The man who built seemingly every major landmark erected in Michigan’s Great Southwest during his lifetime was selected posthumously this year as a 2019 Distinguished Constructor Awardee and inducted into the Michigan Construction Hall of Fame.
Burton H. Pearson Sr. was inducted last week on October 24, 2019 at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, where, every year since 2003, distinguished constructors in the State of Michigan have been recognized and added to the Michigan Construction Hall of Fame.
The Distinguished Constructor Award was established to formally recognize the significant achievements made by individuals to the Michigan construction industry. The selection committee identifies nominees who have provided major contributions to the industry and to their community based on the nominee’s involvement as a constructor with consistent service and professional achievement.
To provide further recognition of recipients of the Distinguished Constructor Award, Ferris State University has created the Michigan Construction Hall of Fame display in the Granger Center for Construction and HVACR. That Hall of Fame serves as a permanent place for students, staff and visitors to appreciate the endeavors of leaders in the Michigan construction industry. The Michigan Construction Hall of Fame is an inspirational display, challenging everyone to strive for excellence.
The followings is Burt Sr.’s biography as presented at the induction ceremony:
Born and raised in the St. Joseph/Benton Harbor area, Burt Pearson, Sr.’s family was involved as an integral part of the community. Burt attended the original St. Joseph High School which was constructed by his father and married in the church partially funded and built by his father as founder of Pearson Construction. At the age of 12 he began sweeping floors at the office of Pearson Construction. At 13, he was driving his father to jobsites in Kentucky while his father worked in the front seat.
Burt attended Northwestern University to study engineering, but was drafted and served in the Army Air Corps in Washington D.C. When the war ended, he chose Western Michigan University and changed his major to study business administration to prepare him for working for the construction company founded by his father. He chose the construction career path offered him and he never worked a job in another industry.
He began work as a carpenter in the field to really learn the business. His first job as a Project Manager took him to Escanaba constructing their water plant. Pearson Construction completed client work around the country, but Burt’s projects were primarily in Michigan. Burt was instrumental in establishing Pearson Engineering, Inc. enabling the company to provide unique design build services to its clients — one of the first full-service, turnkey design and construction firms in the 1950’s.
While working on Pearson’s largest project to date, the Berrien County Courthouse, Burt’s father passed away unexpectedly. Burt was elected President by his brothers and maintained the company’s strategy to achieve complete client satisfaction plus retaining its focus on the local economy of southwest Michigan. As the prominent builder in the St. Joseph/Benton Harbor area, Burt was well acquainted with the regional business owners. His business philosophy, embraced by the company, was “to do what’s right, even when you’re wrong, and even when you have been wronged, you need to do what is right.” This put added pressure on Burt, but he believed that the company’s best unintended salespersons were their competition – that while they might do one job for a client, that client always returned to Pearson.
Burt became President the same year that Pearson Construction expanded into metal prefabricated buildings —just beginning to be introduced into the mainstream of the construction industry. The advantage of becoming an authorized dealer was delivery and economic efficiency — having a building pre-engineered and sent to a site with all its components matched Burt’s desire for the company to have full control of a project. He kept the company focused on project types in which they had experience and skills—they could be very difficult projects, but they were within their capability—commercial structures, schools, hospitals, factories, and water plants.
Burt served as the President of Pearson for 31 years and then an additional 9 years as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He was extremely dedicated to the business, working 7 days a week. It is rare to find a picture of him not dressed in a suit and tie. The annual family vacation revolved around the Associated General Contractors yearly gathering — out of his sense of obligation to his family, employees, and the community, plus his love of the industry.
He was particularly proud that Pearson Construction self-performed many of the trades’ work used on the projects they constructed – and that most of those tradespeople were local to the area – thereby positively impacting the local economy. He was proud to be able to help his employees when needed, whether it was financial or simply a favor, without an expectation of repayment. Most employees started and ended their construction careers at Pearson.
Burt’s honesty and integrity with clients and employees are the basis for the company’s Seven Principles: People, Performance, Professionalism, Progressive, Passion, Perseverance, Partnership. He treated everyone fairly, even to the extent of offering client profit sharing based upon a project’s efficiency – a very uncommon practice in the construction industry.
Burt was proud of every building the company constructed and his client contacts. He would often drive new employees around town showing them all the company’s projects constructed that year. He was most proud of the Berrien County Courthouse project. One of the construction events he most enjoyed was bid day with its flurry of activity and he thrived on physically delivering bids.
He never truly retired from the family business when his son took over. He continually visited jobsites and was actively involved. Even when unable to physically get to the jobsite, schedules and budgets were brought to him for his review. When he was once asked about his hobbies, he replied that it was “working in our construction company.”
A video shown at the induction ceremony chronicling the life of Burton Sr and highlighting his contribution to the construction industry and community can be found at the Pearson Construction Facebook page which is linked below.
https://www.facebook.com/PearsonConstructionCompany/
Founded in 1918, Pearson Construction is the leading commercial, industrial, and institutional construction services firm in Southwest Michigan. They are a third generation, family owned design-build, general contracting, and construction management firm, headquartered in Benton Harbor.
The Pearson family of companies also includes TERA Architects, a full-service architectural firm, originated in 1956 as Pearson Engineering, Inc. You can learn more about Pearson Construction Company at www.pearsonconstruction.com.
