By Stephanie Foley
It doesn’t get any more local than the Pfirman family. Frank and Joanne Pfirman have been invested in Hamilton for years, even before establishing Matandy Steel, JN Linrose, or Lamp Metal Trusses. Frank grew up in the North End of Hamilton. He attended one year at Hamilton Catholic High School before it closed and he began at Badin High School. Joanne lived in the Lindenwald area as a child. She grew up in Joe Nuxhall’s house, which her parents bought from Joe and Donzetta shortly after they built it. By the time she became a freshman at Badin, Frank was already a senior.
“His cousin and I were really good friends and we were in the same class,” Joanne remembered. “He never noticed me. I was always the quiet one saying ‘Hi Frank! Hi Frank!’”
After he graduated, Frank attended Miami University in Oxford. Joanne later attended Eastern Kentucky University. Both later became teachers, but one thing they held close to their hearts was their deep love for Badin.
“My whole academics was centered around Badin,” Frank said. “Our kids had great experiences there, and we had great experiences there.”
In 2005, Frank solidified his place at Badin by donating the Pfirman Family Activity Center. In addition to that, the Pfirman family has made many other notable donations to improve the city of Hamilton. Most recently, Frank and Joanne gifted approximately 1.2 acres in the Jefferson neighborhood, where a park has since been built.
“That’s one of the ones I feel really good about, Frank said. “If you go down and see what Steve Timmer has done, they’ve done a wonderful job down there. To see all those kids smiling just tickles your heart.”
While today Frank has the ability to make these sizeable donations, he wasn’t always in such a giving position. Joanne and Frank first married in 1977, and they were both teaching. When Joanne became pregnant with their first child, and could no longer teach, Frank attained his masters degree and became a guidance counselor at Ross Middle School. In addition, he was working another part time job after school and in the summers, he would work in the cement industry.
“One day I got a phone call from my best friend, who worked at Southwestern Ohio Steel,” he recalled. “He said there was going to be a sales job opening and asked if I’d be interested.”
After talking with his principal, he decided he would take the job for the summer, to see if he would really enjoy it. When August came, he decided that he would stick with it.
Fast forward ten years and you’ll find Frank settled in nicely at Tomson Steel. One day, for no particular reason, he decided he was going to quit that job. Joanne was understandably surprised, and in the midst of their discussions, their young daughter Lindsey took a tumble down the stairs.
“After she was okay, we looked at each other and decided that the job was important, but nothing was more important than family,” Frank stated.
To reiterate that, Frank decided he was going to take his boys, Matt and Andy, to a movie, and when he got home, he was welcomed by a large sign hanging in the living room that read “Welcome to Matandy Steel”. And that’s where it all began.
Shortly after that, Frank began operating as Matandy Steel out of his parents old bedroom on a card table, with nothing more than a phone and a fax machine. He had the knowledge, and he had the connections. Now all he had to do was built it.
He caught his big break when he began doing business with two people out of Cleveland who were getting more steel than they knew what to do with.
“I told them, ‘I can’t afford this’ and they told me to just pay for it after I sold it,” Frank said. He sold more that year than he ever had, and he never had another year like it, but it was just what he needed. He was well on his way.
Through it all, Joanne maintained complete trust in that Frank knew exactly what to do.
“I had total trust in him,” she stated. “I just knew it inside that things were going to be okay.”
It’s that unwavering trust that Frank credits with his success.
“If she wouldn’t have had that trust, I’m not sure I would’ve done it, but I could sense she had no fear and that was really the reason I was able to do the things I did,” said Frank. “She probably didn’t even know how stretched we were early on, or she would’ve been more worried, but I knew the business good enough that I knew it would work out.”
With three little kids at home, starting a new business wasn’t easy. Over time, Frank decided that he needed his own building and his own equipment if he was ever going to become a totally independent business. He bought his own slitter (machine that slices the steel) and his own building, and established Matandy Steel, functioning independently.
“From that point on, it was just a matter of how much I wanted to grow,” Frank said.
And grow he did, becoming a booming industry centered right here in Hamilton. Even during the recession, Matandy Steel has prided itself on never having a layoff. Frank has worked hard to ensure that his companies reflect those same family values that he embraced the day he started Matandy Steel in 1987. Jobs are important, but nothing is more important than family.
“I was never distracted from Joanne, and she never questioned anything,” Frank said. “Without that partner, you’re not going to make it. I credit her with all my successes.”
Frank and Joanne have been enjoying retirement by flying south for the winters, and spending time with family every chance they get.