© 2024 by Roy Spears
At one time, the “Adobe Doctor” was a major player in Tucson’s adobe repair and sealing business. Here’s a look at its beginnings and eventual end.
I, Roy Spears of Adobe Masters, was the original Adobe Doctor. I started this business around 1985. In 1980, while I was a student at the University of Arizona, I had a serious motorcycle accident one night on my way to my part-time job at the airport, where I washed airplanes. This accident changed my life, leading me to drop out of the university and start a painting business in 1981.
My first job as a painting contractor was repainting apartments vacated by UA students. It wasn’t pleasant; some of the apartments were disgustingly filthy. Looking back, I’m surprised I took those jobs. But I was young and hungry, unable to work for nine months after my accident due to a long recuperation. I had broken my right femur as if it were a dry twig, which left me unable to walk. I needed the money and did what I had to do.
Shortly after I finished repainting UA student housing apartments, I started working for a painting contractor named Paul Roof. Paul’s brother, Tom Roof, was a general contractor in Tucson, operating T.L. Roof and Associates. Paul had moved from Seattle to Tucson to take advantage of his brother’s contacts for painting jobs, which was a sensible move.
Paul was an experienced painter and I learned much from him. I helped Paul paint a commercial building and also custom homes in the Tucson area. When Paul moved back to Seattle (I found out decades later from Paul that he hated painting as much as I grew to hate it), I continued on in my own business painting houses as well. You can read more about this story here.
In 1985, my focus shifted from painting houses to repairing and sealing adobe homes, as I described in the link above. I changed my business name from Accent Protective Coatings to the Adobe Doctor and began advertising adobe home repair and sealing services. Nearly 40 years later, I still work in the same business, though on a much smaller scale.
My old “Adobe Doctor” business card from the early 1990s is shown above. At that time, I was living in Rio Rico, AZ, and building our family home there. The 281-7778 number was my landline in Rio Rico, and the 218-6660 number was my pager. Cell phones were not an option then, at least none I could afford.
Around 1994, I met John Schimon, who attended the same church as I did. John was one of the top salesmen, if not the top salesman, at a fertilizer company called “Arizona’s Best.” If my memory serves me correctly, John was responsible for getting the company’s fertilizers into Home Depot for the first time. Interestingly, as of today’s date (July 4, 2024), Arizona’s Best products are still sold in Home Depot stores. From looking at their website, it appears they were bought by another company.
When I met John, I was looking to leave the construction business, and John wanted to move on from working for Arizona’s Best. In one of those strange quirks of fate, we met, and John agreed to buy the Adobe Doctor from me. We reached an agreement, and I began training him in the fine art of adobe repair and sealing. Soon afterward, John took over the Adobe Doctor name and business, successfully running the company until around 2008, when he—like many other businesses during those difficult times—went bankrupt.
After some time, John reorganized under a new name, Adobe King, and in 2021 or so sold it to his one time foreman, Adan, who runs it today.
I gave John a two-year noncompete agreement and moved my family to Rio Rico, AZ, where I built our home. I never intended to return to Tucson or reenter the adobe repair business, but life and marriage don’t always go as planned. I ended up back in Tucson, restarting my adobe repair and sealing business under a new name: Adobe Masters.
If you need adobe repair services or want to have your home treated with a quality water repellent to protect it from rain and wind damage, click here or call/text Roy Spears: 520-331-4004. Email: adobemastr@gmail.com