History
Ned R. Healy
Ned was born in 1905 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932 with his wife, Helen, and two young children, Jeannine and Peter. There they had a third child, Nels, while Ned struggled to find work to support his growing family. After trying various jobs, even inventing his own line of perfume, he ended up working for Avery Adhesives.
At the beginning of World War II, friends of Ned encouraged him to run for Congress, and he managed to raise enough contributions and support to be elected. The whole family moved to Virginia while he was in office.
Upon returning to Los Angeles in 1947, Ned started selling war surplus hose clamps and other items he acquired at auctions. He sold to anyone he could: cab companies, train companies, washing machine shops, and car dealers. He eventually found that the car dealers were the best customers, and sought to expand that part of the business. Side view mirrors, seat belts, and other new-fangled accessories became a part of his growing inventory.
The original warehouse was in the small family 1 car garage, which he set to work expanding with the help of his sons. The garage quickly proved too small, and he rented more garages in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Pete and Nels set to work digging out the basement, adding a new foundation, support for the house, and a connecting window from basement to garage to pass boxes through. The garage then became shipping and receiving and the basement became the warehouse.
Suddenly, in 1959 Ned was struck with a heart attack, so he called upon his two sons, Pete and Nels, to come aboard full time and help with the business. In 1963 the basement and various rented garages had gotten out of hand, and they rented their first warehouse on 1326 W. Pico in downtown LA.
A few years later, Ned decided to teach his sons about real estate and they began looking for their first property to purchase. Around 1966, they found the perfect location at 30th & Grand. They purchased two buildings at that location and had enough space to last them for nearly 20 years.
Ned gradually reduced his workload as the sons took over, and by 1969 he had completely retired, after suffering a stroke which left him partially paralyzed. Ned and Helen spent the rest of their retirement traveling between Los Angeles in the summer and Acapulco in the winter, where they had a condominium. In the mid-1970's he was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent chemo-therapy - to no avail. In September of 1977, Ned passed away, tragically, on his wife's birthday. However, his spirit of service, perseverance, diversity, and innovation still lives on. Ned would be pleased to hear that his company continues to grow and thrive on the principles that he set down.
