Est.
1947
Name
Story Behind Our Name
To understand how Bogard Construction ended up with one “A” on the office building and two “A’s” on our driver’s licenses, you have to go back to the story of a young man, a world war, and a leap of faith across the country.
What’s in an ‘A’?
If we had a dollar for every time someone politely points out a “typo” in our email signatures, or asks about the spelling difference between our company name (Bogard) and our family name (Bogaard), the team might be able to retire on residuals. It’s an easy detail to spot, a great icebreaker at project interviews, and a testament to a company history that refuses to be boring.
Long before the company was building along the Central Coast, the family business looked different. In the late 1930s, our founder, born Victor Bogaard, owned a laundromat in Sheldon, Iowa, aptly named Bogaard Cleaners.
But Vic was a bit rebellious and had a restless spirit. As the world edged closer to World War II, he stepped away from the dry-cleaning business and stepped into uniform. He served first in the U.S. Navy before the war, and later in the U.S. Coast Guard during the war.
Somewhere in the shuffle of military paperwork, “Uncle Sam” accidentally dropped the second “A” from Vic’s last name, and Vic Bogaard suddenly became Vic Bogard.
History
New Frontier, New Name
When the war ended, Vic decided it was time for a fresh start, so he packed up his family and moved to California. He could have corrected the military bureaucracy’s error, but his rebellious streak won out, and he decided to keep the typo. Perhaps he wanted to “Americanize” the name, popular during that era, or he wanted to be original. Either way, he was moving to a new frontier to start a new life, and he wanted to hang his own shingle with a name that felt entirely his own.
In 1947, Bogard Construction was officially born. Victor, his three sons, and their families maintained this sleek, single-A moniker for decades as the company built its reputation.
While the Bogard cadet-branch was busy building in California, back in Iowa, Vic’s father, Arie Bogaard, was apparently unamused by the missing vowel – an historic nod to the family’s proud Dutch roots. He made it known that he wasn’t thrilled about this modification to the family heritage. As the years rolled on, Vic felt guilty, and in the mid-1980s, he formally requested his grandchildren add the second “A” back. He wanted the younger generation to restore the original heritage for posterity, to which the grandkids happily obliged.
Today, the business proudly preserves the single-A legacy that Vic Sr. built from scratch in 1947, while the current generation of ownership proudly carries the original double-A spelling.