Door County maritime construction firm marks 75 years as a fourth-generation family business

STURGEON BAY - In its 75 years, Roen Salvage Co. has established itself as one of the premier marine construction firms on the Great Lakes, with clients ranging from commercial dock owners to state and municipal governments, Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Yet not everyone knows what the Sturgeon Bay-based company does. CEO John Asher laughingly told the Advocate of people who've called to ask if the business had a transmission or other parts for an old car, thinking the "Salvage" in the name meant it was an auto junkyard.

Nonetheless, Asher said there are no plans to change the name of the company to reflect its diverse maritime engineering offerings as it marks the 75th anniversary of its founding on May 25, 1949, by Asher's parents, Charles Asher and Hilda Roen Asher, with help from Hilda's father, Capt. John Roen.

That's because in those 75 years, Asher said, those in the maritime industry know the Roen Salvage name for its history of top-quality, on-time work. In all that time, Roen Salvage has never defaulted on a job or failed to complete a contract on time, a press release from the company said.

That reputation dates to the company's namesake, Capt. John Roen. He already had established himself as an extremely successful maritime entrepreneur in Sturgeon Bay in the 1930s and '40s with the tugs and barges he operated under the Roen Steamship and Roen Transportation brands.

Then during World War II, Roen took on a potentially dangerous challenge no other maritime salvage company would, one that many said was impossible – raising the George M. Humphrey, a 586-foot-long freighter that sank in June of 1943 in the Straits of Mackinac between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

Roen created a plan to raise the giant freighter, had his crew begin work in October of 1943, and was able to successfully complete the raising in September 1944 (after which he acquired it through a deal with the vessel's insurance company, refitted it, renamed it the Capt. John Roen and made it the flagship of his shipping fleet). The feat gained Roen and his company national notoriety, with the December 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine quoting a U.S. Corps of Engineers district engineer as saying, "The raising of the Humphrey is a feat unparalleled in American marine history."

Thus, when Charles and Hilda Asher founded their business, they chose to use the Roen Salvage name and kept it even after the couple became sole owners in 1959 and began diversifying into heavy marine construction, John Asher said.

"They decided on (the name) Roen Salvage because it was so well-known around the Great Lakes," Asher said.

The firm's diversification has led Roen Salvage today into being able to perform all phases of marine construction, from dredging, underwater pipelines and cables, docks, marinas and breakwaters to navigational light structures, repair, demolition, rock removal and more. Among the six jobs it has on its 2024 schedule are the repair of the Lake Michigan south breakwater in Algoma and the north breakwater in Port Washington, dredging and confined disposal projects, and rehabilitation work on the condemned Carbide Dock in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

Among the honors Roen Salvage has earned, a reconstruction job in 1997-98 on the north and south harbor entrance piers at White Lake Harbor in Michigan saw the Corps of Engineers recognize the company with its 1998 Civil Works Construction Contractor of the Year Award.

Asher, who was named president of the company in 1985, also noted the business remains in the family for a fourth generation, as his stepson, David Schanock, was elected president in 2022 while John became CEO at that time. He pointed out how rare is a four-generation family business in the U.S., citing the statistic that only 3% of family-run companies continue to be run by a fourth generation of the same family.

Asher said he couldn't name any one particular job the company has done that stands out above the others, instead noting its consistent performance throughout its history.

"I don't think there's any one signature job," he said. "We just keep busting our butts year after year."

The one element Asher and Schanock cited in Roen Salvage's ability to not just stay in business but succeed for 75 years is its workers. They said that not every one of its staff is from Door County or even Northeast Wisconsin – as Asher noted, you can't just go around the corner and find a licensed tug operator or a licensed crane operator – but Schanock said the company tries to recruit workers as much as possible within driving distance of Sturgeon Bay.

Plus, Schanock noted the company has promoted employees from within through the years, helping them learn new jobs in the company and get certifications to perform them.

"I think the foundation (of the company's success) has been our ability to hire an outstanding workforce," Schanock said.

"We have the finest civil engineers, crane operators, tug captains, deckhands, equipment operators and welders of any company on the Great Lakes," Asher said.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Family-run Sturgeon Bay maritime business marks its 75th anniversary