July 2, 2026
Over 58 years of marriage, Duane and Lois Boice have co-mingled their personal and professional lives with a simple formula.
“I’m the what, and she’s the how,” Duane Boice said. “I say, ‘We’re going to do this.’ She figures out how we’re going to do it.”
The latest example of “what plus how” equals success goes on display today when their company, Gruen-Wald Engineered Laminates in Tea, hosts the grand opening of what they describe as the first commercial solar-powered manufacturing facility in South Dakota.

Using three solar systems designed by VIKOR of Sioux Falls, the plant will generate an estimated 592 megawatt hours of energy annually. Gruen-Wald will partner with Southeastern Electric Cooperative of Lennox to sell power to the grid and buy it back.
“They’re my battery,” Boice said. “We’re interfaced with the grid. We sell the power to them; we buy it back from them with a small increase.”

Those solar panels are powering a business that started in 1993 and produces glulam — or glued laminated timber. Glulam is a durable, engineered structural wood product that pound for pound is stronger than steel. It is made by bonding individual layers of dimensional lumber together with moisture-resistant adhesives.
Glulam can be found in massive, open spans in residential and commercial buildings.

“One of our last projects is a free-stall dairy barn near Iroquois, 2 million square foot, 46 acres under one roof,” Boice said. “Now, we’re doing one 57 acres under one roof.”
Gruen-Wald can produce beams as large as 100 feet long, 48 inches wide and 11 inches thick. A beam that size weighs 18,000 pounds.
Gruen-Wald also designs, produces and ships out glulam beams that are used for bridges. In Buchanan, Iowa, Gruen-Wald created a 72-foot clear-span bridge that passed the full legal-load requirements for interstates.
“We’ve done bridges all over the nation with treated glulam,” Boice said. “It’s basically a 100-year bridge. The road salts don’t bother it at all. It’s a good alternate to steel and concrete.”
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Boice named Gruen-Wald because he wanted an “old country” sound to the name. In German, gruen is green and wald is forest, appropriate since the firm relies on wood to make its products.
The roots of Gruen-Wald began in 1993 when a client came to Boice, a structural engineer, and described the problems he was having with treated wood in 6-by-6 and 6-by-8 columns. When it dried, it would twist and split, and customers were returning about 30 percent of the product. He asked Boice to produce a solution, and after research, Boice concluded that glulam was the best solution.

In 1994, Boice went out on his own and opened a plant in Sioux Falls.
When Gruen-Wald first looked at expanding in the late 1990s, Boice had a purchase agreement on land north of Sioux Falls. Neighbors balked, fearing an increase in traffic, and Minnehaha County denied the rezoning request. An Amazon fulfillment center now sits on that land, he said.
Instead, Boice bought the old Pioneer Seed building in Tea and moved his plant there in 2000.

“Our plant manager said, we can rent out half of this; we’ll never use it,” the owner said. “Now, we’re right around 90,000 square feet total. It’s pretty much what we need although I’ve got in mind a couple more things. We’ve got 10 acres.”
Expansion has been steady, including the purchase of large machinery. Gruen-Wald’s 60,000-square-foot warehouse can’t be seen from the road, Boice said, but what does get noticed is the cow statue plopped atop a building.

What Gruen-Wald produces in glulam is both green and renewable, Boice said. Suppliers plant six more trees than they harvest. As utility rates continued to climb, Boice became more interested in renewable energy sources to power his plant.
About that time, VIKOR sent a representative to meet with Boice. The Sioux Falls-based telecommunications infrastructure construction company, started more than 35 years ago as Sioux Falls Tower, had purchased a solar company in Iowa in 2024.

A presentation was made. A $900,000 solar-powered system could be installed with more than half the cost offset by a $500,000 tax incentive. Boice had his “what,” but he hesitated. That’s when Lois Boice, “subtitled the queen of damn near everything,” her husband said, stepped in with the “how.” She had done extensive research into the issue and said they should say yes.
So they did. And VIKOR’s team worked long hours to make sure that deadline for the tax incentive was met. The company is proud to be part of Gruen-Wald’s status as the state’s first commercial solar-powered manufacturing facility, CEO Jon Eastman said.

He also is proud that the work took place in VIKOR’s “own backyard.”
“It’s the timing of things coming together,” he said. “That’s how all great things work. He was coming to the same conclusion on his own — he needed to find some solutions to help with energy costs. And a couple of years ago, we were recognizing an opportunity to get into renewable energy.”
Boice recognized a need and turned to VIKOR to find a quick solution rather than waiting, Eastman said.

“He’s a really cool guy, an energetic, upbeat guy, and it was a lot of fun getting to know him,” Eastman said. “He met with the guys on our solar team, and it felt awesome.”
VIKOR’s vision is to elevate the solar industry for the betterment of others. The solar panels give companies like Gruen-Wald freedom to make business decisions and expand however the company and Boice want it to without constraints by circumstances or the environment, Eastman said.

In a decade, the solar energy produced at Gruen-Wald will take care of the financial investment, and the savings will extend beyond that 10-year mark, Eastman said.
The project was completed in March, and in April solar rays produced enough energy to cover all the energy consumption it needed that month. With its agreement with Southeastern Electric, however, it does not use all of it directly.

Gruen-Wald started with Boice working out of an unheated garage, mixing glue in a 5-gallon bucket and dabbing it on the boards. Now, large machinery cures the adhesive with radio-frequency presses, and the completed massive boards are flipped on a chain and caught with a forklift. The RF generator’s frequency is 13,600 times a second, and it produces 40,000 board feet per day.
“We trick it,” Boice said, skipping the technical for the understandable. “If I can be a little bit risque, we’re the Viagra of the wood industry.”

Gruen-Wald operates under the radar, Boice said, so successful that it no longer needs to advertise. Two structural engineers collaborate with him, and the company employs 15.
“We’re getting into the mass timber that’s coming into the area and also the bridges,” Boice said. “I want to expand that and get going so we’re multidimensional.”

Gruen-Wald is now a member of both the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce and the Tea Chamber for Development. To enhance the relationships and connections that Boice thinks are so important, the grand opening today will include a ribbon cutting at 4:30 p.m., free food and beverages from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., a social gathering all evening and random fireworks.
While the plant itself can’t be open for tours, videos will show how the glulam is made, and a model of a glulam timber bridge will be set up.
It’s part of Boice’s drive to be a good community member and employer.

“I do pro bono if someone can’t afford engineering,” he said. “I want to be a good community member, and I want to take care of my people.”
Some people have been fighting alternative-energy solutions, and the education that will take place through Gruen-Wald’s move to solar energy may allay some suspicions, Boice said.
“I want people to think about and do what’s good for the country, not what’s good for you as an individual or to enrich your buddies,” he said. “I can’t stop it, but I can shine a light in the corner I’m in and hopefully do some good.”
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Meet the under-the-radar family business that today opens the state’s first solar-powered manufacturing facility.
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