Mary Farrar has lots of energy. The Kansas-based contractor even came out of retirement to start a new metal erection division at All Pro Contracting, based in Olathe, Kan. That restlessness defi nes her career. Farrar admits that she’s uncertain exactly
how she got into the metal building business. “Somedays, I don’t know myself,” she says, but it begins when her youngest of fi ve children started kindergarten, and through a series of connections, she took on a part-time bookkeep- ing job at Metal Building Sales and Erection Co., which was owned by Bill Todd. That fateful land- ing in 1972 resulted in a career that has helped defi ne the metal building industry. Todd encouraged Farrar to become involved
in the local chapter of the Metal Building Deal- ers Association (MBDA). “He immediately got me involved in the trade association,” she says. “It was a very important thing for him, and he taught me that early on.” During that period, Todd contracted a seri-
ous illness that took him out of commission for several months. “And that left me and the iron- workers,” says Farrar. “We managed to make things work and get things done.” That willing- ness to jump in and make things work is a trait that follows Farrar throughout her career. Her involvement in the local MBDA grew
and by 1977 her presence was being noticed by others in the association. A large general contractor encouraged her to begin work on her own, and in 1978, Farrar started her own com- pany, Systems Erectors. “It was an on-the-job learning process,” she
says. “I didn’t know what I was doing. It just seemed like you’d do step one, step two, step three. It was pretty sequential. But it was a real struggle. And with all the things I know today, I would never do a thing like that.” But it worked, and Systems Erectors grew
and was a successful company. When her father became seriously ill in the
mid-80s, Farrar felt her focus changing a bit and she took the opportunity to merge her company with Builder Erection Services. That allowed her to focus on running production and not have to worry about payroll and other business issues. For 20 years, the relationship worked great and Farrar thrived. The freedom also allowed her to become
increasingly involved in the metal building industry and pursue other ventures. After MBDA evolved
into the present-day Metal Building Contractors and Erectors Association (MBCEA), Farrar had emerged as an infl uential person on the national stage. The culmination of that were her two terms as president of the association in 2002 to 2004. During that time, she accomplished two important goals. The fi rst was to get the association back on a fi rm fi nancial footing and the second was to work with Bob Ketenbrink—Hall of Fame Honoree in 2012—and others, to create the Craftsman DVD Training Series, which has become an essen- tial backbone of the industry. The strategy was to create value for the association by offering educa- tion, and the result was a bank account with funds in it that had been empty when she took offi ce. “Mainly, I wanted the association to be healthy before I left offi ce.” But MBCEA was not the only group Farrar
was aligned with. She was also a founding mem- ber of the Committee of 200, which started in 1982. “We were trying to identify 200 women in the U.S. who had gross revenues in excess of $1 million,” Farrar says. “One of the biggest things I pushed for was women’s access to capital. That was a challenge. It seemed like if you didn’t have your dad or your brother or you uncle or some- body, they had trouble even talking to you.” Farrar is still involved in the organization and
has testifi ed in front of Congress about issues related to women entrepreneurs. In the early '90s, another cause also garnered
her attention. While working with Bill Miller, who owned Builder Erection Services, they became concerned about new contract language that put subcontractors at a signifi cant disadvantage. The language included such things as “pay-when-paid” and indemnifi cation clauses. “It was unreal,” she says. “People were so excited to get work, they were just signing this stuff. Ninety percent of the time you’d get away with it. But that 10 percent, people were losing their businesses.” Working through the American Subcontrac-
tors Association (ASA), Farrar pushed for greater education of business owners about contract language and pressured the state legislature to step in and protect small business owners from the onerous language. Today, much of the lan- guage has been rooted out and subcontractors are garnering greater respect. Farrar’s energy and devotion have helped the
metal construction industry through a myriad of ways, and for that she has received recognition as a member of the 2013 Metal Construction Hall of Fame.
Mary Farrar
A force in the metal building
erection industry
“The most important thing to me about the
metal construction industry is without a doubt
the people I have met and interacted with,
both my ‘union ironworker employees’ and the
many associates I have throughout the industry.”
www.metalconstructionnews.com
November 2013 METAL CONSTRUCTION NEWS 21
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