Cohen Architectural Woodworking in St. James, Mo., has been named by Forbes as one of the "25 Small Giants" in American business. Each year, the magazine identifies the best 25 small companies and then publishes the list, with a story about each company. St. James is about 100 miles southwest of St. Louis, near Rolla.

This piece focuses on how founder Phillip Cohen started the company in the early 1980s, an off-shoot of him making wooden porch swings in a neighbor’s barn as a way to recover from "a life of drug abuse and incarceration." It also points out that the company, which employs about 80 people, makes an effort to hire people who have been in prison or who are recovering from addiction.

"Our people are our strength. We are like a little village all pulling together to serve our clients and our community,” Cohen said in a press release. The business is no stranger to accolades. In 2018, the firm won two awards of excellence from the Architectural Woodworking Institute, for its work at the Phelps County Medical Center in Rolla and at the University of Kansas Health System.