"Born to Build" with Matt Grider and Brock Barnhill
Matt Grider has known the O’Shea name for as long as he can remember. His grandfather, Darrell Grider, had a 41-year career with O’Shea Builders starting in 1965.
“I always spent a lot of time with my grandpa being around his woodworking tools in his garage. He was always remodeling something on the side that I wanted to help with,” Matt says.
“I was young and was probably more than likely in his way, but growing up around that made me want to do it. I think it’s in my blood to be a carpenter.”
Matt joined the O’Shea team after high school graduation and now serves as a superintendent managing subcontractors and other O’Shea employees on a variety of projects.
And Matt’s not the only one in the new generation of his family at O’Shea, either; another grandson of Darrell’s, Brock Barnhill, also works for O’Shea as a carpenter.
“I’ve worked for O’Shea for three years; I mostly do form work, case work, drywall and metal studs,” Brock says. “This is the best company I’ve ever been with because they’re so family-oriented.”
Brock also has many childhood memories of building with his grandfather.
“Ever since I was a little boy, I used to go out to Grandpa’s woodshop and tinker around with him,” he says. “I didn’t plan on getting into the trades after high school, but it dawned on me that college wasn’t for me, so I talked to Grandpa about it, and now I’m working for same place he did.”
Darrell says he’s proud to see his grandsons continuing with the same company he worked for, particularly because he thinks so highly of O’Shea and the family behind the business.
“They’re a great family; they’d do anything in the world for you,” Darrell says. “They treated me really good, and my grandsons are treated the same way. All the workers really like the company.”
So does Darrell share stories of his time while working for O’Shea? “Yeah – a couple hundred,” Brock laughs. But the cousins don’t mind; they agreed they are honored their family is part of O’Shea’s long history.
“Even to this day sitting around visiting with my grandpa, he still talks about O’Shea jobs he’s done and what they had to do to get the job done. I believe deep down if he was able, he would still be doing it to this day,” Matt says. “I plan to retire from here, and I’m hoping my two boys also follow in our footsteps.”