by Paula Peters Chambers | Jul 20, 2026 | Employees
Wallpaper installer Dannon Featherston cares more about what he has learned – and how he shares those lessons – than the number of years he’s been with H.J. Holtz & Son. “One of the best things I’ve done in my career is getting to a point in my knowledge where I’m masterful enough to pass it on,” he says.
Featherston, who is one of a handful of employees who have been with the company for more than 20 years, credits his mother for impressing upon him, from an early age, the importance of internalizing what you learn.
“Mom would say people who read a book but can’t talk about it after haven’t really read it,” he says. “True understanding means you can expand upon something. If you can’t expand upon something, you can’t understand it.”
Featherston lives that lesson every time he helps coworkers with the intricacies of paper-hanging.
“There’s always going to be stuff I can learn in my trade, and through teaching, I’ve learned even more,” he says. “To teach somebody well, you have to explore how they may be looking at [a situation], and that will take you out of your way of doing it,” he says. “Some people learn by doing, some by explanation, some both. I take it very seriously to look into the perspective of someone else. I have to understand how a person does things. So we have to take time to get to know each other. Once I know [the other person is], it’s easier to teach them.”
Another benefit of longevity, Featherston says, is the ability to develop relationships, with other Holtz team members and with clients. He remembers the birth of company president Rick Holtz’s youngest child and has been around to see colleagues retire after years of service. He’s also returned to client homes over the years, watching children move from toddler to adulthood. He’s even worked in a home owned by the grown son of a longtime client. “It’s definitely like I’m old now,” he laughs.
Outside of work, Featherston stays busy with a variety of home projects and motorcycle repair, both for himself and others. “My wife wants me to slow down, but I’ve become the graybeard everybody calls,” he says. A year ago, he showed several bikes at the Party at the Pen East, a vintage motorcycle show held on the grounds of the Ohio State Reformatory (formerly Shawshank Prison).
“I like to have a project; it’s good for my mind,” he says. “Like wallpaper, working on bikes is like a puzzle: you have to figure out how to put it together. There’s a right way and a wrong way, and you’ll find out real quick if you’ve not done it right.”
Happy anniversary, Dannon!
by Paula Peters Chambers | Apr 21, 2026 | Employees
For Gary Benton, life is about family. Family at home, and family at work.
Benton joined H.J. Holtz & Son in 2006 after his former employer wouldn’t allow him the time needed to care for a loved one who needed surgery. Years later, when Benton had an accident outside of work and had operations on both wrists, he was given the time he needed to recover. Now, at 68, Benton is making small adjustments to how he does his job, but it’s okay with management.
“It’s not like you’re working for somebody trying to use you to death,” he says. “If I need time off, for an appointment or something, it’s easy. They’re very understanding. Other companies are about production. They understand there’s living, too.”
Benton has always preferred exterior painting to indoor, noting that indoor jobs are complicated by décor and furniture. He still enjoys being outside, and his experience over the years with angles and difficult-to-reach spots is something he shares with team members. One change, however, is that he’s ready to cede the highest tasks to younger painters.
“Going up the 40-foot ladders is getting harder,” he laughs. “Medium heights are good, and I run around on the ground, but those tall ladders are something else.”
Benton is also more relaxed these days; he doesn’t feel pressure to work at breakneck speed. “I can take my time, pay more attention to what I’m doing,” he says.
Benton’s work family includes the half dozen foreman – all still with the company – who trained as painters under him. He anticipates his current partner will also soon make the leap, creating an opportunity for Benton to bring someone new along. “[My current partner] asked me recently if I thought he was ready. I said, ‘You’ve been ready; you just need to do it.’
“It will be a big change for me,” he adds, “but I can’t sit there and worry about something I don’t have control over.”
Yet Benton’s influence continues: His family welcomed grandson David earlier this year. The baby isn’t wielding a brush yet, but give it time.
