December 4, 2020
People, Service Drive Mears’ Continued Success
The year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the Mears Group.
Founded in 1970, Mears today is an industry-leading energy infrastructure solutions provider serving multiple markets that include gas distribution, pipeline and facilities construction, pipeline integrity, horizontal direction drilling (HDD) and Direct Pipe (DP) installations. Mears isalso active in the electric transmission and distribution, telecommunications, and water and sewer markets.
As it has for 50 years, Mears’ headquarters remains in the small town of Rosebush, Mich., but it now has locations in 24 other states.
Beginnings
In 1969, Herb Fluharty was a project engineer for Underwriters’ Laboratories (UL) in Chicago.
“I had grown up working on pipeline construction for the company my father founded, Welded Construction,” said Fluharty.
Although he was then employed at a large organization, Fluharty recognized and appreciated the challenges of owning a small business. When his father passed away, Fluharty wanted to move back to Rosebush to be closer to his mother and family.
About the same time, a friend started a land surveying and civil engineering business. “He encouraged me to go in that direction,” said Fluharty.
In June 1970, Fluharty, his wife, Chris, and three young children returned to Rosebush where he started a small surveying business. By 1974, the company was serving pipeline clients in central Michigan, and the scope of its services expanded to include machinery, engineering, accounting, repairs and sales.
In 1975 the company was renamed Mears – an acronym using the first letter of each word in its list of provided services – Engineering. It started, and remains, as a family matter, Fluharty owned and operated, and with an extended Mears “family.”