Born in Smyrna, Turkey, in 1901, Alex Manoogian travels alone to the United States when he is just 19 to escape the horrors of the Armenian genocide. He enters the country on May 20, 1920, through the turnstiles of Ellis Island with two suitcases, $50 cash and an identification tag hanging from his neck. He also brings with him unbounded enthusiasm and an extraordinarily formal education for the time. He reads and speaks five languages—none of them English.

He settles in Bridgeport, Connecticut, working first in a tobacco shop, then as a school bus driver, and later in a confectionery store and silver polishing factory. As he works, he becomes consumed with the idea of bringing the rest of his family to the U.S.

Alex learns that while the U.S. immigration laws are strict for Eastern European immigrants, an alternative route to the U.S. through Windsor, Canada, offers considerably more promise. By moving to Detroit in 1924, Alex accomplishes two goals: providing his family with easier access to the U.S. and working in the burgeoning auto industry where he can earn the wages necessary to bring them to Detroit.

The first year in Detroit, he has several metalworking jobs. He learns everything he possibly can about metalworking and the tools involved, with the hope of someday starting his own business.

In 1929, with two partners, $5,000 in cash and ambition to run his own company, Alex, now 28, buys a couple of used machines, repairs them and begins making machined parts for the auto industry. Masco Screw Products Company is formed as a Michigan corporation on December 16, 1929, just six weeks after Black Tuesday, the day Wall Street caved in and the Great Depression began.

The company name, Masco, is an acronym from the first letters of the partners’ last names, appended by a “co” for “company”.

The first plant is located on Detroit’s Fort Street on the fourth floor of an antiquated building, above the Wayne County Morgue.

Although formally installed as President and Chairman of the Board, Alex, out of necessity, is also the manager, estimator, foreman press operator and machinist/repairman. The Company receives its first contract from the Hudson Motor Car Company for $7,000 and reports gross sales of $66,000 for 1930, the first full year of operation. Due to insufficient income to support their families, Alex’s two partners leave the business by the end of the year.

Although sales in 1931 are down from the first year, Alex scrupulously saves enough money to bring his parents and brothers from Greece, where they had fled from the genocide, to America. Within the next year, both of Alex’s brothers join the Company. That same year, Alex marries Marie Tatian. In the coming years, they have two children, Louise and Richard.

The Company quickly earns a reputation as a fast and reliable auto supplier, one that offers quality products, excellent service and good value.

By 1936, Masco is operating at full capacity and needs additional funding for machinery and human resources to continue to increase sales and earnings. It opens on the Detroit Stock Exchange with 120,000 shares sold at $1.00 per share.

As his dreams go up in smoke, Alex weeps. Unknown to him or the firemen around him, a heavy load of snow on the roof melted and greatly reduced the damage. Though a setback financially, Alex works night and day to rewire the machinery and within three months, Masco is back in business. 1937 becomes the only year in the history of the Company that Masco loses money through operations.

Upon America’s entry into World War II, Masco quickly converts its focus to the manufacturing of material and products needed to support the war effort. Sales skyrocket to $1.9 million by 1944 due to defense-related production work.

The 55,000 square-foot facility, opened in 1948, later expands to nearly 100,000 square-feet to house all company office and manufacturing operations for the next 11 years. The plant’s Dearborn location strengthens Masco’s roots in metro-Detroit.

Masco re-enters war production during the Korean conflict, using the Company’s metalworking expertise to manufacture fuses and develop a new artillery shell timing mechanism.

Masco begins producing parts using a relatively new process: cold extrusion. This new technology propels the company to a leadership role in the metalworking industry.

In 1952, Alex secures a contract to produce brass parts for a small California company owned by two of his Armenian friends. The company is manufacturing a new type of faucet—a single-handle variety. The faucet quickly falls into disfavor due to several design and quality deficiencies, earning the name “one-armed bandit” by plumbers. Alex acquires the rights to the faucet and uses his years of metalworking experience to correct the flaws. He redesigns the product from the inside out, with a ball valve principle that allows users to adjust both the hot and cold water with just one lever. He places the rights to the new faucet under the Delta Detroit Corporation, a very small family-owned business manufacturing products to support the war effort.

The faucet is named “Delta” in recognition of the family business and the delta-shaped cam assembly used in the faucet.

Once it becomes apparent the new faucet is going to make it on its own, Alex transfers the licensing rights to Masco at no cost.

