The Alaska Contractor: Special 60th Anniversary Issue

PH O TO: LA R RY MO O R E & ASSOCIATES
By Ron Dalby
Remembering when he got off the boat in Ketchikan in 1952, Darrell Mc-
Birney said, “I worked for whoever would have me.” He would later move to
Fairbanks in 1958.
For McBirney, coming to Alaska “just seemed like the
thing to do. The market dried up at the little business I
had [in Las Vegas] like in December [1951], and I went to
work on Frenchman Flats for about four or fi ve months
before I came up here. That’s on that atomic energy
proving ground.”
Always willing to work, McBirney started with a
contractor in Ketchikan who was building an addition
on the White Cliff School. “I lost my hand on
that project and I was laid up for about nine months
or a year. I went back Outside for three or four operations
… more like seven or eight operations, and
then came back up the following spring. I’ve been in
Alaska ever since.”
His company, CJM Construction, has “done a little
bit of everything. The only home building I’ve done in
Alaska has been either for the Corps of Engineers or the
Air Force—never building for resale or that nature.
“I’ve been in the commercial and industrial end of it
since then, primarily buildings.”
The list of jobs McBirney’s been involved with over
the years reads like a list of Alaska’s major building
projects, particularly in the Interior. When queried, his
eyes twinkle yet again, and he starts reciting, “Lathrop
High School, the Fine Arts Complex at the University of
Alaska [Fairbanks], the Woodshed at the University of
Alaska, the biosciences building and the airport terminal
expansion [Fairbanks]. How many more do you want?”
he asks, laughing.
When asked about various government projects, he
laughs again and says, “You don’t want to hear them
[stories about working for the government]; too many
four-letter words.”
As far as government regulations go, “Actually I doubt
that it’s any worse here than it is anywhere else. You get
into things which are absolutely haywire.”
Telling stories
Spend a few minutes with McBirney and you quickly
realize that his reminiscences are fi lled with lively stories
Darrell McBirney
‘I think there’s bigger
things coming’
from bygone eras, like a job he once had in Valdez.
“Hewitt [Construction] had done the fi rst phase of
it, which was the earthwork,” he said. “The architect had
designed the building to sit on top of that earthwork, but
they didn’t set it on top of the earthwork. They set it off
to the side.
“They didn’t go back to check to make sure of what
they were doing and consequently from there on through
the project nothing fi t.
“We sat down and made a list of everything that
was haywire and I had a fellow working with me in
Anchorage where the architect was. I asked him to go
in and take the list to the architect of the most pressing
and on down the line so that we could keep the
work moving.
“I got a letter from the architect telling me they didn’t
want him disrupting them anymore because he was too
disruptive in their offi ce.” In the meantime, McBirney
was still trying to get on with the building. Eventually
it got fi nished, but not without a lot of on-the-spot
adjustments.
A bit of history
“I really liked the airport project best of any that we’ve
done because of the outcome at the end,” McBirney said.
“Towards the end was the visit of President [Ronald]
Reagan and Pope John Paul meeting at the airport. The
airport wasn’t completed, but we cleaned the airport up
and fi nished off a room for them to meet.
“Regardless of what your political affi liation is or
your religion, the fact that Pope John Paul and President
Reagan met here in Fairbanks was quite a feat.”
Challenges
“Challenges come in different forms,” McBirney said.
“Some in the construction itself and some in the people
you are working for.
“I can’t think of one right now that was more challenging
than the other. Of course you always had the
challenge … you were trying to get your building enclosed
before the cold weather so that you could work
40 The Alaska conTrAcTor 60th Anniversary Issue 1948–2008