Our History

Our story started with Arthur Kersawe in 1919. He founded the company as primarily a residential roofing company.

Robert Dreibus, Kersawe’s son-in-law, joined and purchased the company in 1936. Dreibus introduced low slope commercial and industrial roofing to the company.

Dreibus incorporated Independent Roofing Company in Nebraska in 1959.

Bob Swanda joined the company in 1975 as a truck driver and became an important part of IRC.

On January 1, 1976, A.B. “Bud” Padon purchased IRC from Dreibus. As the years progressed, Padon continued to expand commercial roofing.

A.B. “Bud” Padon served as president of the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association in 1977.

Tom Swanda joined the company after graduating high school. What was supposed to be a summer gig ended up being his lifelong career.

In 1997 Swanda joined the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association as a director.

Swanda was elected to the MRCA executive committee in 2000 and was president of the MRCA in 2004.

In 2006 IRC added an in-house custom sheet metal shop.

IRC was awarded SIKA SARNAFIL Project of the Year for our work on Oakview Mall.

In 2008 MRCA presented IRC with the McCawley award — this is the highest award presented by the MRCA for service to the industry.

Swanda purchased the company from Padon in 2016.

IRC was awarded our largest volume project to date, Cloisters on the Platte. The project required coordination from all our departments, and the end result is something we are extremely proud of.

Kellie Paasch, General Manager, graduated from the Future Executive Institute, a three-year comprehensive program offered by the National Roofing Contractors Association at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Chicago.

In 2019, Independent Roofing Company celebrated 100 years of service to the community. IRC is the oldest roofing contractor in the Omaha area and ranks among the largest full-service roofing contractors.