Surviving prostate cancer while battling the impact of the Great Recession only strengthened hardware store owner Dave Umber’s resolve to continue a family business tradition that began with his grandparents in 1944. His personal and professional perseverance and success is told in a cover story in the August edition of The Hardware Connection, a national publication covering the home improvement industry.
The magazine’s profile of Umber and his third-generation family business, Umber’s Do it Best Hardware, includes his recollections of the challenges and triumphs of a 10-year odyssey for himself, his family and the business. After receiving a cancer-free diagnosis, Umber says he re-committed himself to four aspects of his life: faith, family, health and the family business.
“I’ve been a changed person since,” he told The Hardware Connection. “I don’t get too high or too low – but strive to be better.”
The feature story details the growth of the local company, as well as how a close-knit family structure – beginning with his grandparents, passing through to his parents, and now with Dave and his wife, Barb. Not only has Umber’s thrived, it’s prospered beyond its roots in Waynedale to a two-location business that has recently welcomed the increased leadership and participation of Dave Umber’s son, Grant, marking a fourth generation of Umbers to join the business.
“It’s a true blessing to work with family in the business,” he says.
Umber’s Do it Best Hardware is backed by the strength of its status as a member-owner of Do it Best Corp., a Fort Wayne-based hardware, lumber and building materials co-op with thousands of independently owned locations in the United States and more than 50 other countries.