About Sashco

June 15th,1936… That’s the day that Donald J. Burch decided to go into business. It was registered as the Colorado Steel Sash Company and was located in Denver at 931 W. 5th Ave. He started out to make windows out of steel. Wooden windows were in wide usage but steel was the newcomer and it’s future looked bright.

It wasn’t long before he noticed that there was a great need for material to glaze steel windows. As an English major from UCLA and the University of Denver he was an unlikely candidate for the chemistry lab. But he taught himself enough to turn out that first 5-gallon batch of steel sash putty.

For a while it was make five gallons, sell five gallons, improve the formula, make five more gallons and then sell that. He learned more and improved and soon his formula created enough demand to allow him to build his own manufacturing facility. At 1395 South Acoma, he perfected his formulas and began turning out putty in 100- and 200-gallon batches from used bread dough mixers.

He wasn’t making windows any longer. This new direction led him to new product innovations and patents in such things as caulking guns, windows and even a slide rule designed for navigation.

The integrity of the Colorado Steel Sash Company and the quality of its products were exerting quite a wide influence. People knew about Sashco products from the shores of Lake Michigan to the oil fields of Texas and they were manufactured at a smaller branch in Seattle serving the west coast and Canada.

Innovation stopped, however, when on June 20, 1954, Don Burch died in a private plane crash while visiting the Seattle branch. He left behind a wife, who was 3 months pregnant, a 4 year old boy and a thriving business. Innovation was not to begin again until his wife, Alice Hauptman (then remarried), took over management in 1965, 11 years later.

It was a hard road. Alice had to play catch-up, both technically and financially. But under her common sense leadership the company survived and improved.

In 1973, the company was incorporated under the name Sashco, Inc. This was the name the products had carried for many years. At that time Mrs. Hauptman became president of the corporation. She was honored by the Rocky Mountain Paint and Coatings Association in 1976—one of five women—for her leadership and contribution to the industry. Her son, Les Burch, now serves as president.

Today, in a tradition that befits its history, Sashco, Inc. is once again a growing and vital force. Recent years have brought new products, innovative merchandising systems, national and international sales, and a new headquarters and manufacturing facility built in 1996, just north of Denver. Reliance on the founder’s sense of integrity as an operating philosophy has been expanded to Sashco’s four core values; truth, trust, care and forgiveness. We find that our relationships with customers and vendors are much better when we hold ourselves accountable to these values. Our commitment to making premium products that work drives our innovative spirit and defines our promise to deliver products that work right the first time, every time.