Boland, a leading commercial HVAC contractor based in Rockville, MD, is celebrating 50 years in business.

Boland was started in 1960 by Louis J. Boland, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and an officer in the U.S. Navy. Lou Boland began his career with Trane in 1954. After he completed the graduate engineeer training class in LaCrosse, WI, he was assigned to the Washington, D.C. sales office.

He worked as a Trane sales engineer, serving his customers well and delivering beyond their expectations. In 1960, he was promoted to Washington District Manager. The Trane sales franchise was incorporated at Louis J. Boland, Inc. on June 18, 1960.

Lou Boland created the first service department for the Trane Company in 1960. In later years, he spoke of the immensity of working without a service department prior to that time. "When I opened the franchise, we were without the support of a service department. I worked six hours a day as a service technician and six hours a day as a sales engineer," he said.

The first service technician he hired was Vern Hruska, who is still with the company.

In 2003, Jim Boland was named president after his father's death. A second son, Lou Boland, Jr., serves as executive vice president. The family is involved in numerous charitable organizations throughout the region, and truly gives back to the community they serve.

Boland provides building comfort solutions in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Northern Virginia, and the West Virginia panhandle. Sources for Boland say a key to its success is that it allows customers to focus on their businesses, not on their buildings comfort needs. It installs systems that are tightly integrated into those facilities, increasing their long-term reliability and minimizing their environmental impact, while maximizing return on comfort investment.