History--Parent Company

Marion E. Wade, who began his own moth proofing service in at age 31, began "on-location" (in the home) carpet cleaning in 1937, using products he had developed. When temporarily blinded by a moth proofing accident in 1944, Mr. Wade began thinking about his life and decided to dedicate his business to God. For the rest of his life, Mr. Wade regarded the Bible as his management guide and later wrote a book titled "The Lord is My Counsel" explaining his devotion.

Mr. Kenneth N. Hansen joined Marion Wade in 1947. In 1952, the first ServiceMaster Residential/Commercial franchise was sold. The franchises began operating as "ServiceMaster-masters of service, serving the Master". Mr. Wade recruited Kenneth T. Wessner in 1954. Together Wade, Hansen, and Wessner developed the four Company objectives, which are still used by franchises today:

• To honor God in all we do
• To help people develop
• To pursue excellence
• To grow profitably

History-Our Franchise

John and Ruth Willis purchased their first ServiceMaster license in June 1971, and began their On Location (Residential, Commercial and Disaster Restoration) business in Elgin & Dundee, IL. Subsequently, they have purchased two additional licenses, to expand their territory of services to Bartlett, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, and McHenry County. They began the business from their home with John doing sales, production and marketing. Ruth handled the office work and bookkeeping.

Today they own the building at the corner of River Bluff Road and Dundee Avenue, Elgin, IL, from which they run their business. (See photo) They have been blessed with faithful employees, who have continued working in their business for many years. Serving the company for over 20 years, Alan Koshiol is general manager in charge of Disaster Restoration. Their son, Matthew, joined the business after college graduation and has been working in residential sales and marketing for the past four years. Two full-time and two part-time office staff plus seven to nine production personnel (three to five crews) serve our residential and commercial customers daily.