INDUSTRY PROFILE

PRING ROOFING COMPANY, INC.

By Gene Bluhm

How does a salesman and traveling auditor suddenly become a roofer?  Simple.  He sells cold roof coating to people who don't know how to put it on.

"I didn't even have a ladder!" Harry Pring, founder of Pring Roofing Co., Inc. recalls.  "I couldn't even light a torch!  What's more, I hadn't even been up on a roof before!"

Started at the Bottom

Harry Pring had worked for oil companies since he left school.  His first job was office boy for the National Refining Co. at a salary of $15 a month.  "When World War I broke out, I was still underage and underweight," he related.  "Then the oil company put me on the road as an auditor and I got a man's pay."

Pring worked for National refining for 10 years, as credit manager for Brooks Oil Co. for eight, then as office manager for the Acme Refining Co.

"I wanted to get out selling," Pring recalls, "so I went to work for the Damascus Manufacturing Corp., manufacturer of industrial parts and roof coating." 

That's when it happened.  He was calling on the McKinney Tool Co.  They ordered 12 drums of cold roof coating but they couldn't find anybody who could put it on.  When McKinney finally did get an applicator, the man insisted on using another brand of roof coating.

Saw an Opportunity

Pring felt he'd not only lost an order, but also an opportunity.  The neighbor across the street from Pring was a cake decorator from Kaase's Bakery.  Kaase's wanted their roof coated.  A cake decorator naturally would be interested in such things.

Worked His Way to the Top

To make the story short, Harry Pring contacted the hiring hall, hired some men and went into the roofing business.  That was in 1936.  Since then he has roofed many factories, apartments, nursing homes, and other buildings, including all theaters for the Community Circuit and Associated Theaters.

Sons Ronald and Richard joined the firm as applicators in about 1956.  Ronald and his wife have presented Harry Pring with five grandchildren, and Richard and his wife with one.

Last year's Business Tripled Over 1966

Business in 1967 nearly tripled over that of the previous year for this Cleveland roofing firm.  They purchased two new trucks and are now planning to buy two acres at Sheldon and Engle Roads in Middleburgh Heights for a new office and warehouse.  The firm presently uses the 1010 Euclid Building as its headquarters.

Harry Pring has been a roller skating enthusiast for the past 50 years, never skating less than four nights a week and attending all national meets.  But for a recent back operation, he'd be skating yet.

Sons Ronald and Richard prefer the bowling lanes.

Whether it's bowling, skating, or roofing, the Pring family keeps right on top of things.  Maybe that's why they've earned the reputation (ever since Harry sold those drums of cold roof coating to somebody who couldn't put it on) as being tops for built up, asphalt and tar and gravel roofs.