New Chairman Jerry D. Daugherty Kicks Off Our - The Builders ...

Volume 66 Number 1
Official Publication of
720 Oak Street
Kansas City, MO 64106-1608
phone: (816) 531-4741
www.buildersassociation.com
Jerry D. Daugherty
Chairman of the Board
Phillip W. Thomas
Vice Chairman of the Board
Scott Kelly
Assistant Chairman of the Board
Arthur Tanner
Assistant Chairman of the Board
Gregory A. Dunn
Assistant Chairman of the Board
James W. Carson
Immediate Past Chairman
Don Greenwell
President
Bill Wien, Editor
Donna Petersen, Advertising Sales
In this issue . . .
4-5 Esther George Addresses
AGC/CFMA Group
8,
10-11
Builders’ Association Service
Centers Celebrate the Season
14-16 Fogel-Anderson Delivers a New
Dealership for Lee’s Summit
17 CLC Kicks Off a Power-Packed
2013 at PowerPlay
18-19 Estimating Academy Returns to
Builders’ Training Center
20 Builders’ Hosts Block Kids
– cover photo by Rick McKibben
New Chairman Jerry D. Daugherty
Kicks Off Our Next 125 Years
Jerry Daugherty is known for old-fashioned
values that never go out of style – devotion
to family, a strong work ethic, gratitude for
each day’s gifts, and loyalty between employer
and employee. He is also known for his
passion and positive energy. When it comes to
the craftsmen who self-perform much of his
company’s work, for example, his enthusiasm
is palpable and his appreciation is deep.
Our new Chairman became a member of
the Board of Directors in 2006 and the
Executive Board in 2008. He is President and
Owner of Reinhardt Construction Company, a
Centralia-based general contracting firm which
has served Central Missouri since 1957.
Jerry was a Management Trustee on the
Bricklayers Pension Fund from 1985 to 2008
and on the Ironworkers Local 396
Apprenticeship Fund Committee from 1986 to
2006. He valued the opportunity to meet
management and labor trustees and to develop
relationships with the business agents.
“We’re all there for a common goal: to
provide quality benefits for a quality skilled
workforce,” said Jerry. Since 2009, he has also
been a member of the Builders’ Association
Political Action Committee (BAPAC).
Jerry, who lives in Columbia, has been a
Trustee of Columbia College since 1989. He
has been a Director of U.S. Bank in both
Centralia and Columbia since 1978. He is also
a member of the Columbia Rotary Club and an
elder and board member of the First Christian
Church of Columbia.
From 1997-98, he served as President of
the Kansas City Chapter, AGC. His
involvement was encouraged by Skip Hutton,
Jr., who was looking for more participation by
Central Missouri contractors in the KC AGC
and its sister organization, The Builders’
Association. During that time, Jerry built
relationships with contractors in the Greater
Kansas City and Southern Missouri areas –
including Jim Carson, Immediate Past
Chairman of The Builders’ Association.
“Our AGC chapter has given me a lot of
exposure to what is going on at the national
level,” said Jerry. “My world sets within about
a 90-mile radius in Central Missouri, but I’ve
been able to talk to contractors from cities like
New York and Los Angeles and learn how they
operate their businesses.”
Jerry praised his predecessor Jim Carson
for his service as Chairman during 2012, our
125th anniversary year. “Jim Carson and I go
back almost 50 years. When we met through
the AGC, we discovered that we were at the
same concert at the old Brewer Fieldhouse
when Andy Williams and Roger Miller came to
Columbia in the late ’60s. It is quite a
coincidence that he preceded me as President
of the AGC Chapter and then as Chairman of
The Builders’ Association. He has been a great
ambassador for our Association and I am proud
MANAGEMENT STYLE
In describing his management style, Jerry
stated, “I’m still from the old school. I see the
superintendent’s daily job reports once a week.
I still sign all the checks. But I also delegate.
I’ve got great superintendents and I want to
know what’s going on, but you’ve got to turn
things over to your best people and I try to live
by that.”
At Reinhardt, he has demonstrated a strong
commitment to promoting from within. “I’ve
always said you crawl before you walk and you
walk before you run. I try to promote
internally, and if I’ve got an employee who has
the skills, the work ethic, and the ability to get
along with people, I will talk to the
superintendent about promoting him to
foreman. If that proves successful, he’ll be
promoted to superintendent doing smaller jobs
and then larger jobs.”
He places a priority on people skills. “I’ll
say this probably more than once: It’s all about
relationships. If it’s a choice between resumes
versus relationships, relationships are going to
win every time. Every time,” he emphasized.
Jerry has strong roots in construction. His
grandfather was a carpenter and his uncle was
a homebuilder. Both worked in Columbia. In
1967, during his sophomore year at MU, Jerry
got a call from one of his uncle’s friends, Bill
Reinhardt, Founder of Reinhardt Construction
Company. Bill asked Jerry if he would help
him implement a cost system during the
summer, and Jerry said yes. Jerry continued to
work for Bill Reinhardt during summers while
in college.
In January 1970, Jerry and his wife Mary
both graduated from MU. Jerry received his
Bachelor of Science degree in Wood Products
and Construction, and formally began his
career at Reinhardt Construction Company. He
became a partner in 1980, and he and Mary
became sole owners in 1995.
ALIFE-CHANGING CLASS
Jerry was on the golf team each of his four
years at MU. In January 1968, when he was a
junior, he was out of town at a tournament and
unable to make the first few classes of Econ
210. Before going to class, he went to the
professor’s office and was asked to sign the
seating chart. Jerry looked for a spot at the
back of the room and thought, If I sit next to a
female, this class might be more interesting. He
signed his name next to Mary Ault, whom he
had never met.
Mary liked to sit in front, but on the first
day of class she was late and sat in back. When
the professor passed around the seating chart,
she signed her name where she was sitting.
“When I got to class I sat down, and then
this attractive young lady came and sat down
beside me,” recalled Jerry. He asked her out for
a Coke but was initially turned down. Several
weeks into class, she agreed to go to church
to follow in his footsteps.” (continued on next page)
January-March 2013 MODERN BUILDER 1