Scott McClurg

He has built a company that now employs over 50 full-time people — ll while serving as a firefighter in Syracuse

By Mary Beth Roach

 

As a student at Westhill High School in the 1960s, Scott McClurg found he really enjoyed the wood and metal shop classes. Little did he realize then that the skills he was honing would lead to the creation of McClurg Remodeling and Construction Services, which has been serving the Central New York area for more than 40 years.

Today, McClurg, at 75, is the founder, president and co-owner of the Marcellus-based company, which employs about 50 people fulltime.

“I think it’s so important that you go with what you want to do. If you find something that you really love to do, it will come. It will happen as long as you’ve got the energy and the desire,” he said.

And as for the energy and desire, he has both — so much so that for 20 years he held two full-time jobs — in construction and as a Syracuse firefighter.

Prior to being a firefighter and running a business, however, McClurg had been enrolled at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania. His parents, Robert and Julia, had strongly believed that a college education was crucial.

However, after three years, he left college, returned to Central New York and began working for an area construction company.

That he followed his passion, went into construction and built a successful business has led McClurg to become a strong advocate for the trades, often speaking to students about exploring vocational educational opportunities and careers in the field of construction.

To underscore that commitment, he has been featured in a video that the Marcellus School District did to promote its new Career Exploration and Agricultural Sciences Building that opened earlier this year.  Also, the company has partnered with a class at Marcellus High School to create “The McClurg Building Corner,” aimed at introducing young people to construction.

Before establishing his own company, though, he was working for another business. His then-supervisor, Jerry Pitt, also a Syracuse firefighter, was impressed with McClurg’s energy and abilities and he encouraged McClurg to take the exam for the fire department.

“I’m kind of a little bit of an adrenaline junkie,” he said. So, he took the written exam but opted out of the physical part of the test because, as he said, “I was enjoying construction so much.”

Pitt persisted, so McClurg took the exam, trained and came in No. 3 in the class.

“I took the job and I couldn’t have loved it more,” he said. He came on in 1978 and remained with the fire department for 20 years.

But as much as McClurg loved being with the fire department, the work can take a significant emotional toll.

After moving to the department’s Rescue Company, he recalled a conversation he had with a veteran firefighter, during which he was told that ‘the highest points of your life and the lowest points of your life are going to be related to this job.’

Two years later, as he was sitting with the same firefighter, those words came back to him. It was 2 a.m. and they just lost two kids in a fire.

“I sat with him with tears in my eyes,” he said.

Over this 20-year career with the department, he was honored several times, including for the rescue of a man was unconscious at a fire on James Street and for saving a construction worker who had fallen down a five-story shaft. McClurg was lowered down the shaft and secured the worker with gear so he could be lifted out.  Another involved a young man on Tipperary Hill who had gone back into his burning home to rescue his dog. The animal was located, alive and well and McClurg and his partner found the man in the home’s attic unconscious. They got him out of the house and he survived for about two hours, but tragically died, as McClurg recalled.

McClurg was also awarded the Hamilton S. White Award, presented by the Syracuse Fire Department’s Federal Credit Union to an individual who advances the brotherhood of firefighters by devotion to the cause.

At about the same time he joined the fire department, he started his own construction company. Eventually, he hired some full-time help and had his wife, Suzanne, handling the books; and he brought in Pitt as a partner. All while working out of his home on Kasson Road.

In the 1980s, the business moved to Main Street in Marcellus, which serves as the company’s office, and in 2007, the company purchased a large parcel on Lee Mulroy Road for its wood shop and warehouse.

But even a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie, who has so much energy that his fellow firefighters nicknamed him “Scooter,” can only do so much. For 20 years, he had been working 100 to 120 hours a week, he said. In 1998, he finally made the difficult decision to retire from the fire department with the rank of lieutenant and focus on the construction business.

Since leaving the fire department, McClurg has been able to continue to grow the business and has since taken on two other partners.

His career experiences have also made him greatly appreciate the concept of teamwork. He credits his staff for much of the success of the company.

And with a hint of self-deprecation, McClurg said of his team, “I’m not afraid to surround myself with people that are smarter than me,” he said.

Although he might not be the smartest guy in the room, he said he might be the most driven.

That drive fuels his desire to continue to improve himself and the company.  For example, he keeps up earning more certifications for the company and he is eager to read and keep learning, he said.

“I’m constantly trying to make myself better, make the company better.  That’s just something in me,” he said.

He hits the gym three times a week to remain physically fit; and he still climbs the scaffolding from time to time, he said. “It just gives you a whole different attitude. I’m lucky I can still do it,” he said.

These days, McClurg has been taking some extra time off these days, which allows he and Suzanne to travel. They have visited such locales as Alaska, Africa and the Canadian Rockies.