Company namesake, Gustav Edwin “Ed” Sands, was born in Huskvarna, Sweden. He immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island in late 1922 and moved to Jupiter, FL in December 1925. He later married Ruth Haymond and, beginning in 1936, together they ran G.E.Sands, General Contractor.
After Ed Sands’ death in 1945, Ruth and her brother, R.W. (Warren) Haymond incorporated Sands Construction Company in Hobe Sound, FL and began a family-owned partnership that would continue for another seven decades.
Richard “Rick” Sands, youngest son of Ed and Ruth, joined the company after graduating in 1963 from the University of Florida’s School of Building Construction (BCN).
Together they guided the company through the economic fluctuations of the ‘60s and ‘70s, committed to building large-scale, quality, custom homes for a growing Jupiter Island. The company built new homes, as well as countless alterations and additions, for customers such as W.S. Barstow, Burrell Hoffman, Douglas Dillon, John Prosser, Howard Clark, Permelia and Joseph Reed, Laurel Hemmes, Myron Wick, H.P. Rogers, Robert Olmstead, Gerald Holbrook, Harry Bingham, Valentine Bartlett, George Hayward, William Scranton, Walter and Eleanor Ford, General Peabody, and the Stollenwerck family.
In the 1960s, Sands Construction purchased the property on Shell Avenue (on the mainland adjacent to Jupiter Island) from The Hobe Sound Company. In the early ‘70s, Warren and Rick built the company’s office and shop facilities, which continue to house its headquarters to this day.
Warren was made president after Ruth’s retirement in 1980 and Kevin Wilkinson (UF BCN), joined the company in 1987.
By the early 1990s, Warren had limited his role to an advisory
capacity, one he maintained until his death in 2008. The following year, Ruth passed away. This left Rick and Kevin to guide Sands Construction Company through a 25-year period of unprecedented growth.
During this time, some of the Island’s most memorable homes were built or restored, including those for: Marshall Field, William Clay Ford, Bronson Ingram, Jennifer Johnson Duke, Robert Baldwin, John Payson, Ed Davies, Dorothy Henry, Ed Robson, Paul Kazilionis, Patsy Warner, Edward Hamm, Dick Fuld, Dr. David Altchek, Bill Dewitt and Chris Reyes, just to name a few.
Sands Construction has worked with renowned architects Kemp Caler, Wyeth, King and Johnson, and Richard “Dick” Webel of Innocenti and Webel fame. In modern times, Sands has worked with architects Ferguson and Shamamian, Tom Kirchhoff, and Merrill and Pastor to name a few, as well as many prominent interior designers such as Kemble Interiors, Tom Sheerer, Cullman and Kravis, Victoria Hagan, Richard Keith Langham, and Peter Marino.
Rick Sands retired in 2015 and sadly passed away in December of 2022. Kevin Wilkinson, now President of the firm, continues the 80+ year old tradition of building quality, custom homes on Jupiter Island.
Nathaniel Reed wrote in a March 27, 2012 letter to Rick and Kevin:
“Rick, you are responsible for building a great company. You attracted a superb group of gifted craftsmen in every known profession and skill. They are 'the best' at every detail of building great homes for appreciative members of our community….leaving a legacy of high standards of construction and also as a leader of men.”
Kevin you are responsible for continuing the tradition of inspiring the Sands workforce with the insistence that quality is the Sands Company’s reputation. You are a worthy successor and continue the high standards of a great company.”
