Two guys from Bluffton hold the local record for combined years of experience in being in business together, and they don’t even work in town.

Kevin Gratz and Mike Steiner, both Bluffton High School graduates and lifelong residents, have sold their interests in Lima Lumber Co., effective March 1.

Kevin, a 1970 BHS grad, and Mike, a 1972 BHS grad, have nearly a century of combined lumber yard experience going back to their days at Reichenbach Lumber and Basinger Furniture.

The two have lots in common, not counting their lumber or Bluffton connections. They married sisters, Mary Hanthorn Gratz and Sue Hanthorn Steiner.

Gratz and Steiner owned and operated Lima Lumber, 1101 Delphos Ave., Lima for 38 years. The new owner is Doug Bruns and the business name will become Lima Lumber Brick and Block.

How did two guys – one, who didn’t take shop, and the other who claims he doesn’t remember anything from his BHS shop class – navigate an independent lumber yard in an era of huge lumber store competitors?

Add to that question, how did they survive interest rates that nearly tanked the housing industry, not to mention all the other ups and downs facing any small business over the past four decades?

Listen carefully – “By offering quality service and sharing knowledge with our customers.” That’s their short answer. The longer answer includes sacrifice, long hours, attention to economic trends, plus their own small-town ingenuity.

Some of the ingenuity started with Mike on the ground floor, as Roger Edwards taught him how to lay floor and deliver furniture. Mike worked at Basinger Furniture in Bluffton during high school.

With Kevin it started as a stock boy at Reichenbach Lumber while in high school.

And, while the two focused mainly on suppling builders with lumber products, they can point to countless houses in Hillcrest, Riverbend and Parkview in Bluffton, built from Lima Lumber products.

Their nearly one century of combined small business knowledge is a record that will stand for a very long time.