Ned R. Healy
 Ned was born in 1905 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932 with his wife, Helen, and two young children, Jeannine and Peter. There they had a third child, Nels, while Ned struggled to find work to support his growing family. After trying various jobs, even inventing his own line of perfume, he ended up working for Avery Adhesives.
At the beginning of World War II, friends of Ned encouraged him to run for Congress, and he managed to raise enough contributions and support to be elected. The whole family moved to Virginia while he was in office.
Upon returning to Los Angeles in 1947, Ned started selling war surplus hose clamps and other items he acquired at auctions. He sold to anyone he could: cab companies, train companies, washing machine shops, and car dealers. He eventually found that the car dealers were the best customers, and sought to expand that part of the business.
As the business grew, Ned expanded the family garage to accommodate the growing inventory of side view mirrors, seat belts, and of course, hose clamps. As the garage and basement ran out of room, he rented more garages in the neighborhood. Then, suddenly, in 1959 Ned was struck with a heart attack, so he called upon his two sons, Pete and Nels, to come aboard full time and help with the business. In 1963 the garages had gotten out of hand, and they rented the first warehouse on Pico in downtown LA.
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Ned gradually reduced his workload as the sons took over, and by 1969 he had completely retired, after suffering a stroke which left him partially paralyzed. Ned and Helen spent the rest of their retirement traveling between Los Angeles in the summer and Acapulco in the winter, where they had a condominium. In the mid-1970's he was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent chemo-therapy - to no avail. In September of 1977, Ned passed away, tragically, on his wife's birthday.
However, his spirit of service, perseverance, diversity, and innovation still lives on. Ned would be pleased to hear that his company continues to grow and thrive on the principles that he set down.
Congressional Biography
Ned's Family Tree
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