Correspondent photo by Maurita Hoffman
Meghan Benedict-Rihel poses for a photograph outside a garage door. She worked for her father’s business installing and repairing garage doors before taking it over after his passing.

“In 2022, we received a Bronze level, but the Silver is much better,” she said, and added, “it feels good that more people have seen our value.” The award “validates the work I’ve been doing since my dad passed away in 2023.”

Meghan, 47, grew up around the garage door installation and repair industry. In 1971, her father, Paul Benedict, started Paul Benedict Installations in Niles, where she grew up. Alongside her sister, Bridget, and two brothers, Paul Michael and Danny, she accompanied her dad as he went about his business.

“We all went to work with him when we were kids, 7 or 8 years old,” Meghan said. “His gofers!”

As the children got older, though, only Meghan and her older brother, Paul Michael, showed interest in the business.

“Paul Michael worked for a few years and then got a job out of state in construction,” Meghan said.

Eventually, Meghan went on to work as a delivery driver for local businesses and a cake baker before she began working regularly with her dad at 41 years old.

“I liked hanging out with him, but a day on the job with him was not a day of watching him work,” she laughed. “I worked — he didn’t go in for sitting around and talking.”

He taught her about various tools, how to use them and what hardware to use for which job. She said learning from him taught her not just the business of garage doors, but “it gave me the opportunity to learn more about him.”

Meghan said customers looked forward to him coming to fix the doors and entertaining them with his stories.

Paul Benedict Installations, which changed its name to Benedict Garage Doors in 2023, the year her father passed, built up a “great reputation,” Meghan said.

“Everyone loved my dad. He was always learning, figuring out how things worked.”

That problem-solving trait, requiring a combination of brains and skills, is something she also enjoys about her job.

“Not only do I do the physical work, but I love coming up against something unusual and being able to figure it out,” she said.

After working with her dad, she learned quickly that there was more to owning a garage door business than installing doors.

“There was the scheduling, the ordering, the bookkeeping,” she said. “I was amazed that he did all of that along with traveling to businesses and homes and installing doors.”

No two days are the same, Meghan noted, saying, “sometimes it’s a day of replacing springs, sometimes it is a day fixing garage door opener problems.” She said she also fixes or replaces door panels that have been run into, “when someone starts backing out of their garage before the door is all the way up.”

One of the biggest changes she has seen over the years has been in circuit boards.

“We used to repair circuit boards on a regular basis, but now we don’t fix them, we replace them,” she said.

She noted the boards have doubled in price and “electronics have eliminated so much of what we used to be able to fix, now we toss the circuit boards when they break.”

People are sometimes astonished when she shows up by herself for a job.

“A lot of women will expect that I run the office and will send someone else out to do the repair and are quite surprised when I show up,” she laughed.

Initially there were comments about her being able to do the job, but she said her customers have learned that “I know my stuff.” She continued, “overall people trust me to do a good job.”

Meghan said she has had little pushback from women or men about her ability to do the job.

“I know by the number of references I get and by the number of new jobs I get from current customers that my expertise is respected,” she said.

Meghan, a mother to a 25-year-old daughter, Marley, and a 14-year-old son, Ethan, has had help from her daughter in the business, much like Paul did from Meghan, but, she noted, Marley’s now “working a different full-time job, so she has no time for doors!”

Occasionally, without help from her daughter, Meghan employs an assistant to help with “really big doors,” but, she said, she can repair or replace most doors on her own.

One of her favorite parts of the job is meeting Paul’s repeat customers. She acknowledged that his sense of humor and his dedication to doing a job well endeared him to many customers.

“We have first and second and even now third generations of customers who rely on us,” she boasted.

Meghan said that she has had “a lot of positive feedback.” She admitted that it has not always been easy, but “I have confidence. My dad was excellent at this job, and he taught me well.”

It took some time after Paul’s passing for her to get back into the business.

“It was just hard; I tried to reach out to people who had asked for service, but I think I missed some of them and I apologize,” she said, adding that though her dad is always with her, she has “moved on to be able to continue running his business.”