Hypex is a family legacy: I’m the third generation Olhava to own the “Hypex” business.

My Grandpa Leo Olhava and his friend, Mike Walesa founded Hypex Sheet Metal Manufacturing Company in the late 1940s in Chicago. Fun fact, Mike signed my grandparent’s wedding certificate. It’s not at all clear how they came up with the name, although I suspect some creativity was fueled by Grandpa’s spirit of choice. My dad once told me that they combined letters from spouses and children’s names, but it’s a long ago memory and thus, most likely faulty. Second fun fact, the first gen Hypex building still stands in Chicago…and is now a hip little coffee shop.

Fast forward to the mid-70s. The Olhava family relocated to Napa, California in the 1950s. Hypex had been closed for over 20 years. In 1976, my dad, Henry, a sheet metal worker, decided to go out on his own, and opened Hypex Heating & Sheet Metal, which he ran until 2010, when the business officially closed. Third fun fact, my dad and his buddies made wine in our garage, because Napa.

I am now what Dad and Grandpa called a “pencil pusher”. However, I know that they’d be very excited about the passion that I have for my work and my choice to keep the Hypex brand alive.

I’d like to give a huge shout out to my favorite, and fourth fun fact, only brother, Ed Olhava, for hanging on to the URL for so many years, and graciously letting me have @hypexconsulting.