If you are in the construction industry or a homeowner with knowledge of building products, you have probably heard the name of TAMKO® before. TAMKO has been a major manufacturer of residential and commercial building products since 1944. TAMKO specializes in roofing products, decking, shingles, and more. TAMKO® shingles are some of the best. While we will touch on these products in later posts, we wanted to take a second and talk about the history of TAMKO.

As we mentioned, TAMKO was founded in 1944 in Joplin, Missouri. The founder of the company was a 69-year-old man named E.L. Craig. E.L Craig decided that he wanted to start his own roofing business, and that is exactly what he did. He started it an old streetcar barn. His wife, Mary Ethel Craig, named the company TAMKO as they were the first letters of the states the company would do business in: Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.

In 1954, she assumed leadership of the company after Mr. Craig fell ill. She was assisted by her daughter, Ethelmae, who ran TAMKO’s operations in the 1950s. Ethelmae’s husband, J.P. Humphreys, became TAMKO’s president in 1960 and he continued in that post for the next 33 years.

In that time, he led the company’s growth as TAMKO added manufacturing plants in Phillipsburg, Kansas; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Knoxville, Tennessee; Frederick, Maryland; and Dallas, Texas. Jay Humphreys made quality his utmost concern in these manufacturing plants, and he implemented the continuous quality improvement principles of Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

After Jay Humphreys passed away in 1993, David Craig Humphreys became the President of TAMKO in 1994. David is eldest son of Jay and Ethelmae. David Craig Humphreys presided over TAMKO when the company changed its name to TAMKO Roofing Products, Inc. to reflect the company’s expansion into non-asphalt roofing products. The name changed again to TAMKO Building Products, Inc. when TAMKO expanded its product line to include composite decking and railing.

Today, TAMKO is a vertically integrated company that owns and operates several of its own raw materials plants. This enables TAMKO to retain greater control of the manufacturing process for quality assurance. TAMKO is still headquartered in Joplin, Missouri today. It employs more than 1,000 employees, and supports the communities where it operates through multiple philanthropic efforts.

We encourage you to come back as we will talk about some of TAMKO’s products, including TAMKO® shingles, and how they compare with the rest.