1970 – Charles begins Wise Pool Company
As the only nearby retailer, Charles Wise sold swimming pool supplies to Conroe pool owners for his parents’ paper and chemical company. Eventually Charles, then in his twenties, was asked to perform minor repairs on area swimming pools when problems would arise. Soon, he was providing retail sales, maintenance, and service for Conroe pool owners, and eventually, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Crouchet asked him to build their pool in 1970. Charles accepted the job and thus constructed his first pool – at cost. Charles had not yet conceived of making a living off of swimming pool construction and design; however, it did not take long before he was doing just that.
1972 – Wise Pool Becomes a Family Business
It was 1972, at the grand opening festivities of the Woodloch Neighborhood Pool (later named the Arthur Mack Memorial Pool). Sympathetic neighbors introduced recently-divorced Merry to bachelor Charles, hoping for a spark. Neighborly hunches were as good as their intentions, and soon, the couple married, and Charles became stepfather to young Erik and Brock. The Wises grew their business from their house on Woodloch while simultaneously growing their family.
1975 – The Business Grows
Soon after the birth of their daughter, Merry and Charles opened Wise’s Needham Road location, complete with warehouse, retail, and sales center. Construction, service and maintenance departments emerged, and development of The Woodlands began. As The Woodlands took shape, Wise was there to insure that every new homeowner that wanted one had a glistening, custom-designed swimming pool in their backyard. Wise Pool became a member of the National Spa and Pool Institute, an organization which promotes the highest of structural and aesthetic standards in the industry. Soon, Merry and Charles joined the board of the Houston NSPI (now APSP), helping to define these standards for their fellow swimming pool builders.
1981 – Wise Pool Multiplies
The time came for Charles and Merry to open a second retail location to better serve their increasing consumer base. In 1981 Wise Pool #2 emerged in the Pitch’s Shopping Center in Oak Ridge North. The store served its customers with a greater stock and range of products – and top-of-the-line water testing facility (which seems archaic by today’s standards!). The Store prospered, and in 1984 another store opened in Conroe, in a little converted cottage on Cable Street, two houses down the road from Charles’ childhood home! Despite its neighborhood location, the Conroe store’s eclectic context has served it well, as it continues to draw sales much larger than the tiny size seems is plausible.
The 1980’s: The Decade of Design
As retail locations blossomed, Charles continued to design pools to the highest artistic and technological levels, attending trade shows and conferences to learn about new products and techniques in swimming pool construction. Charles was one of the first to computerize his business, working on a computer as early as 1974. The expertise gained from his active involvement paid off in the form of annual design awards won at the NSPI regional and national conventions. Soon, Charles and Merry had garnered more design awards than any other swimming pool business in the Houston area! As the decade continued, Charles continued in the technology forefront utilizing Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to make his designs as accurate and as faithful as possible to necessary specifications.
1989 – Wise Migrates
While Charles and Merry continued to construct superior swimming pools for customers in the Houston area, their Pitch’s Center retail location began to seem smaller and smaller. Wise Pool #2 eventually moved to Clayton’s Shopping Center in 1989. The new location was bigger, brighter, and closer to the maturing Woodlands. Additionally, a sales and conference center occupied the new store. Charles upgraded his computer technology as well, including advanced computer imaging hardware and software to his repertoire. The design staff was now able to photograph a pool buyer’s back yard, design and render an image of the pool design they are interested in, and illustrate how the pool would look in their backyard – before a stake rested in it! Wise Pool was one of the first swimming pool designers in the country to utilize this technology!
1995 – Panther Creek and an Empty Nest
When The Woodlands Corp. announced plans to expand the Panther Creek Shopping Center, Merry and Charles leaped at the chance to move into The Woodlands, where the majority of their consumers now lived. Always eager to serve their customers better, they recognized the opportunity to do so in Panther Creek. Proximity and Merry’s presence in the store paid off, and now the store thrives. Merry combines competitive pricing, helpful, personal service, and – at no charge – the most advanced water analysis available to produce a winning combination for both Wise Pool and their clientele.
1997 – Wise Pools Is Nationally Recognized
In October of 1997, Merry’s marketing talents were recognized by Aqua Magazine, and she was invited to sit on a panel of experts at their convention in Orlando. In addition, Wise was awarded its second “100 Best” award by Aqua, recognizing Merry and Charles as one of the 100 best swimming pool companies in the U.S.
Amidst all their success, their daughter Summer grew up. She was off to The University of Texas in Austin where she learned to design web pages so that she could help her parents continue to grow, obtaining an identity on the World Wide Web. Wise maintains their family business traditions even in the non-traditional cyberspace.
As Wise Pool Company continues to grow and flourish, we invite you to grow with us. Whether it be the purchase of a new pool or spa, regular maintenance, the occasional service call, or simply supplies and toys for your pool, when you use us you make the Wise choice!
Our Gallery will show you the quality of our work at Wise Pool.