History of Hoag

William Hoag was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. At age eight (and a year before leaving St. Paul for Detroit), he got his taste of the free enterprise system by selling Life^® Magazines. At age eleven, he took a position in a local barbershop shining shoes. From then on, he took all sorts of odd jobs on the weekends and during school holidays.

He moved to Grants Pass at fifteen; and, although Grants Pass was a bit different from Detroit, he had no trouble finding a way to turn a buck. As soon as school was out for the summer, Bill talked a local farmer into letting him pick beans.

Just two years after moving to Grants Pass and much to Bill's disappointment, his family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Upset by the move and feeling ready to discover bigger and better things, Bill joined the Navy at age seventeen.

Upon his release from the Navy in 1954, Bill moved back to the Detroit area (Lavonia) and started delivering materials for his uncle, a local roofing contractor. Several of the journeyman roofers employed by Bill's uncle began making deals with Bill; they agreed to teach him the roofing trade in exchange for him loading their material on the roof. The trade came naturally to Bill and he himself became a journeyman roofer within a short amount of time. Although he stayed in Lavonia employed with his uncle for only five years, Bill would never leave the roofing industry.

In 1959, Bill moved to Ventura; he stayed in Southern California until 1970. During this time, Bill mostly roofed for several local contractors; however, it was here that Hoag Roofing was born. While he didn't go into business for himself full time, this experience did allow him to become acquainted with other aspects of the roofing industry.

In early 1970, Bill returned home to the Rogue Valley. He took journeyman positions with two small independent roofing companies; but, by the end of the year, both had run out of work. With the support and encouragement of a local material supplier (Rogue Pacific Lumber), Bill decided to give full time self-employment a shot. As in California, Hoag Roofing consisted of one roofer and one vehicle (Bill and his truck). In order to stay busy, Bill bid on many new residential roofing projects by teaching himself how to read blue prints at the Medford Builders Exchange.

The help of his two sons during summers and school holidays notwithstanding, Bill was on his own until hiring his first employee in 1976. By 1979, Hoag Roofing employed four and expanded its services to include commercial roofs as well. Bill incorprated Hoag Roofing in 1988 and has remained its President ever since. Although he claims to have semi-retired on his sixty-fifth birthday (January 1999), he still remains active in the day-to-day operations of Hoag Roofing. Despite the fact that he talks of it often, we don't believe he'll ever actually retire all together (we certainly hope not, anyway).