Congratulations, Gary!
by Paula Peters Chambers | Jan 26, 2026 | Employees, About Our Company
Painter Kenny Ebright holds two unique positions at H.J. Holtz & Son: He’s currently the only team member who is certified to use Fine Paints of Europe, and he’s second in longevity to only company president Rick Holtz. Ebright was hired 30 years ago, just nine months after Rick Holtz joined the company founded by his grandfather.
“Rick and I have been through everything together, done everything together; we’ve bonded,” Ebright says with a chuckle.
Ebright says his education at the hands of the “old-timers” was essential in learning how to do a job the Holtz way. “I was taught very well by the people here,” he says, pointing to the leadership provided by founder Herman J. Holtz and his son and successor Richard L. Holtz, Sr.
Part of what he learned, Ebright says, is how to focus on the task at hand. “I look at my work differently than some other folks,” he says. “I think about what’s the fastest and best way to get the job done. If they give me two weeks to do a job, I work to get it done sooner, so we have a couple of days to go back and double check – then you don’t have to go back to fix.”
Last year, Rick Holtz asked Ebright to speak to a group of contractors who were visiting the shop to learn about effective business strategies. “Rick called me into the conference room, introduced me to all these people, then said, ‘You can ask him questions; I’m out of here.’ And he walked out the door.”
Ebright says the contractors wanted to know about the Holtz culture, organization, work flow, how he runs his painting team. “I told them, the goal is always to work toward the time goal. You can’t let time catch your feet, you’ve got to stay ahead on your feet. That’s how you make money.”
After three decades with H.J. Holtz & Son, Ebright knows what’s expected of him and delivers. “People here know and respect me,” he says, “because I give them respect, too.”
by H. J. Holtz & Son | Oct 13, 2025 | Employees
Estimator Travis Gibson likes to learn. “I thrive for a challenge, in all aspects of life,” he says. “I’ll tackle something head-on until I perfect it.”
That attitude has served Gibson well. This month, he celebrates his 15th year with H.J. Holtz & Son.
Gibson came to the company with painting experience, having worked for his father, also a painter. With that background, he started on a paint team right away and refined his skills. “My dad was always really focused on high quality but not so much speed,” Gibson says. “When I started out [here], I wasn’t as fast as I became.”
Gibson spent roughly six years working as a painter and painting foreman. Then he was a project manager for approximately four years, seeing all types of Holtz jobs. He’s been an estimator for five years; he handles the majority of appointments now.
“I always came forward and said I was interested in the next step,” Gibson says. “The timing worked [to become an estimator] because I was interested in coming into the office, then one estimator left, and the position was available.”.
Gibson now works primarily outside of the office, meeting clients in their homes and businesses to see, first-hand, what the project entails. His experience in the field serves him – and the clients – well. “I’ve done all the work before, so I know how to set expectations and how to explain what’s going to happen, in layman’s terms,” he says. “When you can explain all that, it makes it so much easier to understand the process and pricing.”
Before moving into the estimator’s role fully, Gibson shadowed company president Rick Holtz for several months, watching the process. “Rick was a great teacher, and he’s always there if I have a question,” Gibson says. “I really appreciate his willingness to give us the tools we need to succeed.”
Gibson says he enjoys how the company prioritizes closeness and camaraderie among employees, even as it’s grown larger over the years. “It used to be a small family business, but not any more … the size of the company blows my mind,” he says.
Another constant over the years are the standards the company upholds, he says. “My favorite thing about Holtz is the quality. We’re not going to stop until we know it’s right. We want to do work that we can put our name behind.”
Congratulations, Travis!
by H. J. Holtz & Son | Dec 2, 2024 | Employees
When Kelly Kutchey joined H.J. Holtz & Son 10 years ago as a painter, he asked several former coworkers who had already joined the Holtz team what they thought of the business.
“They told me it was a very different experience,” Kutchey recalls. “I remember them saying the company actually cares for you.”
Even before Kutchey could register that aspect of company culture, he noticed something else: The Holtz way was to do a job right the first time.
