Growing Deep Roots: Three Generations at Ron Jones Hardwood
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Growing Deep Roots: Three Generations at Ron Jones Hardwood
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About this listen
In this episode, we sit down with Steve and Nate Jones of Ron Jones Hardwood, a multi‑generation hardwood lumber company rooted in northwestern Pennsylvania. Steve shares how his father Ron launched the business in 1983, built a reputation strong enough to put his own name on the door, and gradually transitioned ownership to Steve over many years as the industry, product mix, and markets shifted again and again.
Nate joins to tell the third‑generation story: from childhood trips to the yard, to a formative journey to China at 18 where a customer pulled him aside and sold him on the future of hardwoods, to graduating into COVID, going through lumber‑grading school in Memphis, and being pulled into sales when demand exploded. Along the way, we talk about what it means to grow up watching your dad sell, work side‑by‑side in the office, and still have a grandfather who calls regularly just to ask, “What’s going on in the industry today?”
If you’re in a family business, this conversation is a great window into generational mirroring—how Ron mentored Steve, how Steve now mentors Nate and his brother Isaac, and how each generation is trying to honor the name on the sign without locking the next one into something they don’t love.