After years working as a tile setter, Ben Reece discovered the answer to his aching knees. In 1965, he stopped laying tile and bought a shower door installation business. A couple of years later, he changed the name “Modern Shower Door” to “Winston Shower Door” and, as they say, “the rest is history.”

Reece’s son, Gary, learned the business while “hanging around” his father on his days off. But he learned something even more important than the mechanical aspects. “Dad used to tell me, ‘I don’t care what you do, be the best,’” he says.

When Gary took over as president of the company in 1989, he took that philosophy to newer heights by adding glass manufacturing to the installation process. “I was frustrated with the quality of glass we were buying from suppliers,” he says. To manufacture glass, he needed equipment and more space to house it. He moved the company to a rental space and later, in the early 90s, bought the property on Griffith Plaza Drive.

Today, several expansions later, he and his wife, Linda, own a company that employees 19 people and occupies about 22,000 square feet of showroom and manufacturing facility space.

One thing has not changed at Winston Shower Door in almost 45 years. “We try to be the best and ‘the best’ means walking away from a job with pride,” Gary says. “My dad always told me, ‘You’re only going to be here once, boy.’ I tell my installers the same thing. ‘Take your time. You can’t put a clock on quality. Engage your mind before you engage your hands.’”

View Profile