30 years ago this week Hennessey Lumber became Garrison Lumber. When the Garrisons purchased the business Joe was no stranger to the lumber industry. Joe grew up in and graduated from Anadarko schools. He has a BS in industrial arts from SWOSU and Masters in School Administration from UCO. Joe’s roots in the lumber industry run deep. His great grandfather and grandfather owned a hardware/lumber yard in Ryan, OK in the early 1900’s. Joe’s father managed lumber yards and started taking Joe to work with him when Joe was just a small boy. He often jokes that he literally grew up with ‘sawdust in his blood’.
After graduating from SWOSU, Joe taught Industrial Arts at Midwest City High School for 6 years and worked summers on the loading dock for Rounds & Porter Company, a lumber wholesaler in OKC. In 1979 Joe was offered the job as northwest Oklahoma territory salesman for Rounds & Porter and it was at this time that he left teaching and moved to Enid.
Joe met Diane at a church group in Enid, and they were married on Valentine’s Day 1987. In 1990 the opportunity to manage ‘then’ Hennessey Lumber came available with the option to purchase. Joe managed Hennessey Lumber for a year before he and Diane purchased it from Robert Everett of Kansas City in June 1991. Diane joined Joe in running the yard full time in August of 1993.
Joe and Diane both became active in the lumber industry and were the only husband and wife, in its 70 year history, to both serve as President of the Oklahoma Lumbermen’s Association with Joe serving in 1998 and Diane in 2016.
The Garrison’s goal through the years has been to provide their customers with the products they need along with friendly customer service. Diane said, “Much of this is attributed to our amazing employees, I will say that with all Joe and I have been through this past year with Joe’s health….we could NOT have made it without Darren Harak and David Fuksa. Our customers love them and they are just like family to Joe and me. Darren has been with us 23 years and David has been with us 6. They treat our business just as if it was their own, which is very rare these days…they are both truly blessings to us and our customers.”
Through the years the Garrisons continued to add products to the large inventory of the store making it a local source of all things for construction, remodeling, repairs and home needs. They recently introduced a new line of Traeger grills, pellets & accessories.
You can find them at 300 N Main Hennessey, OK 73742 (405) 853-2640 – hours Monday-Friday 7:30-5:00.
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