New London family continues tradition of service

By James Card

A local heating, cooling and refrigeration business is changing ownership.

Gary and Judy Eubanks are retiring after serving the Waupaca community for 37 years.

They are selling All Temperature Systems Inc. to Kevin and Karen Heise of New London, who will co-own with their son and daughter-in-law Dan and Kristine Heise.

The sale will be formalized Thursday, Dec. 30.

Judy Eubanks was born and raised in Waupaca and met her Texan husband Gary while working in Houston.

After their first son was born they decided they wanted out of the big city and moved to Waupaca.

Gary had a degree in Applied Sciences HVACR along with refrigeration work experience and upon relocating; they purchased Omit’s Refrigeration, a local company that had been in business since 1954.

In 2000, they purchased Paul’s Heating and Cooling and in 2001 they purchased Jenks Heating and Cooling in Wild Rose. With the expansion they changed their name to All Temperature Systems, Inc.

“Over the years we built the company to what it is and now we’re tired. And now we need to be ‘re-tired’ so we can go on to the next level of our lives,” said Judy Eubanks.

They are considering moving to Mountain Home, Arkansas. Gary Eubanks has family in southern Missouri and they would like to be closer to that side of the family for a while.

New owners

Kevin Heise was doing heating and air conditioning work in the Appleton area when he received an awkward phone call from his ex-father-in-law, who was also in the HVAC business and wanted to know if he would like to work for him.

“I kind of laughed at him. Why would I want to work for my ex-father-in-law?” said Kevin Heise. But after more pestering, Heise teamed up with him and later took over the business in 2005. It was formerly known as Poppy Plumbing and Heating.

Heise and his wife Karen started the business out of their garage and later moved it to a building in New London. At this time, they gave their son Dan and ownership stake in the business as he had been doing HVAC work since high school.

Both businesses got together through a serendipitous network of relationships. A customer of Heise is a sister-in-law of an employee at All Temperature Systems. She is a real estate agent and heard that the Eubanks were ready to retire and sell their business. Acting as a matchmaker, she brought the Eubanks and Heises together.

The Heise family is looking to make a smooth transition and keep the businesses as separate entities. For the eight employees at All Temperature Systems it will be business as usual.

“We always felt God put us here and when he wanted us to exit, that he would provide the people that he wanted here. We really feel confident he has picked a good company and good people to carry on the legacy of All Temperature Systems,” said Judy Eubanks.