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Culligan Store

In 1936, Emmett J. Culligan perforated the bottom of a coffee can and used zeolite – a sponge-like, magnetic mineral that soaks up particles and odors – to make a prototype water filter. Upon running water through his device, he discovered that the filter also acted as a water softener, removing sediments and hardness minerals and creating “soft”, pure water which would have many benefits to water-using applications. This prompted him to establish the Culligan Zeolite Company in Northbrook, Illinois, near Chicago.

Wilbur L. Walton (the grandfather to current owners Bob Boerner and Kristi Stanford) was a natural entrepreneur, selling Municipal Improvement Bonds in the Northbrook area. In 1938, he learned about E.J. Culligan’s work because it involved using unused nearby streets to sun-dry the zeolite, which prompted Walton to further investigate Culligan’s business potential. It was then that Walton learned from Emmett Culligan about the benefits of his water softening technology – that took hard minerals out of water – reducing both the use of soap and scaling on water-using appliances, as well as saving energy for water heating. Walton learned that Emmett Culligan had no clear plan to distribute his concept to consumers, so he suggested a Dealer Distributor structure and offered to open the first Culligan Dealership in Wheaton, Illinois (a western suburb of Chicago) in 1938. It was initially called W.L. Walton & Company, before ultimately incorporating the Culligan name.

E.J. Culligan granted Walton rights to oversee distribution in the Southwestern part of the United States and chose San Antonio – with it’s especially hard water and steadily growing population – as a great place to make a personal investment to expand Culligan distribution.

Walton purchased a one-man water company in San Antonio in 1939, but shortly after, World War II forced almost all business into essential hibernation as the War required all available manpower and resources.

After the War was won in 1945, businesses flourished and in 1946 a young Gib Boerner, who was dating Wilbur Walton’s daughter, Janet, hires on at the Wheaton, Illinois water store.

He worked there for a year before Walton made him an offer to go to San Antonio and try to get the small, new water company off of the ground. If successful, Gib could then return to Chicago and marry Walton’s daughter, Janet.

Gib Boerner took to San Antonio like a duck to (soft) water, as he loved the weather, people, Spanish influences, and of course the challenge of bringing a new business to life.

He indeed succeeded in getting the business off the ground and instead of moving back to Chicago, Gib elected to continue business in San Antonio. He then, as promised, got permission to marry Janet Walton and she joined him in Texas.

The business grew steadily and eventually outgrew the original leased facility in a portion of 353 W Josephine Street (now Kraft Cleaners) and Boerner found a location to build new offices, near where I-35 would soon-after be constructed, on the corner of Austin and Mason Streets, just northeast of downtown.

As success continued, in 1957, Gib Boerner purchased Culligan of Midland in West Texas, which was an up-and-coming oil center with very challenging water quality.

In the early 1960s, Culligan of Midland helped pioneer the Reverse Osmosis (R/O) technology in combination with carbon filtration to provide high quality water to homes and businesses. These experimental R/O systems proved themselves on the extremely challenging West Texas waters – full of fluoride, salts and very high Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) – and ultimately became a staple product of Culligan worldwide.

In 1967, Boerner purchased a Culligan of Odessa and merged the two entities in 1969 at a new facility built between the two cities, near what is now known as the Midland International Air & Spaceport to form Culligan of West Texas.

As water treatment in the home and businesses became a necessity in places with hard water, Culligan dealers around the nation began to work like a well-oiled machine, especially in San Antonio.

HemisFair ‘68, the World’s Fair that transformed San Antonio – along with the hard work by the Culligan team in San Antonio – played a key role in that dealership achieving the award for Top Dealer in the United States from Culligan International in 1968.

Following the successful merge of businesses in West Texas and the nationwide recognition in San Antonio, Boerner acquired Culligan of Seguin – New Braunfels, now known as Culligan of the Guadalupe River Valley in 1971. The location encompasses Guadalupe, Comal, and Wilson counties, and expanded Boerner’s footprint in Central Texas.

Five years later in 1976, Boerner purchased Culligan of Kerrville on appropriately-named Water Street and shared part of the space with Rainbow Bakery for the first year until it was obvious they needed the entire warehouse for operation.

Upon its opening, Gib Boerner enlisted his nephew, Rob Lyman, then his son, Bob Boerner, to help manage the location – under both his mentoring and the tutelage of long-time employee Jimmie Homilius.

Bob managed Culligan of Kerrville for 12 years before turning his focus to the headquarters location in San Antonio in 1989, where he joined his sister Kristi Stanford who had joined onto the family business three years prior in August of 1986.

By the 1980s, Gib Boerner was one of the most well-known Culligan Men in the country, and is named Chairman of Culligan’s prestigious Silver Circle by leading all Dealers in purchases and sales from Culligan International, a feat he achieved a number of times while at the helm of Culligan of San Antonio and a tribute to his business acumen and leadership skills.

In 1984, Boerner formed Culligan Southwest to manage the four Culligan dealerships with headquarters in San Antonio within the Culligan San Antonio facilities.

Gib Boerner was the president of the new entity, with the goal of strengthening and improving efficiencies of the Southwest Texas Dealership group, and a focus on making an impact on each of the communities Culligan Southwest served.

In 1996, we embarked upon an ambitious upgrade to our San Antonio facilities, expanding our footprint at what used to be a modest-sized Culligan facility on the corner of Austin and Mason Street.

With the increasing demand for Culligan’s products and services, the expansion was needed to keep up and to assure that our team members had adequate and modern facilities from which to base their operations to professionally service our customers’ needs.

If you’ve ever heard, “Hey Culligan Man !!”, know that it is not just a well-known slogan; it is a reminder that we, along with all dealerships, back up our outstanding products with world-class service.

In 2002, Gib Boerner passed away at the age of 80 and his son, Bob Boerner, and daughter, Kristi Stanford, took over leadership of the Culligan Southwest entity, representing a third generation at the helm of the business.

Since then, Bob has served as president of both the Texas Water Quality Association (TWQA) and Culligan Dealers Association of North America (CDANA). He has also received a Meritorious Service award for the Water Quality Association (WQA) and has served on the Board of Trustees for 9 years.

Kristi is a two-time TWQA Woman of the Year, and both her and Bob are still heavily involved in various Culligan committees.

In 2020, like many other businesses, we found ourselves in great demand as the COVID-19 pandemic played out and people retreated to their Homes and found their water quality waning.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) helped deem our certified Water Treatment Specialists as essential workers, helping to maintain the Critical Infrastructure in the United States and protecting Public Health by assuring safe and potable drinking and utility water nationwide.

To this day, we are extremely proud of our teams who worked under adverse conditions to make sure the public was both protected and had an uninterrupted supply of high quality water through the pandemic.