By Andrew Oswald, President
Hi there. If you haven’t had to write an about us page, consider yourself lucky. If you have, you know the angst I’m feeling right now. There’s just something about writing about us that feels wrong. I suppose that’s because what summarizes the about us for Iowa School of Beauty is that we’ve always been about YOU; our future, current and graduated students and customers. A special shout out to Jeff Horner, grandson of the second owners of Iowa School of Beauty, for providing this historical timeline for us!
Timeline of events:
- 1923 :Burt Mellis founded Iowa Beauty and Barber
- 1941: Harry Horner purchases the Iowa Beauty side and renames it Iowa School of Beauty Culture. The school was located at 1617 1/2 Walnut Street in Des Moines. Harry was a pioneer who decided students should practice on live clients rather than mannequins as the other schools did. Elzora Titus (Horner) was an instructor at the school where she met and married Harry in 1944
- 1967 Harry passed away and Elzora took over the business.
- 1968 The school moved from 816 1/2 Walnut to 10th and Grand in Des Moines
- 1973 Elzora sold the school to William (Bill) Oswald.
One thing you may have noticed is that I share the same last name with the gentleman who bought ISB in 1973. I already know you’re clever because you’re visiting our website but just in case it’s not obvious yet, I’m going to spell this out: ISB is a third generation family owned/operated business.
As of this writing, time machines are not yet available (if you know of a secret time machine please email me at [email protected]). So I can’t go back and ask the founder Burt Mellis why he founded ISB in 1923. But I do know some cool things about my grandpa (Bill Oswald) that relate to this story. I’ll use bullet points for this because studies show that most people only read the bullet points anyway.
- In 1966 Bill Oswald quit his job as a VP at Greyhound Corporation, to pursue a career he loved, and went to beauty school
- After beauty school he worked with his wife Sondra (you guessed it, she’s my grandma-Love you grandma!) at Sondra’s House of Beauty
- In 1973 he had the opportunity to buy ISB and he began to train others pursue the career they loved
I’m stopping at 1973 because from 1973 to Infinity (And BEYOND!); the first name of our owner may change, but what we’re about will not. We’re about:
- Training you for a career you love
- Guiding you towards achieving your career goals
- Helping you grow personally and professionally
- Providing you education at a fair cost
- Offering you low cost services on our student salon floor
Yours truly,
Andrew Oswald, President