For decades, Joe Beyer has worked tirelessly to restore corroded and blighted stained glass windows to their former glory. The owner of the 44-year-old Beyer Studio in Germantown and his staff of 25 artists erase the vicissitudes of old age and transform sometimes century-old windows so that they gleam and sparkle anew. 

Some jobs have been massive. The restoration of 1,500 leaded windows at Princeton University cost several million dollars. But Beyer's favorite and most memorable job was unquestionably a window in an 800-year-old chapel in Normandy, France, where D-Day famously took place on June 6, 1944. (More than 73,000 Allied troops were killed and 153,000 wounded in the ensuing Battle of Normandy.)

On the day before that historic World War II battle, the Rev. Ignatius Maternowski, a chaplain and captain for the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, parachuted into Normandy, according to uswarmemorials.org, he ministered to wounded paratroopers, and then went to get more help.

“Walking between enemy lines unarmed,” the historical record continues, “with helmet hanging from his belt and wearing his chaplain’s insignia and a Red Cross armband, he bravely went to meet with the head German medic. As he returned through the no-man zone to the American side, he was shot in the back by an enemy sniper, becoming the only U.S. chaplain to be killed on D-Day. He was 32 years of age and was in the 5th year of his priesthood.”

Decades later, Maternowski's order of priests commissioned Beyer to create a stained glass window to commemorate the chaplain’s heroism at a Medieval church near Normandy.

“I hired a studio in France to install the window,” Beyer told us last week. “I was there when we dedicated it in 2022. A busload of German paratroopers was there as well, and a D-Day veteran was flown in. There were many wonderful speeches. It was a thrilling experience for me. My father was in the Army Air Corps, and he delivered paratroopers to Normandy, so this experience provided great satisfaction for me.  

Beyer grew up in Hatfield, Montgomery County, and studied painting at the Philadelphia College of Art (later the University of the Arts). After graduation, he moved to Mt. Airy and later to Chestnut Hill. He apprenticed with the now-defunct Willits Art Studio in Chestnut Hill.

“I did a special project with stained glass, and I was hooked,” Beyer said. “Stained glass was always fascinating to me, even as a child. My parents took me to a church in Lansdale that had magnificent stained glass, but the church was later torn down. I watched the wrecking ball from the schoolyard. It was very sad. A distant acquaintance put me in touch with the Willits Studio. I got my foot in the door, and they hired me on the spot.”

Beyer worked at the Willits Studio for four years, but Willits was badly hurt by the recession in the late 1970s and early '80s. They were making windows but losing money, so they sold the name, and Joe and his then-fiancee, Rita, were both laid off on Memorial Day, 1980. A few days later, they were married. Rita, who later wrote reviews of local art exhibits for the Local, began waiting on tables and even cooked at the Spring Mill Cafe in Conshohocken. 

“She helped keep me afloat,” Beyer said. “We were forced to go out on our own. Then, 40 years ago, I was invited to do the Home Show at the Civic Center, and from there we really took off.”

The Beyers opened their first studio in a rental property in Germantown in 1980 and later had two other locations in Germantown. “We needed to have our own building, though,” Beyer said, “and 20 years ago we saw a for sale sign on a building at 4813 Wayne Ave. We came here right away and agreed to the purchase.”

Most of Beyer's clients are churches, but the firm will soon be restoring the windows of a synagogue, Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Fairmount. The company also has restored stained glass windows at many colleges including the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia and Gonzaga University in Washington.

“Considering the weather and the setting of the windows, they should be able to last 100 years or even longer before they need to be restored,” Beyer said. “There is actually a surplus of stained glass in Philadelphia because in every neighborhood there were ethnic churches that are now closed. We removed and restored the windows in some of them and put them on our website for architects to see. For example, Raleigh, North Carolina, has a new cathedral that is using 40 windows we had taken. Lead holds them together, but we take them apart, and they will be good for another century. We have done it in almost every one of the 50 states.”

For more information, visit beyerstudio.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.