By Kristine Kern, Review Staff Writer
If you are building or remodeling or have built or remodeled in the past, in or near Adrian in the last thirty-eight years, chances are you have enjoyed the craftsmanship of one of the Honermann boys. Brothers, Tim “Lump”, Rick “Chick”, Danny “Bear” and Roy “Coot” along with Don “Rider” Kunkel, work together with five woodworking businesses in Adrian.
Roy remembers his start, “it all began on April Fool’s Day in 1976. Karen and I began Honermann Builders. We had moved back to Adrian after working in St. James, MN. We started out building a new home, this was our very first job in Adrian and it grew over the years. I had a crew of about four guys, business was good. We stayed very busy at building and remodeling homes and farm buildings.” Roy joined with Lump to start Honermann Cabinets in 1979, employee Don Kunkel started up Kunkel Building in 1981 and continues to partner with the Honermann’s. Chick found his niche with Chick’s Building in 1983 and Danny joined in the business ventures with Danny Honermann Construction in 1985. Roy’s comments “we stayed busy with custom cabinets and furniture to go in the homes and remodel jobs we worked on along with customers wanting cabinets of all kinds.” What Roy has enjoyed the most about woodworking and cabinet making is the artistry needed to make a beautiful and functional piece. He used his love of the art of woodworking to start the Wood Mat Gallery in 1982 . He framed over 8,000 prints over the years and has enjoyed building the frames and matting the pictures. Roy added, the years that each of the businesses he has a hand in, have been in business and added together they add up to 111 years of business. Roy loves creating unique items and has two patents in his name. He sold his first patented cabinet to a company called Wild Wings, since bought by Cabela’s. The cabinet Roy called the “ShoGun” and patented by Roy was featured in the Wild Wings catalog and built at Honermann Cabinets. From that first “ShoGun” they were asked to build four more of Roy’s designs that were featured in the Wild Wings catalog. Honermann Cabinets built cabinets for this business for seven years shipping all over the United States and the world. Roy says the furthest they shipped one of their cabinets was Saudi Arabia. Over the years, he designed thirty- three pieces of furniture for Wild Wings. He also owns a patent on the “Gritmit”, a hand sander he created.
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