I’m pleased to report that there is a new roofing company in Wichita. It’s called Roofing Wichita Kansas.
And I am even more pleased to report that the company is owned and operated by an old friend of mine: Aubrey Collins.
Aubrey is a Vietnam war veteran, a Navy petty officer who used to ferry Marine troops from ship to shore on landing craft.
He was seriously wounded during his tour of duty in Vietnam, and was mustered out of the Navy with a purple heart and several other impressive medals.
I met him about a year after his discharge from the Navy, when he applied for a job at the construction company that I was running at the time, back in the mid-1970s.
Most of you know me as the man behind the typewriter at Russ Babka Construction News, but there was a time, of course (which most of you are too young to remember) when I was a full-time construction worker just like most of you are.
Anyway, it turned out that Aubrey was a really good worker. He could do carpentry with the best of them, but roofing was his special love; he seemed to have a kind of magical touch in that area.
He worked for me for five years, but then he left Wichita to go west to Denver, because he liked the weather there, he said, especially during the winter months, when it gets so cold in Wichita.
I was very sorry to see him go, because he was such a great worker, and such a genius roofer, who I used on just about every roofing job I had in those days.
He spent a number of years out in Denver, but a few years ago he came back to Wichita. He worked for awhile for Charley Higgins, the owner of Higgins Roofing, but then a few months ago he started his own company Roofing Wichita.
All I can say is, Welcome back, Aubrey! It’s good to know you’re back in town!
(If you would like to reach Aubrey for a roofing job, call 316-633-7821.)