History

Garmire Iron Works was established in 1955 by Richard Garmire as a manufacture of quality poles and bracketry for outdoor area lighting.

Rich was working as a full time electrician when he saw the need for this type of manufacturer in the local market place.  While working as an electrician by day, he went to work in the evenings building his company.  As time went on he added people that would be key to the long term growth of the company.  Jerry Peterson and Wes Garmire were two of the most notable contributors to the success of the company. 

Jerry Peterson was the heart of the fabrication shop for well over forty years.  He was a hard worker, a great teacher, and mentor to all young fabricators.

Wes was one of Rich’s sons and was a part of the company until 1999 when he left to pursue opportunities as an electrician with his brother Jim.  He was a stellar boom operator and pole setter.

In 1990 Rich sold the company to John White.  While John was general foreman of mills for Bethlehem Steel in West Seattle he met the owner of Howard Lighting Sales, Bill Howard.  Bill Howard was instrumental in bringing Rich and John together to help propel the company through its next seventeen years.  The timing was perfect as John was looking to make a career change and Rich was looking for just the right person to take over the company worked so hard to establish.  John White brought along one of his key managers from Bethlehem Steel, Paul Citron, to work in the fabrication shop.

In 2007 John sold the company to James Rebar.  John brought James on board in 2000.  James is Paul’s youngest son.  James worked for John for seven years learning the ropes.  John was a tremendous teacher with a wealth of knowledge to pass along. 

Jeff Bird currently runs the fabrication shop and has been a pillar of the company since 2002.  Jeff’s right hand man is Jason Dry.  Jason has been with the company since 2007.

 Our poles and bracketry can be found on state, city, and county streets, as well as car dealership parking lots, airfields, port yards, marine harbors, sport courts, and many other locations.  Along with our standard catalog of items, we have been in custom fabrication and design build from our inception.   We are committed to working with our customers to manufacture what they need for their projects.