Friday, June 22, 2007

Construction Industry runs in the Family



W H Phillips & Sons - Regina Contractor
Clients often ask how we got into the business of advising companies on how to manage their teams. I always say that the building and construction business must be in our blood. My grandfather, Whitman (1886 - 1969) was a general contractor in Regina and met his future wife while building the Blue Bird Cafe in Regina Beach. He ran W H Phillips and Sons and even had my Dad, and two uncles working with him for a while. One of those uncles was Wilson C Phillips who became a civil engineer and built many grain elevators, schools and homes throughout Western Canada.

William & Son - Builders in London, England
Going even farther back in our family history, my great grandmother's family were builders in England. The Liddiard builders included her father Joseph (1814-93) who was an architect and surveyer in Kent, his father William (1775 - 1862) who was a bricklayer and builder with his company of William & Son in London, England, and his father and grandfather, both named Jonathon born in 1721 and 1752, were masons and bricklayers in Wiltshire.