Made Right Here

I have worked at H.E. Williams for many years and have quite a few great memories. My best memory is Christmas of 1980. Mr. H. Williams catered dinner for all of us. He had the lines covered with table cloths. He brought in the high school choir and a piano that my friend Mary Rose played. We all sang songs and were like family. I'm very grateful to the Williams family for my job that helped me provide for my family and also for their kindness through the years.

I love the interactions I have had with everyone at Williams from the receptionist Kailey who calls me by name whenever I call; to Patrick and Debbie who now field my calls when the customers ask for the impossible. Kaylee and Taylor previously in customer service who helped with the demands of Park Hyatt Aviara. To the fun time with Michelle Peak doing the 5X5 videos and the podcast. Enjoyed the time Eric W. spent with us on the West Coast and all he has done to help us. Happy to work with Williams.

I remember when the rest of the industry was racing overseas and Mexico and Williams was working hard to stay competitive. I toured the plant and saw a brand-new press in the back that was lowering the cost of lensed troffers so we could compete without going overseas! Mark Williams invested millions to be competitive instead of just outsourcing. I tell that story to customers all the time to explain why Williams is better.

After 22 years, I feel we really are a family. I've seen my co-worker’s children grow up, move away and become parents of their own. The laughs and tears we have shared are priceless!

H.E. Williams helped me put my right foot forward by helping me get "my foot in the door" at my new accounts in a new market!

To me, Williams is quality and innovation. While visiting the factory, everyone I met had a strong sense of pride!

H.E. Williams is a true American manufacturer that puts service and innovation first. I love working with them.

100 years... Looking at my career with HEW, it is hard to believe I have been here for almost a quarter of that 100 years. *Insert bone-cracking, popping & snapping here*

There are so many memories in my short tenure here at HEW. I remember the first time I stepped foot into the building, everything was so massive and moving at a blinding fast pace, I was overwhelmed and awestruck with it all. And then, like our universe, It expanded in a brilliant flash. Warehousing was added. Realignment of the factory and production processes was implemented. Things just got bigger and faster (and for some wild reason, they decided to keep a rag-tag bunch of cave dwellers, myself included, and throw that into the mix)!

Fast forward a few years and I found myself heading to Colorado for training and what would be my introduction into a completely different aspect of the lighting industry. Lighting design and technical support. Coming from the shipping dock where profanity is the commonly used language, I was now in a position to talk photometry, luminaires, & foot-candles. Yes, you can probably picture it without me describing it. But here it is anyway. I truly was the deer in the headlights. Or the ant under the high-bays (this one fits better :))

So, here we are, 24(ish) years later and you'll find me leading customers, agents and visitors on tours to show off this awesome facility, its equipment and capabilities. And most importantly, its incredible workforce. This facility and everything under the roof is really one of a kind. However, it is the family, the workforce, that I hold nearest. I am so privileged to have met so many friends, coworkers and professionals over the years here at H.E. Williams.

I will end this with a little quip that I blurted out one morning when someone asked me where I was going. Without skipping a beat, I turned and looked directly at the gentleman, and I said: "I'm going to make the world a brighter place." The room erupted in laughter, most of them knew where I worked and what I do for a living. But all joking aside, that is what we do. And H.E. Williams and its workforce is damn good at it.

Cheers to 100!

It’s been my pleasure to have been doing business with 40 years of their 100.

Over that time, I have had many stories of the type of company H.E. Williams is. This is one of my favorites. Williams – being a very customer-oriented company – called on me to help get them the steel needed to get a hot order accomplished. On this occasion, they called the Tuesday before Thanksgiving for something they needed ASAP. I jammed the order through and shipped it the next day to arrive the Monday after Thanksgiving. For some reason the truck driver ended up showing up at the plant on Thanksgiving Day, then somehow got the number for Ron Snyder to get unloaded. Well, Ron went down to the plant on Thanksgiving Day and unloaded this man. PS: Ron was the president of the company at the time. That Monday morning, I got a call from Ron thanking me for getting the hot item to them but recommending not to deliver on a holiday again. This is just one example of the type of company H.E. Williams is and the kind of caring employees that work there. I have many more similar stories about many others that make Williams what they are today and have always been.

It’s been an honor and privilege to have the partnership of being part of their 100 years. Congratulations to the Williams family you’ve built one great company.

“WE ARE SIMPLY EASIER TO DO BUSINESS WITH.” This statement was taken straight from the H.E. Williams website. Such a true statement and one that makes doing business with everyone at H.E. Williams such a pleasure. An American Company with 100 Years and 3 generations is quite an accomplishment to be proud of. It is a pleasure to be doing business with such an honorable and “easy” company for all these years.

Congratulations and all of us here at Esquire Wire wish H.E. Williams 100 more years.

I was thinking about HEW's 100-year anniversary. That is a truly amazing feat to span 100 years in so many challenging ways. They have seen the Great Depression and more recently the Great Recession, not to mention countless other economic headwinds. They have produced items for World War II and supported the war effort. It is a huge feat to make it into the 3rd generation of ownership. H.E. Williams does make a visible difference with their lighting fixtures. I have been in several businesses in the area, where what is considered retro now were the original Williams fixture. These fixtures are 80-100 years old and still operational. It is a testament to the quality that H.E. Williams puts into their product.

I have had the privilege of being an H.E. Williams employee and a supplier. The improvements the company has made in the past 20 years to remodel and improve the facility to what it is today have transformed it to a modern manufacturer. Mark Williams had challenged me to do something different with assembly when I was there. He did not accept the status quo. Just because it has been that way for the past 50 years does not mean it is the best way. He really took that to heart when he remodeled. It is a beautiful facility both on the manufacturing side and the offices. The improvements have fostered an environment of excellence and have facilitated a spirit of teamwork and innovation.

