In Beloit, Wisconsin, there is a bridge over the Rock River. It connects the Ken Hendricks Memorial Statue to “The Spine,” a centralized area on the Iron Works Campus that’s home to a family of innovative companies across 32 buildings. The Ironworks Campus was an investment through Hendricks Commercial Properties.
Ken Hendricks was a high-school dropout from nearby Janesville who helped build the largest U.S. wholesaler of roofing supplies, ABC Supply, a still-growing company with 20,000 employees whose sales exceeded $10 billion in 2022. After being named Inc.’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006, he died in a December 2007 accident. In 2009, his family agreed to rename in his honor the Wisconsin Technology Council’s annual “Seize the Day” award, presented every year at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Conference.
When I saw the news about the award, I remembered reporting right around the time of his death on Ken Hendricks’ efforts to rejuvenate Beloit and Keokuk, Iowa, with job-creating investment. It got me thinking about how history can rise from past accomplishments, historical plaques and old buildings and breathe life into redevelopment. The stories are legion and are told frequently in our pages. One of them, told by Site Selection Senior Editor Gary Daughters about the unique redevelopment of Fort Ritchie in Maryland, recently won an award for enterprise reporting. Another is unfolding in Detroit, where Ford’s six-year restoration of Michigan Central Station was celebrated with an early June extravaganza befitting the rebirth of one of the nation’s original innovation capitals.
Today Ken Hendricks’ wife and company co-founder Diane leads Hendricks Holding Co., a private investment firm. “We honor our entrepreneurial roots by supporting companies that embrace the American dream, believe in hard work, and give back to their communities,” the company proclaims, hewing to the core values of “Respect, Opportunity, ‘Work Hard, Have Fun,’ Entrepreneurial Spirit, Family, Give Back and American Pride.”
Which got me thinking again about companies doing more with their investments than just refurbishing derelict properties. Many are rebuilding lives through direct, tangible work addressing challenges such as the growing issue of attainable housing for their workforce and communities. ABC Supply supports Homes For Our Troops, which over 20 years has built nearly 380 specially adapted homes for severely injured post-9/11 military veterans. The company this year donated a $1 million match to a campaign in partnership with AJ Foyt Racing that smashed through its $4 million goal to raise $5.2 million by the time it culminated in an annual celebration with the injured military veterans it serves at the Indy 500 over Memorial Day weekend.
Hard work and good works build bridges from the past to the future through projects taking place in towns, cities and rural counties around the world. We’ve been telling their stories for decades. It’s our honor to keep telling them, so company leaders looking out over aging downtowns, factory relics and tenuous Main Streets see opportunities to grow their enterprises and their people, transforming remembrance into renaissance.
