Born in Cincinnati, the home of Skyline Chili and the Bearcats, Stephanie Bolton has fond memories of childhood.

“I grew up in the passenger side of my granddaddy’s pickup truck,” she smiles. “He was a project manager and I grew up in construction.” When they drove by homes, her grandfather would point out the ones that he and his family had worked on. Fast forward decades later, Stephanie does the same thing, admiring the projects that her company built as she drives around – in Wilmington, North Carolina.

 

 

Prior to working for the family business at Patriot Roofing Company, LLC, Stephanie blazed her own trail in life. She comments, “I was the first in my family to go to college. I became a construction lawyer and practiced for 15 years.”

 

It was Stephanie’s childhood dream to become a lawyer. As she says, “As a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer and I couldn’t wait until I could wear suits everyday…until I had to wear them.”

 

When her brother-in-law passed away unexpectedly in 2019, her family business needed her. Stephanie answered the call to serve at Patriot Roofing Company. “My family has been in the roofing business for 150 years,” she explains. With this new role, she went out and immediately got her general contractor’s license.

 

“Less than 2 percent of roofing professionals are women,” she says. “There aren’t enough women in construction or in roofing. I have made it my passion and mission to recruit people to the trades. I like to have a diverse workforce. That’s a big passion of mine.”

 

Patriot Roofing Company recently earned the Award of Excellence for a Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) by the North Carolina Department of Administration. They were also named the Construction Services Company of the Year for their dedication to diversity and equality. “That's probably the thing I am the most proud of,” points out Stephanie.

 

She’s also the President of the Board of Trustees for the Historic Wilmington Foundation. “It’s my first run as a President and lots of fun,” she muses. “We do a lot of good work for affordable housing and preserving old buildings. The most affordable house is the one that someone is already in,” she points out. Stephanie also helps with deferred maintenance and loves reuse projects, taking an old building and turning it into something else. That’s in addition to her day job of running Patriot Roofing Company.

 

 

Patriot Roofing Company excels in roofing, but also does everything on the exterior of a home. Windows, siding, gutters, doors, fascia, and soffits are no problem at all for Stephanie and her dedicated team.

 

Stephanie also has a robust repair department, which is perfect for Real Producers. “We do everything from commercial metal work to a $100 shingle repair,” she says. “We believe everything that we do is to take care of our community and be good neighbors.” She empathizes with real estate agents who might have one shingle to repair from an inspection report.

 

“It’s not enough for roofing companies to take care of that kind of work, but we do that work. It’s a critical piece of the puzzle to building a more resilient community. I’m pretty proud of it,” she smiles.

 

 

Patriot Roofing Company has established itself in the roofing industry. How have they stood the test of time? “It’s because we embrace technology, embrace diversity, and provide a flexible work environment. Because of those things, we can be agile and change with the times. I don’t run the same company that my great granddaddy did. We do things differently. We recruit outside the trades and get them interested.”

 

By providing a business and welcoming environment for women and minorities, Stephanie promotes diversity and equality, which is true to her character.

 

An advocate for the community, Stephanie has done a lot of work for WARM and Habitat for Humanity. She is also proud of the work that Patriot Roofing did for the second oldest Black Masonic lodge in North Carolina, as she sits on the taskforce for the rehabilitation of that building. Passing by that building every day, she feels fulfilled that she was able to preserve a piece of Wilmington history.

 

 

When Stephanie isn’t working, she enjoys spending time with her husband Bill, whom she met when she was 3 years old at a birthday party in Cincinnati. Although they don’t remember that encounter, they met again in the sixth grade and started dating in their junior year of college before getting married.

 

Bill, who has lived in many places, is a military brat. He and Stephanie moved to Wilmington. “We loved Wilmington and decided to stay,” she reflects.

 

“We found home,” she says. A self-described history buff, Stephanie likes the history of Wilmington. “Wilmington is a southern city with better weather than Cincinnati and it’s got a lot of cool history,” she notes.

 

In her free time, Stephanie enjoys reading, traveling, and eating. “I try all the new restaurants in town. If someone wants to talk about restaurants, chances are that I’ve been there.”

 

This business owner treasures time with her English Bulldog named Fennel. A nod to her Cincinnati roots, Fennel is a rescue from the Queen City Bulldog Rescue. “She is a hardy herb,” jokes Stephanie. She decided not to change the name of her four-legged friend and Fennel brings her a lot of happiness.

 

Best of all, Stephanie loves what she does. “I never imagined I would trade my suit for boots,” jokes Stephanie, “but I love what I do now. When I drive around the community now, I can see the difference we make with the houses that we built and made more resilient.” Seeing the work that she does is rewarding.

 

Stephanie jokes, “I don’t miss being a litigator and the clothes are way more comfortable. I’m a lot happier in a hoodie and boots.”