History

The Savage & Son story is as wild as the West it was created in. Leonard Coates Savage, a miner in Virginia City, owned a mining claim that became the Savage Mine. He sold the claim to a group of bankers and investors for nine claims on a mountain and a white horse named Shakespeare. (The Savage Mine later became part of the famed Comstock Lode and the third largest supplier of silver in Nevada.)

A founding partner in a Virginia City mining and plumbing goods store, Genesy & Savage Plumbing, Leonard's son Frank Charles started his one-man Savage & Son plumbing business in 1893 on Sierra Street in downtown Reno. This continued until 1917. L.J.'s father, Leonard Charles, bought the business from Frank after World War I and ran it until his death in 1957. L.J. returned from serving in the Korean War in 1954 and joined the company. Thankfully, he points out, not only did he have the advantage of working six months with his father before his death, but when he took over the business in 1957, he had the benefit of having the expertise of the extended Savage family. "I relied on those employees to help me along," says L.J.

In 1984, his two sons Len and Pete joined the company. Graduating from the University of Santa Clara, both sons worked in California before returning to Reno. Len worked for a mechanical contractor, O.C. McDonald Co. and Pete, a CPA, worked for a large accounting firm.

"The boys have done an excellent job keeping the family principles going," L.J. says. Part of the secret of having a family business going successfully is having things segregated, he points out. "That's very important. It's hard to carry on a family business."

Savage & Son is the 13th oldest plumbing company in the United States, according to a 1995 issue of Plumbing & Mechanical.