Retirement Reminiscing with Tim

Last month we said farewell to one of our favorite people here at Renewal by Andersen.  IT team member, Tim, retired after 23 years. Tim was on the original team of 12 who worked on creating Renewal by Andersen. A year after being hired, Tim was selected to be a charter member of the Renewal by Andersen project team.

That team was responsible for creating the brand, the systems, the product and the process that would become the window replacement division of Andersen Corporation: Renewal by Andersen. Tim was selected because of his experience with the IT systems side of manufacturing. He chuckled when he recalled that one of his first assignments was to procure two laptops…for this team of 12.

Reminiscing about those early days, the one thing that stands out as truly remarkable about that time is that Andersen Corporation allowed them to function as a startup within Andersen. Andersen’s goal for this team was to start with a “clean sheet of paper” and create this company in the best way possible to be successful.  Fundamentally, this was about delivering the best training, the best tools, and the best possible support from the home base.

At his retirement party, he told a great story about pitching the Renewal by Andersen window replacement concept to Andersen executives. In 1994, as plans for Renewal by Andersen were being finalized, Tim and a co-worker went to the executive team and told them how new technology was going to be used to deliver on this concept of the best possible tools and support for faster and more efficient service diagnostics in the field. They were going to take pictures at the job site and send them back to the corporate service team through this new technology called the internet. Furthermore, service techs could call directly from the job site from newly-available cell phones. It was going to make the entire process more efficient and better for the homeowner. We still use these tools today.

Tim’s plans for retirement include spending more time with friends and family – especially those ever-growing grandchildren. This fall, Tim will leave office life behind for good and drive combine on his brother’s farm. 

Thank you, Tim, for all of your contributions making us who we are today. We all wish you the absolute best in retirement.