In 1954, Alex offers the new product first to plumbing manufacturers, who are quick to decline the offer saying there is no demand for a single-handle faucet. Alex instead decides to manufacture and market it on his own.

To accommodate increased sales, Masco decides to build a new faucet plant in Greensburg, Indiana, in 1958.

Richard, a recent Yale University graduate with a degree in economics, oversees the startup of the new faucet operation. While the Greensburg plant is being built, Richard runs the business from an abandoned used car dealership. Later in the year, Richard is called to serve in the Michigan Air National Guard. When he returns to Masco in 1959, the factory is complete.

In March of 1961, Richard engineers Masco’s completion of its first acquisition, Peerless Industries Inc., a manufacturer of plumbing valves and fittings, enabling the company to offer customers a broader line of plumbing products.

Later that year, the Dearborn plant is closed, and production of the automotive components is moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan. Masco’s corporate office is moved to the Buhl Building in downtown Detroit.

1961 also sees the Company declare its first 100 percent stock distribution.

Renamed Mascon Toy Company after its purchase in 1962, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of toy telephones.

Richard Manoogian, now in his mid-twenties, is spurring the company into a faster pace of growth, reporting sales of $10 million in 1962. Building on his father’s foundation, he puts together a bold plan that ushers in an era of rapid growth rarely equaled in American industry.

While Alex remains Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, starting in 1968 Richard leads the Company in an aggressive but disciplined internal and external development program which includes highly successful stock and bond offerings, the introduction of Masco to the European investment community and the creation of an entrepreneurial team.

With a strategy to acquire well-run companies with high margins and established leadership positions, more than 25 companies join Masco during this time period, several of which include international companies, expanding Masco’s global footprint.

Building on its reputation for plumbing excellence, Masco introduces Delex®, a rotary cylinder two-handle faucet, in 1971 and brings Peerless^® faucets to the retail and do-it-yourself markets.

Of the 16 million immigrants who passed through Ellis Island before it was closed in 1932, Alex Manoogian is chosen to address those gathered in 1978 to honor the memory of the once-great gateway to a new life in America. Alex has come full circle. Once one of the huddled masses yearning to be free, Alex is now, 58 years later, the Guest of Honor and Principal Speaker.

In 1984, after a dramatic strategic initiative to spin off Masco’s industrial component businesses into Masco Industries, Masco Corporation, now with sales of approximately $600 million, is composed of companies focused on consumer brand-name products for the home and family. Shares of Masco Industries are distributed to Masco Corporation shareholders as a special dividend because of the restructuring.

Given this title in 1985, Richard’s continued guidance further distinguishes Masco as a market leader. Wayne B. Lyon is named President.

During the 1980s, the Company expands its presence into the cabinet, appliance spa and furniture manufacturing business.

A third member of the Masco family, TriMas, is established as a separate public entity in 1988.

The next year, Peter Lynch, one of the world’s most renowned mutual fund managers, publishes that “Masco is probably the greatest stock in the history of capitalism.”

This decision, in 1995, allows Masco to broaden its offerings to consumers and further build on its core businesses.

By 1997, Masco has sold a total of approximately 120 million single-handle faucets in the U.S. alone, far more than any competitor.

Following the sudden passing of Ray Kennedy in 2003, Alan Barry becomes Masco’s fourth President.

In 2004, Masco has 62,000 employees and 120 manufacturing facilities, and serves international markets from 18 countries.

By 2006, Masco has been reporting a 15 percent compound growth rate in sales, through acquisitions and internal growth, for 50 consecutive years.

Following the retirement of Richard Manoogian and Alan Barry in 2007, Timothy Wadhams becomes Masco’s fifth President.

To mitigate the impact of deteriorating economic conditions and increased regulations, over the next few years Masco reduces its number of operating units from 67 businesses to 29 through consolidations and divestitures.

From late 2006 to 2008, one of the most challenging times in its 75-year history, Masco closes 17 manufacturing facilities, reduces company-wide headcount by over 23,000 employees and reduces its installation branches by over 80 locations.

Masco reaches this milestone in 2009, one of few companies on the NYSE to achieve this.

Innovation continues to be the hallmark of Masco’s success, with 30% of Masco’s 2012 sales attributed to new product innovations introduced in the last three years.

In 2015, Masco completes the spin-off of 100% of its Installation and Other Services segment into TopBuild, an independent, publicly-traded company.

To potentially drive greater shareholder value, in 2019 Masco makes a strategic decision to exit the cabinet and windows businesses. Its streamlined product portfolio now consists of plumbing and decorative architectural products.