n 1897, Ralph R. Reeder moved to Indianapolis from Jennings County and began working as a tinner in an old barn on Michigan and Noble streets. After two years, he moved his business to 16th and Alabama where he specialized in tin, sheet iron, slate and furnace work. Reeder’s son Roland was trained as a coppersmith in the U.S. Navy during World War I, after which he joined his father in the renamed R.R. Reeder & Son. The name changed once more when Reeder’s second son, Verne, became involved. The firm was incorporated between 1932 and 1933 with Roland as president, Verne as vice president and Ralph as secretary and treasurer. By 1939 the company maintained itself as the largest roofing and sheet metal concern in Indiana, employing between 100 and 125 workers and completing between 900 and 1,000 jobs annually. These included roofs for Shortridge High School, the James Allison Estate (now at Marian College) and the World War Memorial in Indianapolis. The company flourished during World War II, continuing its roofing jobs, manufacturing sheet metal products and supplying wholesale and retail roofing and construction materials. After Ralph Reeder and his two sons died within 15 months of one another in 1956 and 1957, Orman McKinley, founder of an architectural metal fabrication firm, purchased the company. The company’s current CEO James Sullivan joined as a roofer in 1953, worked his way up through the firm and became owner and president in 1981. Now more than a century later, the growth of Reeder Roofing still exemplifies the vision of its founder and sons by bringing unmatchable satisfaction to its customers.