Born to Build Blog

Bud O’Shea, CEO of O’Shea Builders, was drafted into the Army during the Cold War. After basic training in March 1957 in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and specialized training in August, Georgia, Bud was shipped out to Stuttgart, Germany.

In between, he got married to his sweetheart, Helene Eddington. “On my first leave, I proposed marriage to her and we were married at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia at an Army chapel,” he says.

O’Shea Builders started when John Timothy O’Shea (O’Shea President Mike O’Shea’s great-grandfather) listed himself as a contractor in the Springfield, Illinois City Directory in 1900.

     His parents, James and Johanna O’Shea, immigrated to the United States in 1852 from Ireland, at the end of its devastating potato famine. About two million Irish fled here to escape hunger and poverty, according to the Library of Congress.

Twelve years ago this summer, O’Shea Builders’ biggest fan and some say its toughest advocate passed away. That was Helene O’Shea, Bud’s first wife and mother of David, Maureen, Linda, and Mike.

Bud met Helene after high school through a local group for Catholic youth. The group had regular social events like picnics and dances. At one dance, it was Helene’s birthday and Bud requested the song “The Old, Gray Mare” be played for her. She was always fondly teasing him and he returned the favor. It worked. “That was the start of us,” Bud says.

Everything.

At O’Shea, our word -- or our promise - is how we measure our work and ourselves. It’s a value that originated with Bud O’Shea’s grandfather and O’Shea founder, John Timothy O’Shea, more than 100 years ago. He started the business in 1900 when he listed himself in the Springfield City Directory as a “contractor.”