June 13 • 2019 45
jn

Rising to the Occasion

After her husband’
s death, Gayle Goodman 
took over the helm of a roofi
 ng company 
and helped it grow.

continued on page 46

I

ndustry insiders and customers 
might have been worried that 
Michigan’
s American Standard 
Roofing (ASR) would be on shaky 
ground after the untimely death 
of its founder, Arnie Goodman, in 
2017. But they were proven wrong. 
 Just three weeks after Arnie’
s 
passing, his wife, Gayle Goodman, 
stepped in and took over leadership 
of the Southfield-based company, 
and business is better than ever, 
according to Gayle.
 Arnie started the roofing com-
pany in 1997 and built a loyal cus-
tomer base throughout Southeast 
Michigan. ASR also sells gutters, 
skylights, siding and insulation and 
does roof repairs. 

TRIAL BY FIRE
Gayle had no experience running a 
roofing company when Arnie died. 
“I didn’
t know A from Z,” she said. 
 She wishes Arnie had spoken 
more about business to her. “He 
liked to leave work at work,” she 
said. “However, there are times I do 
think, ‘
I wish I would have known 
how he handled certain situations.’
”
 Gayle found her own voice 
and gained confidence in her own 
opinions in short order. Plus, much 
of her staff worked at ASR when 
Arnie was in charge and were able 
to tell her how he handled certain 
business issues.
 Because she was at the helm of 

ASR within three weeks of the loss 
of her husband, Gayle barely had 
time to grieve. “I just got up and 
showed up every day at 8 a.m. and 
was here all day,” she said. “But, as 
time went on, I allowed myself the 
process to grieve.
 “Grief is not linear anyway, you 
know,” she added. “It ebbs and 
flows and it comes in different 
ways.”
 Gayle has no problem running 
a company in a male-dominated 
profession. She does employ a male 
production manager to work with 
ASR’
s crews. “A lot of times, women 
are the ones making the [roof-buy-
ing] decisions anyway, so that’
s not 
a challenge,” Gayle said. ASR also 
employs a woman on its roofing 
crew.
 Gayle said she feels that being 
a woman in a male-dominated 
industry has its advantages. “I look 
at things from a woman’
s perspec-
tive,” she said. “I bring out female 
elements … and I can relate in a 
different way.”
 Gayle said men and women can 
command the same level of respect 
in the industry “as long as you’
re 
sharp and you know what you’
re 
talking about.”

MAKING HER MARK 
Drawn to the marketing side of the 
business, Gayle advertises on radio, 
complete with a new jingle written 

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