The logging industry attracted R.L. Absher's parents to the Lewis County town of Pe Ell in 1910 from their home in Pikeville, Ky. R.L. moved to Puyallup in 1936 to start a berry and peach farm.

While working the farm, he took a job with Model Lumber of Tacoma in sales and estimating for clients who were residential builders. The owner of Rome Construction, one of his clients, told him to get into construction, lending him $500 in the process. The first projects were two speculative homes. Later, R.L. renovated apartments in Tacoma for Army personnel toward the end of WWII.

Apartment renovation work lasted for a couple of years. R.L.'s son Tom Sr. and his daughters helped him out by cleaning up the jobsites.

Tom Absher Sr. and Clark Helle Sr. took over the company in 1956 after R.L. suffered health problems. They originally were going to just keep the business operating until he returned, but instead business took off. In 1959, Tom Sr., Clark Sr. and Tom's brother Jim bought out R.L.'s share of the company.

The company's first major job was building a Puget Sound Power and Light facility in Puyallup in 1957.

Through the 1960s and 70s, Absher made a name for itself primarily in the public-works arena, building dozens of schools in the Puget Sound region. Its first school project was building Glacier High School in 1959 for the Highline School District.

In the 1980s, third-generation family members became involved in company operations, and in 1990, they assumed the reins of the company, with Dan Absher as president and brother Tom Absher Jr. as executive vice president. Helle's sons also are active in the company, with Clark Jr. as vice president of construction services and Greg as vice president of construction management. Tom Absher Sr.'s son-in-law Brad Sayre is vice president of preconstruction service.

Both Tom Sr. and Clark Sr. retired in the mid-1990s.

Absher has diversified significantly in the 1990s, turning to predominantly private and construction-management projects, although it still pursues select public projects.

Some of the most notable recent projects are the $9.3 million News Tribune expansion/reconfiguration; the $35 million Pierce County New Detention Center GC/CM project (an Absher/Kitchell joint-venture); the $43 million Fort Lewis Barracks renewal; the two-phase $9 million Russell Music Center at Pacific Lutheran University; the $54 million Holly Park redevelopment; the $10 million Puyallup YMCA; the $20 million second phase of Pierce Transit's Tacoma Dome Station; Tacoma's $16 million Truman Middle School; and numerous assisted-living facilities throughout Washington and California.