was founded by Gunther & Regina Schiwy. As a budding new business, they operated out of their home basement on Route 50 in Wye Mills. When they Incorporated on April 1st, 1961 there were 31 licensed electricians in Queen Anne’s County and only 30 building permits issued that year. It was not uncommon for Gunther to be seen knocking door to door asking home owners and businesses if they needed any
electrical work done. A receptacle or switch added was a good job back then. Gunther built up the business and gained the respect and confidence of many of his customers to able to solve nearly any electrical problem. grew slowly adding employees one by one starting with Charlie Semans in December of 1962 and they added Foster Williams and Stefan Chalupa soon afterwards. As Gunther developed his business, Gunther’s Electric made it out of the basement to its own office and warehouse space, both of which are still located in the Wye Mills area. In 1977, Irmi Preston, one of the Schiwy’s daughters, joined the company. Since then, Stefan has passed, and Irmi has retired, but many customers still talk about how great they were to work with. Today, Samantha Hutchison, has taken the role that Irmi played in the company, and will usually be the first point of contact if you call the office. In 1992 Gunther and Regina decided it was time to retire and sold the company to their son & daughter in-law, Michael & Trudy Schiwy. The two have done an amazing job continuing the great traditions of this business. The business has expanded and changed along with technology and the economy to maintain a strong presence in the Delmarva area and beyond. Unfortunately, Michael Schiwy’s life was cut short by cancer in June, 2014. This clearly took a great toll on the business and family, but the resilient employees at Gunther’s fought hard to keep the business alive. Trudy Schiwy took over the role of President and hired Ronnie Johnson, a master electrician, to hold the lead supervisor position and allow the company to work under his license. We also promoted our lead electrician, Dave Benson, from his position in the field to project manager, where he is estimating and supervising jobs. Today, Michael and Trudy’s second son, Matt Schiwy, has began working full time with the company and has taken the role of Vice President. Matt graduated from East Carolina University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. While he works at Gunther’s he will be pursuing the four-year course-work to acquire his master electrician license, to one day allow Gunther’s to work under his name. We are excited to have Matt here and believe he has what it takes to allow Gunther’s to stay in business for many years to come. We attribute the longevity of the business to our many loyal customers that helped to build the strong foundation that has allowed us to stay in business for over 55 years! If you would like to learn more about the history of Gunther’s Electric and its team members, please visit our website at, www.guntherselectric.com.
