The Stepper story begins far, far away in a small town in Germany. It was 1953. And while Rudy Stepper’s contemporaries were working to build world-class automobiles like Mercedes Benz and Porsche, his dream involved the craft of woodworking. In August of that year, he decided it was time to pursue that dream in the land of opportunity, Canada.

Despite landing here with $7 in his pocket and as many words of English in his vocabulary, he was bound and determined to bring German ingenuity and know-how to the art of building anything wooden – namely the first Stepper Home.

When Rudy started building the first Stepper home it was just him and his wife Erna digging the basement out by hand. After the basement was formed Rudy rented a cement mixer to lay the foundation and concrete work for the house. With the lower floor laid Rudy used the same wood and materials to build the top floor and roof. Astute financing quickly parlayed one house into ten houses, ten houses into fifty. And within five years, the foundation of Stepper Custom Homes was laid.

Despite their full-time obsession with building better homes, Rudy and Erna found time to bring Rose, Harry and Sylvia into the world. It seems they shared more than the Stepper name. The urge to build was in the blood line and by 1980 the entire Stepper family was actively engaged in the business. In preparation to spearhead operations, Harry majored in Business Administration at SAIT, before working in every facet of the trade to earn his Master Home Builder designation. He took over as President and CEO in 1986.

A half a century later, the only thing that has changed is the scale of the business. One of the top builders in the Calgary region, Stepper Custom Homes now builds around 250 homes every year. And some of Rudy and Erna’s grandchildren have also joined the enterprise. Stepper acorns don’t fall far from the tree, and while members of the family work in many different parts of the business.

Some call a 50th anniversary the ruby celebration but for Stepper Custom Homes it’s a Rudy celebration. Our founder Rudy Stepper started everything that Stepper is today back in 1956 and he’s still the driving force. The 50-year mark calls for celebration of our successes and achievements as well as every person that has helped us make it through our first 50 years.

“Fifty years”, laughs Rudy, “eine Augenblick (the blink of an eye)” …proving beyond all doubt that time does indeed fly when you’re doing what you love.