Print edition: 
Mike Quigley thinks he has the perfect business.
Gets to call his own shots. Plenty of sunshine and fresh air. More or less recession-proof.
Oh, there's just one thing. The owner of Anthony's Window Cleaning Co. sometimes has to dangle off the sides of buildings several hundred feet in the air.
"Sixteen feet or 600 feet, it doesn't matter, does it?" Quigley said Tuesday atop the windy, sun-scorched roof of the Intrust Bank building downtown.
Actually, the tallest building in Wichita, the Epic Center, stops at about 320 feet, but that's still enough to keep most people out of Quigley's line of work.
"It definitely takes a fearless breed," Kirk Flesher said. Quigley often works for Kirk Flesher Window Cleaning as a subcontractor. "And it's hard work. You're lugging around a lot of heavy equipment. I'd rather pay somebody to do it."
Quigley, 49, sports a deep tan, tennis shoes and a ball cap turned backward. He started washing windows in high-rises as a teenager in his native St. Louis.
"I was 68 stories up," he said of one of his first jobs. "I loved it."
He's washed windows in Dallas, Phoenix, New York (where he worked on the Twin Towers) and Las Vegas.
"In Vegas you'd be surprised at what you see on the 27th floor at 7 o'clock in the morning," he said.
He landed in Wichita as the result of a mishap, or maybe two. In St. Louis he stepped off of a four-story building. A tree and rope broke his fall. A year to the day later in Phoenix —"This is a funny story," Quigley insists — a 40- foot ladder collapsed under him. He broke a wrist and pelvis and injured a rotator cuff.
He got some money in a settlement, rehabbed his injuries and went back to school to train as an aircraft mechanic. He took a job here with Cessna. But when he lost that in a layoff, it was back to washing windows. He's worked on most of the city's tallest buildings, including the Garvey Center, Hyatt Regency and City Hall.
"I've done that whole building in seven days by myself," he said, gesturing toward the 19-story Wichita Executive Centre.
Quigley has a crew of eight employees, most of whom he's trained. He starts by having them rappel off of one- or two-story buildings. When it's time to make the transition to high-rises, it's not always an easy sell.
"I had one guy start freaking out on me," Quigley said. "I got in his head, it probably took 45 minutes. Then he went up with me, and he's still with me."
Then there's the actual act of washing windows. Quigley said the trick (in addition to Joy dishwashing liquid) is in the wrist.
"It's a S-shaped whirl-type movement," he said. "Once that squeegee comes off, the window is clean. Boom. Done."
On Tuesday, Quigley had a two-man crew descending from City Hall's roof in what's known as a "swing stage." Another washer was rappelling down the Intrust Bank building in a harness. Quigley still goes over the side when needed, but much of the time he's setting up equipment on roofs and coordinating the washers' movements. For the most part, window washing is not done in direct sunlight. Quigley works through winter, but rain and wind can shut down the operation at any time.
Quigley says working closely with Flesher's larger company helps him pay his employees regularly. He said business is good —"Windows have to be washed" — but Flesher said the economy has caused some building owners to cut back.
Off the job, Quigley relaxes by playing the drums and hanging out with his 20-year-old son, Derek, who works with him — but not on high rises.
"I won't let him go up," Quigley said. "I know it's safe, but he's my only son."
