In 1928, four plumbing supply companies decided to band together to weather what turned out to be a decade of the Great Depression. As the nation started its recovery, E.A. Neupert, general manager of the group, negotiated a buyout deal with the four owners. Tigard, Ore.-based Consolidated Supply was born and it has been a family business since then. Today it is headed by two women: Chairman Karolyn Neupert Gordonand President Karla Neupert Hockley.
Their rise to the top of the company came after a family tragedy in 2002. Karl E. Neupert— Karolyn’s husband and Karla’s father — had been running the company since 1978. Well-known in the industry, he was president of the American Supply Association in 1999 and established that group’s “Pipeline to the Future” Endowment Fund — renamed the Karl E. Neupert Endowment Fund after his death in December 2002 from pancreatic cancer.