GORHAM – Stephen Richard has built fireplaces from the ground up.
When he was just 12 years old, the Gorham native started helping his father, a mason, repair old stone hearths in local homes.
Today, the 53-year-old Richard owns Frost and Flame, a company that has grown into one of the largest stove and fireplace retail stores in the state.
Earlier this week, Richard reflected on his past while sitting in a worn chair in the cluttered back office of his Gorham store. He wore black jeans with a brown belt, sneakers and a green and blue plaid shirt.
Gilbert, his 4-year-old standard poodle, rested quietly at his feet.
“I grew up doing work for my dad. In the 1960s and 1970s we would (restore) old fireplaces,” said Richard, adding that back then the town was largely a community of farmers.
Richard attended Gorham High School, where he took classes in accounting and participated in a work-study program with local construction contractors.
When he was 18, Richard took work as a supervisor and foreman, helping construct large buildings like the Portland Glass building in Westbrook.
In 1990, he bought Frost and Flame, which was founded in the 1970s but had been out of business for about a year in the late 1980s.
Richard said the business is at least six times as large today as it was when he bought it, growth he attributes to customer service, a brisk parts business and an educated work force. Richard said he requires his staff to take regular product installation and certification classes.
Richard, who has lived for 26 years on Brandy Pond in Naples, runs the business with help from his 35-year-old son, Shawn, and his wife, Jan, who handles accounting.
He also has a daughter, 32-year-old Kristina, who lives in Papua, New Guinea, where she helps maintain community relations for ExxonMobil.
Richard said his primary job at Frost and Flame is maintaining customer relations, which he does by visiting all of his customers at their homes before he sells them a stove.
He’s also an idea man. A few years ago, Richard launched what has become a brisk business selling stove and fireplace parts online.
He’s also the brains behind Frost and Flame’s mascot, the Cheap Heat Wizard, a cartoon elf that appears in the company’s television commercials.
Staff Writer Jonathan Hemmerdinger can be reached at 791-6316 or at:
jhemmerdinger@mainetoday.com
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