In 1982, with a Michigan Tech business finance degree but no job prospects in his field, David McBride turned to the thing he knew—working with his hands. He fixed screen doors and completed small painting projects for a clientele consisting mostly of his mother’s friends.
Years of hard work turned that small business into an award-winning remodeling company and a thriving self-storage enterprise as McBride capitalized on two growth industries.
“I thought that a business education would be a good base for any business I wanted to run, and that turned out to be true,” says McBride. “Michigan Tech teaches the value of hard work. It also helps you see opportunities overlooked by others.”
Now, McBride and his wife, Joy, are supporting Michigan Tech’s College of Business through a planned gift that will create both an endowed chaired professorship and an endowed professorship. The McBrides also give annual gifts to support the University’s Summer Youth Programs (SYP) and need-based scholarships within the College of Business.
Going on an Adventure
While McBride knew he wanted to attend college, he didn’t know where. The Flint, Michigan, native made visits to Michigan State University and Northwood University before deciding that Tech was the right size, location, and challenge.
“Michigan Tech had all the right ingredients,” he says. “If you’re there, you’re there to go to school and you’re all in. You don’t leave on the weekends. It’s a world-class education in a fantastic community surrounded by the beauty of the UP.”
With two roommates in his small Wadsworth Hall room, McBride remembers there being two desks and only one dresser for the three of them. “One of us had to go to the library to study,” he says.
McBride adjusted to the academic rigor quickly and made lasting relationships with friends while attending Tech hockey games, exploring the Keweenaw, and participating in Tech traditions.
One particular memory from his freshman year involved students trying to break a world record during K-Day at McLain State Park. “We made a really long circle where one person sits on the previous person’s knees,” he recalls. “I ended up sitting on Dean (of Students Harold) Meese’s lap.”
Humble Beginnings
McBride’s plan had been to get a corporate job and then open his own business after getting experience. After interviewing for corporate jobs, no offers were forthcoming. He went to Yellowstone Park to work a summer job that his brother had arranged for him the previous summer. The turning point was at summer's end when he received a job offer with the park service and decided that was not truly his calling.
McBride’s parents had moved from Flint to Petoskey while he was at college, and his father had passed away the summer he graduated from Tech. McBride moved home with his mother and started his fix-it business, drawing on experience he already had. He had extensive training as part of his high school carpentry trades program. In high school, he had helped family friends remodel a restaurant, and completed many smaller projects throughout the community.
“It was a natural fit after college to pick up where I left off in high school. I networked with my mom’s friends and did projects for them: changing a doorknob, building a deck, painting. Whatever it was, I would do it.”
By 1985, McBride had hired his first employee and built his first house. He continued to work out of his bedroom at his mother’s house until 1987, when he rented an efficiency apartment and used the garage as his office.
“Coming out of college, I thought I needed to get a job working for someone else and gain corporate experience before I could start my own business,” he says. “Thank goodness that didn’t happen.”
Capitalizing on Opportunities
McBride was approached by a real estate agent with two possible opportunities. “He said, ‘I have this house with a garage apartment that would be a good investment. Or there’s this 25-acre gravel pit,’” McBride recalls. “Guess which one I bought.”
McBride turned the gravel pit into an industrial park. He made a deal with a friend whose excavating business was outgrowing its shop. “I agreed to give him three acres in exchange for him building a few roads for me. I then built his new shop,” McBride says. “The real estate agent sold one of the lots in the new industrial park, and the investment really took off from there.”
McBride met Joy through a contractor job building a new office at the company where she worked. After the two were married, she convinced him to finally move out of the efficiency apartment into a house three doors down. They have been happy there ever since.
Another opportunity came with McBride’s storage business. He had built a multi-unit warehouse in his industrial park, and several of the units weren’t selling. He started storing boats and cars in the unused space. A year or two later, after all the units had sold, McBride still had customers wanting space to store their boats and cars—so he built another building and started his storage business. One building turned into another. When people asked if he had space to store their personal belongings, he built a mini self-storage building, too.
“None of this was planned. It was just the progression,” he says. “Home improvement and storage were industries in their infancy in the ’80s. Now there’s dozens of TV shows dedicated to both. Michigan Tech helped me learn how to see those opportunities.”
Giving Back in Gratitude
Today, with McBride Construction Inc., Northland Self-Storage LLC, and numerous other thriving ventures to their name, the McBrides are helping ensure future generations can benefit from a Michigan Tech education. A planned estate gift will support two faculty positions in the College of Business: the David and Joy McBride Endowed Chaired Professorship and the David and Joy McBride Endowed Professorship.
"At some point, you reflect on where you’re at in life, and reflect on where you’d be if Michigan Tech wasn’t part of your life,” says McBride. “Wouldn’t you want others to have the same opportunities?"
With annual gifts, the McBrides continue to support several initiatives. They fund the Dave and Joy McBride and Northland Self-Storage Youth Programs Scholarship for SYP students. They are establishing the David and Joy McBride Faculty Fellowship to support experiential programs and the development of business-focused Summer Youth Programs. They provide funding for existing College of Business students who need financial assistance to maintain their enrollment. They will also establish a student professional development conference space within the College’s facilities.
“I’ve dabbled in a lot,” says McBride. “I’ve owned gravel pits, industrial parks, drive-in theaters, and mini self-storage facilities. My Michigan Tech education taught me how to get stuff done. When others see a road block, Tech grads see a bump in the road. The world would be a much more efficient place with more Michigan Tech graduates in it.”
Michigan Technological University is an R1 public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan's flagship technological university offers more than 185 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
