That our industry has come of age was illustrated by the carful of its members that I drove to Camden Yards on August 13. We fans of the Washington Nationals ventured into the opposition Baltimore Orioles’ territory, bound for our SBCA Chapter’s annual ballgame meeting. With me was 50-year-younger Tyler Rhodes, who is already excelling at truss design at Kenny Shifflett’s Quadd Building Systems in Remington, Virginia. Riding along was Tyler’s dad, Derek, who is between Tyler’s age and mine. Derek worked as a PE for 17 years at Builders FirstSource before joining MiTek. Also in my car was Trey Rowe, between the Rhodes’s ages, who spent ten years with MiTek, most recently as a District Sales Manager, and now works as a Truss Technician for Stark Truss. All share a passion for design, which is at the heart of the truss business.
Also at the game were two three-generation families. Joe Hikel and his son, Ryan, are the second and third generation of industry icon Dwight Hikel’s family. Joe’s other son, Jason, was back at their Shelter Systems plant in Westminster, Maryland, choosing work over baseball. Sitting next to Joe was Ed Basham, whose two daughters were at work back at his plant, continuing the business that had been transformed by Ed’s late father in Easton, Maryland.
Bringing together dozens of component manufacturers at a summer ballgame has been a key factor in fostering a friendly camaraderie over many years among the business competitors in the Baltimore–Washington area. In fact, interest in our annual outing has grown now that we alternate the location between Baltimore’s retro downtown stadium and Washington’s modern park, two miles from the U.S. Capitol. Next year we’ll be back in friendly territory, 38 miles south of Camden Yards.
That promising young folks like Tyler Rhodes are attracted to follow in their fathers’ footsteps, and that the attraction is strong enough to bring in the third generation, speaks volumes about the strength and stability of the building component industry.
