Pate Appliance Services began like many other family owned and operated businesses.

Joe Pate was a handyman who worked for several other places before setting out on his own in 1954. He repaired everything from furnaces to toasters, according to his son Mike, who began working for his father in 1973.

Mike eventually took ownership in 1978 and now runs the family business with his sons, Tom and Adam. The business began on High Street and has been at its current location at 780 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. for 13 years.

“He was mechanically gifted,” Mike Pate said of his father. “He had a thorough knowledge of anything electrical, heating and plumbing. He could just fix anything.”

As soon as he could walk, Mike Pate was going along on service calls with his father. When Tom and Adam were old enough, they too went on calls with their father.

“I always remember that everyone knew dad,” Tom Pate said of his ride-alongs. “I’ve always liked the mechanical side of things. We took things apart when we were little and dad would put them back together.”

But it isn’t just about repairs. It’s about the customer, Adam Pate said.

“When I came on, I got to go on every service call with my father for several years,” he said. “I was able to see how all the repair work was done, but I also got to see how to deal with the customer in the best way possible and that’s the way we are going to continue to do business.”

Tom Pate said he worked several other jobs before coming to the family business. No matter what he was hired to do, however, he always ended up fixing things.

“This is a good business to be in if you like people,” he said. “And we just really love what we do.”

The Pate family came to the United States in the early 1900s from Italy. They made their way to Hamilton in the 1940s.

Even though the three are all owners of the business, they still go on service calls.

“We do a lot of work ourselves,” Tom Pate said. “We stay actively involved.”

“We’re just a family of appliance technicians,” Mike Pate said.