For Devon Greiber, legacy isn't just an idea. It's what he inherited and intends to keep. He's the fourth generation to run Greiber Heating and Sheet Metal and to him, honoring that means showing up daily and taking pride in your work, like the Greibers always have.
The company was founded in 1945 when Leo Greiber returned from World War II and opened the business in Waunakee alongside his father, Art. Some of Devon's earliest memories trace back to service calls with his dad and grandfather. "At four or five years old, I remember riding in the back of the van," he says, recalling rough-ins where his father Marv would hand him a hammer and a rack of nails to help with the layout.
As he got older, ride-alongs became real work. Summers on the job and mornings in the shop before school, then a high school apprenticeship. His father taught him the trade: the skills, hard work, and running a successful business.
Years later, his path back wasn't a straight one. After receiving a manufacturing engineering degree, Devon took a job with John Deere in Ottumwa, Iowa, running a production line at night. It didn't hold him. "Watching round balers roll off the line wasn't exciting to me. I loved meeting customers and solving problems in someone's home."
The decision was made for him. In 2014, months after graduation, his father was diagnosed with stage-four cancer. Devon gave his notice and came home. His father passed away seventeen days later, and at twenty-two, he returned home to work alongside his mother in the business.
"I had big shoes to fill," he says, but he wasn’t alone. His mother Karen stayed was his partner for 12 years until her retirement in 2025. "She took a big leap of faith in me," he says. Longtime customers, builders, and suppliers did too. "They saw the interest I had. They backed and supported us."
Twelve years later, what was once one employee with a truck and a half is now three full-time employees, a high school apprentice, and three trucks. His wife, Katie, runs the office and together they've modernized much of how Greiber operates while keeping the personal approach that's defined it for generations.
Some things haven't changed, on purpose. "Call us and you'll never get an operator," Devon says. "Any time of day or week, you're going to talk to someone." One Christmas Eve after a chimney fire left a family without heat, he and Katie dropped their kids off and installed a furnace that night so the house would be warm by Christmas morning.
The loyalty runs both directions. Devon still services homes his grandfather once worked in, for families on their third or fourth Greiber-installed furnace. "Your grandpa put in the first one," he hears. "And now you're here."
Ask what he's thankful for, and the words come easy. "Thankful for my mother and the opportunity," he says. "Thankful for my wife’s support, our employees who carry the craftsmanship forward, and our customers and their loyalty."
These days his own five-year-old rides along in the van, in his booster seat, continuing on the legacy.