I also appreciate the heart of the team members that work for HEW. They have supported and blessed our team many times by adopting different families at Christmas time. They not only allowed them to have a Christmas they also provided a Christmas meal for them. Williams has also employed our team to provide offline jobs to support them in many areas. This was an enormous benefit to Innovative Industries when we were needing work to keep us afloat. I cannot tell you how much their support meant. It allowed us to survive as a company. We have been in business now for 52 years. The team at H.E. Williams has gone above and beyond to work with our developmentally disabled crew. They recognized that their ability is greater than their disability and provided meaningful, productive work for our group was a win for both organizations.

Congratulations on being in business for 100 years!!! I hope the next 100 years are as profitable and exciting as the past 100 years. Thanks for all you do for your team and our community!

100 years is quite an accomplishment. Having witnessed more than one-third of, it's amazing to think back on the changes in both technology and in the way we've done things over that time. I remember playing frisbee the night we finally paved the parking lot.

Congratulations on your 100th Anniversary! What a testament to your business and your people! Not to mention how much H.E. Williams has meant to the families of your employees and the whole community in Carthage.

Records on how long Arrow Box Company of Joplin has been a supplier to H.E. Williams go back a long way. Back further than our electronic records, over 40 of those 100 years, to the days of handwritten orders and invoices.

With a long history of doing business, it is difficult to avoid the cliches that describe business relationships. In this case, the cliches are accurate. H.E. Williams has been a good business partner, a good fit, and we have made a lot of good friends over the years.

As H.E. Williams has grown, Arrow Box has grown as well. At every step of the way, you have always been a very important customer to us. Those that we have day-to-day contact with have always been professional, thorough, courteous, and easy to do business with. That means a lot and we look forward to continuing to work together for years to come.

On a personal note - When I was first starting out as a young adult in Carthage, John Williams and his wife would walk their dog in front of a house that I was desperately trying to get remodeled before I got married. Most evenings he would stop in the yard and ask how the work was going and how much was left to do. Toward the end of the remodel, they both came inside to see what we had done. They were very nice, asked questions and gave compliments. I thought at the time, for someone who was such a pillar of our small community, they were very down-to-earth and neighborly.

Having represented H.E. Williams since 1981, Repco II has been fortunate to work with so many fine people that have graced the HEW halls. I joined Repco II in 1986 and my very first factory trip was to H.E. Williams. I remember being picked up in a red van with no running boards and a cooler in the back. Being 5ft tall, it was a challenge just to get in. Gene Fain, Gary Fagg & John Quade were our hosts for the visit, and what a crew that was. At that time John Williams hosted a reception at his home and I remember Mark Williams showing me the antique car collection his family had. What a great first impression.

In the 40 years we’ve represented them, it always amazed me how H.E. Williams consistently put out a great quality product and always had such great people working for them. I’ve been blessed to work with some of them over the years - Sherrie Frye, Jeanne Enderle, Missy Harris, Rhonda Price, Pam Johnson, Steve Downing, Chuck Edds, Danny Lambeth, Bill Gray, John Riggan – just to name a few. Great employees reflect great companies and H.E. Williams is one of the best. We are so happy to have been a part of it for the last 40 years.

It’s a great accomplishment to celebrate 100 years in business. Congratulations on this incredible milestone and much-continued success.

Well, I would like to say thanks for the opportunity to have worked for the Williams Company for 48+ years. I've seen many changes and worked for three generations of Williams and I've met lots of great people, all of them who feel like family. I've been blessed. Again thanks.

I have had the good fortune to be hired twice at HEW. The first time was May 1983. I was hired for Customer Service, one of only two in the department. Our mail was delivered once in the morning, which contained orders and quote requests. Any immediate needs were handled by phone. Bea Cooper was the sales receptionist and handled the typing and mailing of the quotes (in emergencies, she used a Telex machine). At the time, we still weren't represented in the entire US yet.

I left HEW in 1986 to work for our rep in Dallas and saw that end of the business. After a few years there, I went to work at a distributor that stocked our fixtures. I would always push someone towards Williams fixtures no matter where I was (sort of a Miracle on 34th Street scenario). I returned in 1992 and immediately started over where I had left in '86, even using the same desk!

I've always seemed to have HEW in my blood. My father worked at Russell Belden Electric in Joplin, so I grew up listening to stories about the industry at the dinner table. It seems I almost always had a Williams notebook or pen of some kind to carry to classes with me when growing up in school.

The H.E. Williams Showcoach recently rolled through Colorado for a week of product display and fun! Visual Interest and all of our clients really enjoyed the unique experience of checking out installed product and chatting with Eric and Bryan.

I remember the first few years working here, there were big floor fans, box fans, pedestal fans, even fans mounted on the I-beams. Even when all the fans blowing in all directions, when standing there running a machine, sweat was running down your back. It has been a true blessing to have A/C throughout the building. No more sweat running down your back.

Art Rice's (former shop foreman) famous line when Weldon Wells (former plant superintendent) wanted a job finished more quickly...."Well Weldon....people in hell want ice water too!"

And Ron Snyder's when he heard someone talking about how excited they were about it being Friday. "Yep...just one day closer to Monday!"

I've been retired for over 3 years now and still say "we" when I talk about something going on there. HEW is way too much a part of me to ever leave completely. When I started, folks told me not to stay too long or I'd get white paint in my blood and never be able to go away. Turned out to be a very true statement!