Jim KellyFounder and CEO

Two years after restoring a small, dilapidated storefront with an apartment upstairs and no takers for the retail space, Jim decided to open a business himself, catering to people who were doing what he had just done. He dug up some old house parts, hung out a sign and opened the doors. The year was 1977, and the sign outside read "Rejuvenation House Parts."

Instead of running the business part time while he went back to school, Jim completely immersed himself in the store. Jim had a knack for finding great old stuff that people wanted and as the years passed, if he couldn't find something, he found someone who could make it. With his scavenger's talents, he collected the parts and the people and the know-how to run a very successful business, catering to a growing population of restorers, remodelers, and renovators.

Jim's innate business philosophy, gleaned from his days of working in his father's family business, still permeates Rejuvenation. "I learned from my father that you didn't have to leave your values at the door," says Jim. "You could be ethical and make a good product and treat people right, and still make a good living. In my own company, I took it for granted and assumed that I could do that, too. And I still do."

Jim has received several honors for his achievements. The accounting firm Ernst & Young named him the 2003 Pacific Northwest Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year. The Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum awarded Jim the 2002 Entrepreneurship Award for Individual Achievement. The Bosco Milligan Foundation, whose mission is to educate people to preserve our building heritage, also honored him with the 2002 Architectural Heritage Award.

Since moving his "office" from Portland to eastern Oregon, he can now add "pretty good with a tractor" and "can even run a backhoe" to his growing list of accomplishments. Jim still revels in the beauty of Rejuvenation's lighting and house parts-so much so that he and his wife have recently installed them throughout their new "ranch" house.