Born to Build Blog

Get to know our Communications Coordinator, Brittany Henton!

Mike Sunley, senior project manager, really was “born to build.” As long as Mike can remember, he knew the construction industry was for him. “I grew up with tools and always had an interest in building and improving things, so when I was in kindergarten, I said I wanted to be an architect.”

But his dream of being an architect was short lived for young Mike. Instead of designing facilities, Mike decided he wanted to build them. Since Mike is the third generation of his family to work in the construction industry, he knew where to go to learn about the industry.

The year was 1965. Construction finished on the St. Louis Arch. The popular soap opera, “Days of Our Lives,” debuted. The Beach Boys’  “California Girls” and “Help Me, Rhonda,” were climbing the billboard charts, and “The Sound of Music” became the musical movie of the year. It was also the year Darrel Grider joined the O’Shea Team.

Darrel had worked as an apprentice for a local realtor building houses in what would become Cherry Hills and Indian Hills in Springfield. But the residential work dried up and Darrel was laid off. As is often the case, when one door closes another opens. For Darrel that door was the opportunity to work for O’Shea. His career at O’Shea, which would span four decades while working under four O’Shea family members

In April, O’Shea hosted the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Engineering Explorers (EE) Post #6 program in O’Shea University. The program is a part of the Boy Scouts of America Learning for Life, and it introduces students from high school freshmen through college freshmen to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) topics/activities and other engineering-related fields.

During their visit to O’Shea, the students listened to a presentation from Mike Sunley, senior project manager, Janelle Fanning, project manager, and Adam Schmidt, project engineer. The group learned about how engineering relates to construction. Mike, Janelle, and Adam also highlighted a few of their projects successes and challenges throughout their O’Shea careers.

O’Shea Team News sat down with Senior Project Manager Brian Beneke and Project Manager Dan Sullivan to learn more about the “lean” processes - pulling planning and BIM coordination/clash detection - used at Taylorville Memorial Hospital (TMH).