For years, John Boylan has helped lead Lakeside Service Company, Inc., a family-owned heating, cooling and plumbing company serving the Ann Arbor, Brighton and Novi areas.
The company has become a trusted name throughout Southeast Michigan, but its story began long before John stepped into a leadership role.
His father, Tom Boylan, founded the business more than 40 years ago. After taking some classes at Washtenaw Community College, he built a customer base the old-fashioned way — by knocking on doors.
“My dad started the business by going door-to-door offering to inspect furnaces,” John Boylan said. “It’s a great American business story.”
Operating first out of the family’s basement and later a garage workshop, Lakeside Service Company steadily expanded alongside the region it served. As air conditioning became increasingly common in homes, demand for HVAC services surged.
Today, John Boylan remains connected to WCC in a different way. He serves on the college’s HVAC advisory board, helping faculty and industry leaders identify the skills students need to succeed in today’s workforce and ensuring curriculum stays aligned with industry needs.
“I trust WCC’s instruction,” Boylan said. “The trainers are really passionate about what they’re doing, and the training is high quality.”
That confidence led Lakeside to hire several WCC graduates as HVAC technicians, including recent graduates Bill Christie and Nathan Kubinec.
According to Boylan, earning an associate degree says something important about a candidate beyond technical ability.
“These are people who started something and followed through with it,” he said.
Christie, who completed WCC’s HVAC program in 2023, and Kubinec, who graduated in 2025, both credit the college’s hands-on learning environment for helping prepare them for the industry.
The program emphasized troubleshooting, real-world simulations and applied problem-solving skills that translated directly to the workplace.
“The instruction was very helpful, and the hands-on training prepared me for the job,” Kubinec said.
For students considering a career in the skilled trades, HVAC offers an attractive path. The median salary for HVAC mechanics and installers is $58,364 with 1,641 anticipated annual openings in Michigan.
“It was something I saw was in high demand,” Kubinec said.
The partnerships with WCC help organizations create a reliable pipeline of trained employees ready to contribute from day one.
For Boylan, it’s also a way to continue the values that helped his father build the company decades ago: investing in people and creating opportunities for the next generation.
Tags: HVAC, July 2026, On The Record, Workforce Development