Carlton Brady, former director of HR and Safety for the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast divisions
(center) sits with former Greensboro District Sales Manager Don Douglas and his wife, Marie,
who also spent years working for the company.
ONE Legacy: Annual Luncheon Celebrates
10 January/February 2020 The Conveyor |10 www.martinmarietta.com
Martin Marietta’s Culture
There’s action in every corner of the
room as David Brisley enters.
To his left, a waitress delivers fresh
glasses of iced tea. To his right, two men
heartily shake hands – the kind of shake
that only comes from friends who haven’t
seen each other in ages. Throughout, the
roar of laughter echoes. It was a long
journey from Atlanta to get here, but Brisley
is glad he made the trip.
“This is all about renewing friendships,”
says the former director of operations
services, who spent 43 years in the
Southeast Division before retiring in 2012.
“This company has always been full of good
people. There was never anyone trying to
one-up anyone else. It was always just a
great team effort.”
Brisley is part of a group that has
gathered in the same Greensboro, North
Carolina, restaurant annually since January
2008 to celebrate each other and the Martin
Marietta culture that continues to bind them.
“Back then, we just called it our Old
Timer’s Lunch because most of us were still
working,” jokes Dean Hardy, the event’s
organizer.
Hardy, who spent 40 years with Martin
Marietta and led what was then known as
the Carolina Division, says the luncheon has
grown gradually since that first meeting of
10 co-workers and friends. This year, he sent
out invitations via text message, email and
Facebook, eventually reaching out to more
than 60 people who each spent decades
building Martin Marietta into the company it
is today.
“Looking around, I’d estimate this room
holds between 1,300 and 1,500 years of
Martin Marietta experience,” he says later
while addressing the crowd.
To an extent, the gathering is informative.
In his remarks, Hardy welcomes and
introduces new attendees, speaks briefly
about those unable to make the event and
provides an update about those who have
passed since the previous year’s gathering.
At its core, however, the luncheon is a
social event – a chance for old friends to
speak about their families, their hobbies and
their travels while swapping stories about
the old days.
While most in attendance spent their
careers in the Mid-Atlantic area, Larry Ward,
a former Charlotte District vice president
general manager, is quick to point out
that the company’s footprint in its earliest
days didn’t extend much further – certainly
not to the 27 states and international sites
it does today.
“We had management meetings and you
would know every single plant manager in the
company by name,” he says. “We had a family
culture back then. I think having that culture
to the same extent must be challenging at a
company as big as Martin Marietta is now.”
Agreeing with Ward, Hardy says he strives
with each event to do his part to keep that
culture strong.
“These people are like family to me,” he
says. “I started organizing this because I felt
camaraderie with these people. I wanted to
sit down with them and break bread and tell
them how much I appreciated everything
they had done to help me in my career. But
what I think this comes down to is that
these people were committed to the
company and to each other and now, they’re
just enjoying being part of a group that
helped make Martin Marietta successful.” ▼
Dean Hardy, organizer of the annual luncheon,
speaks briefly to a group of about 40 former
Martin Marietta employees.
/www.martinmarietta.com
