On Labor Day this year, I reflected on two component industry greats who escaped the drudgery of mill work that entrapped their fathers and created highly successful component businesses. Both were drawn to the nearest meccas of prosperity, Calvin Hall to Charlotte, North Carolina and David Baird to the Washington D.C. Metro Area.
Every work day in the 1950s, a young Calvin Hall witnessed what he didn’t want to do, as he watched his exhausted dad after he had dragged himself up the hill from his grueling work at Dan River Mill. The Halls lived in what was called a shotgun house, identical to their neighbors, on high ground overlooking the large textile sweatshop on the Dan River in Danville, Virginia. After he finished high school, Calvin looked for any job that would let him escape that mill town, and eventually found one two hours south near Charlotte. Calvin began as the apprentice manager of the concrete block plant at Southeastern Materials, eventually running that plant and its startup truss business. There Calvin found his forte, innovating sound business practices in a brand new truss industry, and continually growing the penetration of trusses among inveterate stick-framers. In 1977, Calvin struck out on his own about 40 minutes away, closer to the burgeoning growth of Charlotte, and quickly became one of the leading suppliers and influencers in that market. In 1998, his company, Carolina Truss & Manufacturing, was the one of the first truss companies acquired by Carolina Holdings in what would become Stock Building Supply and later ProBuild.
When Dave Baird went to work in the steel mill with his dad in Homestead, Pennsylvania, it was one of the most important steel centers in the world. But Dave quickly reasoned that he could have a better future by using his brain to design things rather than using his hands to build them. He left the mill in the fall and began working on a civil engineering degree, and upon graduation found work designing and selling wood components in the D.C. Metro area. As he gained a large following of customers, Dave went out on his own in a small shop in northern Virginia, honoring his origins by naming his business Homestead Building Systems. There he continually grew his capabilities from distributor of TJI joists to wall panel fabrication to turn-key installation to eventually owning one of the finest truss facilities in the market. In March of this year, Dave sold his multi-million dollar business to US LBM, a great tribute to his stunning success.
From humble beginnings, both men labored to build impressive and enduring component businesses.