Alan Colker was born during The Depression in 1931, the second of two boys. After and uneventful childhood he entered Carnegie Tech now Carnegie Mellon University to study engineering. He graduated in 1954 with a Masters in Science degree in Industrial Administration. On graduation he spent two years in the army; mostly at Fort Knox Kentucky.

On leaving the army he worked for several large corporations; Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Union Switch & Signal and U.S. Steel where met and married Lynne Mckibben. He left U.S. Steel to get into the consulting field, working for a small company (Cons and Research) mostly developing computer stimulation models for economic activity so that public bodies could estimate the results of alternative public investments.

He eventually went to work for the government of Allegheny County, as deputy director of the model cities program. He was responsible for developing a plan of action to improve distressed communities in the county. While working for the county, Lynne decided to buy a small business that she could work at part time while the children were in school. In 1974 she bought a sponge and chamois importer and began to grow the company. Since most of the local customers were window cleaners she began to stock squeegees and other products used by window cleaners.

Jerry Barnes, who was an officer with Ettore, talked her into starting a catalog to compete with Racenstien. It started as a one page fold out and has grown to its present size.

As the company grew Lynne needed help so Alan retired from Allegheny County in 1987. A significant portion of the business was janitorial supply, which Lynne managed, and Alan became responsible for the window cleaning business.

Beginning of 1995 two of their children (Sandy and Greg) and their spouses (Bill and Rachel) became active in the business with result that it has had significant growth. Also, Alan and Lynne were able to retire about seven years ago and have since traveled throughout the world.

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