Mark Swepston is the third generation of his family to run Atlas Butler, a heating, cooling, and plumbing company his grandfather founded in Columbus, Ohio, more than a century ago. He joined in 1976 and spent decades building it from a $3 million operation into a $40 million one. He’s had two serious offers to sell it, and he turned both of them down.
The first time, he was in his mid-thirties, and the private equity money was real. He passed because accepting meant giving up time he wasn’t willing to trade. The second time came later, when the math was arguably easier — take the money, walk away comfortable. He looked at his son instead.
“My son, who is in his 30s, has much the same feeling as I did in my 30s,” Swepston said. “He’s doing a great job, enjoys the people, and is having fun. He can’t figure out what else the extra money could buy.”
A friend in another family business settled it. “Why would you ever consider it? You’re living the American Dream.”
Swepston is 71 now, chairman rather than CEO — his son Michael became president in 2019, the fourth generation of Swepstons to run the company. He spends 20 to 30 hours a week volunteering, a pace that traces back to something he picked up in his early twenties when he joined the Jaycees. Every meeting ended with the group reciting the Jaycee Creed, and at the final line — “Service to humanity is the best work of life” — everyone would shout it together. He’s never really stopped. One of his more recent commitments is the Elevate Northland Project, a community development initiative in a Columbus neighborhood that sits right around Atlas Butler’s own facility, focused on creating paths to better education and employment for lower-income families. “Helping lower-income families and individuals find a path to a better life is a gift to everyone,” he said.
He tells one story that hasn’t left him. Early in his time with Kiwanis, he served on a scholarship committee. They selected a high school student — 4.0 GPA, low-income neighborhood — for a full four-year scholarship. Then she disappeared. When they finally tracked down her guidance counselor, they learned she had turned it down. Her mother was rarely home, and her siblings were two and under one year old. She couldn’t leave.
“How many of us have to deal with and live in that type of environment?” he said.
It’s the kind of reminder that doesn’t go away — and it shows up in how Swepston thinks about what Atlas Butler is for. The record speaks for itself. Atlas Butler has won the Consumers’ Choice Award for best HVAC company in Columbus every year since 2001. It made the Inc. 500, and it’s landed on Columbus Business First’s Best Places to Work list. In 1997, Atlas Butler was named Small Business of the Year for the state of Ohio — the only HVAC company in the country to get the honor that year — and Swepston made the trip to the White House to accept recognition from President Clinton and Vice President Gore.
Swepston has been in two ACCA MIX Groups® over 45 years. He calls them the most valuable part of ACCA membership, full stop. “The friendship and business operation, marketing, and most important leadership skills you share are never ending.”
When ACCA announced him as this year’s Community Leadership Award (sponsored by Cooper and Hunter) recipient, Swepston named the people he wanted recognized alongside him: his wife Julie, who has supported community work since before they were married; his son Michael, who has carried the same values into his tenure running the company; and his daughter Susan, who has contributed to community projects over the years outside her formal role at Atlas Butler.
“After fifty years,” he said, “we continue to learn new ways to serve people better every day.”
ACCA members can read this article and more in the Spring 2026 edition of ACCA Now Magazine online.
The post The best work of life: Mark Swepston receives ACCA’s 2026 Community Leadership Award appeared first on ACCA HVAC Blog.