Steves Family Recognized for Historic Impact on Texas

March 29th, 2023 by Editor

During a two-day 2023 Conference on Texas at the Witte Museum, the 12th annual Texas Trailblazers Award Luncheon honored the Steves family, of Steves & Sons Inc., for their history of philanthropy and community involvement. The award celebrates “Texas’ wild and vivid lands, especially its people, their resilience and how they adapted to or impacted ever-developing Texas.”

A black and white photo of several generations of one family, some seated, some standing, outside.

Steves and Sons was founded in San Antonio, Texas, in 1866.

German immigrant Edward Steves began the Ed Steves Lumber Co. in San Antonio in 1866. The company grew over the decades, purchasing millwork from mills in the Midwest as Ed Steves and Sons Lumber Co. In 1919, Edward’s son, Albert Steves Sr., opened Steves Sash and Door Co. and began manufacturing millwork in San Antonio, which was later managed by his grandson, Marshall Steves, Sr. In 1955, Marshall Steves Sr. made the decision to exclusively manufacture hollow core doors, which remains the core business of Steves & Sons today.

A color photo from about the mid-80s, shows three generation of men, all wearing suits and ties, posing with milled wood. The man on the left is wearing a gray suit, a white shirt, and a dark tie. He has one foot propped up on something and his hand is resting on the raised leg. The man in the middle, leaning on the wood, is older, with wire rimmed glasses, a dark suit, white shirt, and red tie. He is slightly balding. The man on the right has a full beard and moustache. He is wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and a red-striped tie. He has one hand resting on the wood.

Steves and Sons has been a family-run business for more than 100 years.

“While entrepreneurism was passed on, generation to generation, so was the need for public service,” said Edward G. Steves, CEO of Steves & Sons, at the Texas Trailblazers Award Luncheon. “As I stand here representing our entire Steves family, I recognize that we are temporary stewards of a legacy provided to us by our forebearers.”

Sam Steves, president of Steves & Sons, added that, “Today we manufacture well over 10 million doors a year, serving the finest millwork jobbers in the country, as well as exclusively serving The Home Depot, where we have been awarded their Vendor of the Year award four times.”

Two men, both wearing orange sweatshirts with the Steves and Sons logo, stand in a Home Depot, with their arms raised above their heads in celebration. They are standing below a row of four banners proclaiming Steves and Sons Vendor of the Year. There is one banner for each year, 1999, 2006, 2014 and 2018. The man on the left is wearing a baseball hat, wire-rimmed glasses, and a Home Depot apron with the name Sam written on it. The man on the right is also wearing glasses.

Steves and Sons has been named a Vendor of the Year for The Home Depot four times.

As “trailblazers,” members of the Steves family have served as mayors of San Antonio and Terrell Hills; as chairperson of the Community Chest of San Antonio, now the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County; and president of HemisFair ’68, among other civic leadership roles. The company, which manufactured propellers for the Army Air Corps during World War I and joinery work for Liberty ships during World War II, now has six manufacturing plants with over 1,400 team members in five states, serving the entire country.

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