Truss Tales

House of Design, which ignited the component industry enthusiasm for robotics, has tragically gone out of business, but not all is lost. We have learned that robots can pick plates very effectively among other benefits, but we also learned that fact 15 years ago from Jim Urmson’s TCT...

An industry stalwart has retired, and his journey is worth some reflection. Even though he didn’t want to, Norm McKenna learned component design. Then, he combined it with something he really wanted to do and parlayed that combination into a 46-year career. But, as with most other building...

When Dave Chambers called me his partner in front of a customer 35 years ago, it gave me a feeling of empowerment I still remember to this day. Since then, I don’t recall many other owners extending the same courtesy to their non-owner employees. But, I believe that this concept of a...

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...

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...

To hide mental decline is nearly impossible, unless you’re the boss and have guardians, who are usually family members. I witnessed this with Walter Moehlenpah, owner of MiTek’s predecessor, Hydro-Air Engineering, and I had to leave the company before it nearly collapsed, as did many...

An ingenious machine that is used in nearly every truss plant has been reborn 40 years after its introduction. It could fit in the back of a pickup truck, it sold for less than $5000, and it made an immediate impact. Yet, few would know the inventor, Donald Bowser, and know that his technology...

No one has put more people of modest means into their own homes than Mr. D.R. Horton, who passed away in May. Founding the D.R. Horton company in 1978, Mr. Horton began serving this market in the 1980s in Texas, when mortgage rates were 12%, and the company continues today in Virginia with 7%...

The tiny town of Sparta, North Carolina, turned out to honor Clint Bedsaul when he passed away in early 2021. Many among the crowd had been touched by the jobs he brought to their struggling remote community, but few knew the improbable details. And how Clint Bedsaul, the owner of a trucking...

One gentleman owned the best plant in a fast-growing town. The other worked for the best supplier in a fast-growing role. Both had what seemed to be unassailable credentials and both adapted well to changing market conditions. But only one would survive. Their tales tell a lot about survival in...