Joe was a master at developing and maintaining relationships with advertisers.

From Day 1 in 1944, this publication’s editors knew the value of contractor writers who had industry experience and could share it with others. One of the best from the 1960s was Art Bogen, who brought what were simple but novel ideas to the fore. Chief among them all was Thomas “Doc” Rusk, a successful HVAC contractor from Covington, KY, who believed in sharing and teaching. He was one of the first to share his accounting books during seminars to show other contractors the importance of profit and loss, overhead, inventory cycling, and so on. Rusk’s annual contractor seminars were sponsored by Honeywell.