This month, PHCC — National Association President Joel Long, owner of Gastonia, North Carolina-based GSM Services, will pass the baton to Dave Frame, fourth-generation owner of Bob Frame Plumbing Services, South Bend, Indiana. Plumbing & Mechanical Chief Editor Nicole Krawcke had a chance to chat with Frame about what he hopes to accomplish during his term and the many opportunities for PHCC members over the next year.

PM: Where’d you get your start in the industry?
DF: My family owned a plumbing contracting business, but that actually pushed me away at first. I don’t know how it is for other kids when they’re thinking about what they want to do and their family owns a business. Really, I think if you poll them and took a survey, you'd find out that most of them say, ‘That's the last thing I want to do.’ And I was in that group, I was not going to be a plumber. I wasn't going to do it. I spent a lot of summers helping my dad through high school and I really didn't have an interest. I went to work for an excavating contractor right out of high school, and the owner was like a second dad, and a great guy. Two years in, we sat down, and he was telling me how well I was doing and everything and I was really happy. And then he looked at me and goes, "But you really should consider to go work for your dad, go through the apprenticeship. This could be a really good job here for you, but you got a golden opportunity and you really ought to take advantage of it and look at it." And that's what steered me that way.