The Michigan Construction Hall of Fame welcomed four inductees during a formal ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 6 at Ferris State University's Granger Center for Construction and HVACR on its Big Rapids campus.
Selection for the Michigan Construction Hall of Fame is based on nominees' technical, managerial and leadership achievements within construction and related industries, as well as service to the profession and community.
The 2014 inductees are:
John Bartos
Bartos is president, CEO and founder of JS&B Associates and the founder of Three Rivers Construction Corporation, both in Midland, and Texas Rivers Construction in Freeport, Texas. Three Rivers was chosen to build Dow Diamond ballpark in Midland, home of the Great Lakes Loons minor league baseball team, the Class A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Bartos is a founding board member of multiple workforce development initiatives throughout Michigan, including MiTech Plus/STEM Talent, and he is a founding member of the Associated Builders and Contractors Saginaw Valley Chapter. He helped start the Greater Michigan Construction Academy to promote vocational education and training, and is past chairman of the National Center for Construction Education and Research Training. In the past four decades, he has served on 26 local and state boards, task forces and initiatives.
Benjamin Capp Jr.
Capp became president of Wolverine Marble Company in Detroit in 1972 and served in that capacity for the next 20 years, before he handed the reins to his own son, Ron. Capp was behind Wolverine's growth from residential and light commercial work to large commercial projects across Michigan and the Midwest. In 1980, the company - now Wolverine Stone - added a ceramic tile division that enabled them to broaden their services to the construction industry.
Capp, whose work includes the State of Illinois Center in Chicago and the American Center in Southfield, Mich., was active in labor-management negotiations. He is past chairman of the Association of Marble Contractors and Finishers of Detroit, was a trustee and chairman of the Tile, Terrazzo and Marble Supplemental Unemployment Benefit Fund for Local 32 and served as director and chairman of the Construction Association of Michigan.
Phillip Fredrickson
Phillip Fredrickson was hired in 1967 by the Lansing-based Christman Company and began building the foundation for a successful 35-year career. He was an advocate for a team-based construction management approach as a method of project delivery at Christman as well as in the Michigan construction industry. He served Christman as vice president in charge of construction management services, executive vice president and general manager, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors.
Fredrickson oversaw Christman's expansion into real estate development in 1991 and its effort to become a national expert in historic preservation. That effort netted a Build America award for historic preservation of the Golden Dome at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. in 2000. The company also oversaw restoration of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing and constructed the Breslin Student Events Center and Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, both at Michigan State University.
Kenneth Lawless
Lawless joined Lansing, Mich.-based Clark Construction Company in 1978 and began a nearly four-decade career, serving as a project manager, project director, vice president, chief operating officer and executive vice president. A strong advocate of skilled training and personnel development, Ken helped Clark develop a highly successfully training program that was recognized with the Cornerstone Award for Training Excellence and the Keystone Award for Education Excellence by the AGC of Michigan.
Ken is past chairman of the board of directors of the Associated General Contractors of Michigan and a former member of the State of Michigan Construction Code Commission, Michigan Energy Code Review Committee and State Construction Management Task Force. He is past president of the Construction Specifications Institute and Lansing Builders Exchange and former business manager of the Construction Managers Association of America.
Michigan Construction Hall of Fame inductees are selected by a committee of professionals representing Associated Builders and Contractors, Associated General Contractors of Michigan, the Construction Association of Michigan, the Michigan Association of Home Builders, the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, and Ferris' Construction Technology and Management programs.
The Michigan Construction Hall of Fame is located in Ferris' Granger Center and serves as a permanent place for leaders of the Michigan construction industry to be recognized and appreciated for their achievements.
For more information and complete biographies of each of the inductees, please click here .