“That was more my speed because a lot of times, my previous employer would say we could come back to touch things up on a job,” Kutchey says. “I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want anyone to find anything wrong, and I didn’t want to have to come back to fix problems.”
Initially, Kutchey planned to remain a painter – “I just wanted to blend in,” he says – but after a while, he was ready for a change. “I thought it would be cool to do more,” he says. “I offered to be a foreman; I did that, then I came into the office.”
Now, Kutchey is production manager, overseeing all departments and monitoring the progress of the many jobs that are underway at all times. “I make sure all facets of production are going well, and everything is getting completed,” he says. “Anything that’s happening that makes money for us, I need to make sure everybody’s happy and doing their jobs.”
Kutchey also manages the schedule, which is often in flux, requiring reassignments to ensure the best possible efficiency. The company currently has 19 two-person teams, with a foreman and painter on each. Additional painters serve as floaters and go where they’re most needed. Every day, Kutchey says, something unexpected arises.
“A customer may say, ‘Hey, while you’re here, can you paint an additional four rooms?’” he says. “Then you have to consider the next customer in line. Can we do that, or do we need to return at a later date?”
In the midst of so much change, the office team is determined to maintain consistency in how the company operates. “It’s up to all of us – Rick, Ricky, Travis, Patrick, and Roxy – to communicate to make sure the culture of the company stays where it should be,” Kutchey says. “Every team can improve and do things better, but I think we do a pretty good job.”
At the end of the week, Kutchey unwinds by spending most Friday evenings at a campground overlooking the Rappahannock River. “I sit with my wife and my dog and watch the sun set,” he says. “It’s nice and calming.”
by H. J. Holtz & Son | Aug 13, 2024 | Employees
Sharon Carroll was in exactly the right place when her family – and the family business – needed her.
In 2014, Carroll’s mom, GenyHoltz – treasurer for H.J. Holtz & Son and wife of second-generation owner Richard Holtz, Sr. – suffered a fall and was abruptly unable to work. Carroll, who had been filling in at the office while the receptionist was away, was called up for service.
“[Mom] was here one day and gone the next,” Carroll says. “We didn’t know if she was coming back. Rick [Holtz, Carroll’s brother] asked me to do the job in the interim. He showed me how as we went.”
Ten years later, Carroll is now the company’s financial manager, overseeing all accounts payable, billing, and payroll for roughly six dozen employees. “This probably should be a two-person job, but the structure is because of the way it all evolved,” Carroll says. “I always have a deadline I’m trying to meet, but it has gotten easier with our new software system that allows people to pay online, which means fewer trips to the bank. I never thought I’d say paperless was better, but it’s so easy… click, click, click.”
While Carroll had grown up watching her grandfather, Herman J. Holtz, and her father run the business, she married in 1985 and moved away with her husband, who was in the Air Force. They lived “in a million different places,” she says – California, Louisiana, southeastern Virginia, England, North Dakota, Germany, and then Alaska. Carroll had a degree from VCU in finance, but wasn’t able to work in her field through the moves and raising of children.
When she and her husband returned to Richmond in 2014, their children didn’t need the same level of attention, and Carroll went to work in the Holtz front office, where her brother, nine years her junior, was in charge. Her sister Carol Hudson was already there, having started at the company in the spring of 2014.
“I missed so much [of the business’ growth] because I wasn’t here for 30 years,” she says. “When I left, Rick was a kid. I come back, and I’m working for him. It was weird at first, but it’s settled down.
“Originally, Carol was going to take over the financial duties, but it wasn’t the best fit,” Carroll adds. “She was a people person; she did much better with customers. I enjoy working with numbers.”
Carroll says there’s no firm agreement not to discuss company matters at family gatherings, but she tries to keep business discussions in the office. She acknowledges that having a working relationship with her brother has its curiosities.
“When is he your brother; when is he your boss?” she muses. “I used to drive him everywhere – to baseball practice or to the store to buy baseball cards. But we manage. He’s more of a risk-taker, and I’m more conservative [in business practices]. He knows I’m that way.”
Congratulations, Sharon Carroll!
