Sons of Eby Construction founders each die within a day: ‘It’s like an end of an era’

Charles and Martin Eby Jr., brothers who built their family’s construction company into a national firm, died within a day of each other last weekend.

For their whole lives, the Ebys were known as exercise fiends who led healthy-to-the-point-of-pristine lifestyles, but they both suffered declines in recent months.

Martin Eby, 90, died Saturday.

Charles Eby, 80, died Sunday.

Their sister, Carolyn Grier, 87, died in late December.

They were children of the late Pauline and Martin Eby Sr., who in 1937 started Eby Construction from the kitchen table of their Riverside home at Franklin and Litchfield.

The brothers, with the steady support of their sister, grew the company by constructing a diverse collection of buildings and infrastructure including Animal Kingdom at Disney World; missile silos, locks and dams, and power plants across the country; and, closer to home, Century II, the Fourth National Bank building (now known as the Ruffin Building) and the former downtown Wichita library.

“The Eby family is the Eby company,” said Grier’s son, Kurt Grier, who is chairman of the board, co-CEO and executive vice president at the firm.

“It’s like an end of an era,” said his brother, Mike Grier, who is director, CEO and president.

The Eby children were products of their teetotaling parents, who decades ago used to put atop their employment applications: “Users of alcohol and tobacco need not apply.”

Eventually, under the younger Ebys and Carolyn Grier’s husband, Jim, who died in 2023, some drinks were allowed with clients on Friday afternoons. If anyone started before 3:30 p.m., though, Grier would scold his sons that there should be no drinking while other employees still were on job sites.

Jeff Van Sickle, who worked at the firm for a few years before eventually having his own business, described the environment back then as an intense culture of professionalism even down to small details such as no coffee at their desks “because it might spoil important paperwork.”

Mike Grier cracked up at hearing the story because during his first stint in the office — all the sons worked in the field first — Martin Eby Jr. was standing behind him when Grier accidentally spilled coffee on a long estimation he’d been working on.

“He didn’t say anything,” Grier said, “but he kind of stomped away.”

And baby makes three

Martin Eby Jr. was a toddler when his parents started the family business.

Early jobs included building driveways and installing red flying Pegasus signs for Mobil Oil service stations around the greater Wichita area. Within a couple of years, Eby Construction started getting federal contracts, including one to build a new post office in Council Grove.

Eby, who was 14 when he started working for his father, once told the Wichita Business Journal that life with his parents and siblings was a kind of “Leave It To Beaver” existence, and there was no question he was going to follow his dad into the family business.

“I guess you could say my father engaged in subtle brainwashing.”

Like his father, and his brother after him, Eby graduated near the top of his class from the civil engineering program at Kansas State University then joined the company full time in 1956 before taking over in 1967.

“He embodied a lot of the traditional habits,” Mike Grier said of his uncle.

Also like his father, Eby thought employees were the company’s No. 1 asset. Before visiting job sites in any of the almost 30 states where the firm used to do business, he would request a directory to put names with faces.

“He always wanted to know everyone’s names and try to get to know their families,” Mike Grier said. “He did that right to the end.”

The end meaning not when he retired but up till the last six months.

Longtime former vice president of human resources Karman Diehl said Charlie Eby did that, too, but “Martin Jr. wrote tons of letters” trying to stay in touch with employees, congratulating or thanking them.

Van Sickle said he took copious notes, too.

The younger generation of Griers knew their uncle through work eventually but first through family trips to a company ranch or snow and water skiing trips out of state.

“He was always the standard-bearer for hard work and thrift and working on the land and working out in the field,” Mike Grier said.

Still, Eby had his limits, often when his brother caused some kind of calamity, such as losing a kayak off the roof of their station wagon at the start of a trip to Arkansas with children in tow. By late that night, Charlie Eby was ready to pitch a tent at an I-40 rest stop, but his older brother demanded a hotel instead.

Though he was the first to get a minibike for the ranch, Eby wasn’t a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, Grier said.

“He was pretty straight and narrow.”

Grier said his uncle was firm in his beliefs.

He laughed when adding that “he was very forthright in his opinions,” too.

‘You will go to K-State . . .’

The growing Eby Construction was not quite a decade old when Charlie Eby came along.

He used to love to tell the story that his father would rock him in his cradle and say, “You will go to K-State. You will be an engineer, and you will work for Eby Construction.”

Charles Eby, as he was known at work, joined the family business full time in 1967 but began working there in the summer of 1963.

While the senior and junior Martin Ebys had strong personalities and could command rooms, Charles was more quiet and cerebral.

“Charlie was right there to clean up the details,” Mike Grier said.

He handled estimations and procurement on big jobs.

“He always called himself the pencil guy at Eby Construction,” said Ann Fox, who got to know Eby when she was executive director of Habitat for Humanity, his favorite nonprofit.

Diehl said both of the younger Ebys were smart, but Charles Eby’s specialty was to put pieces of a project in place.

“To me, he was more in depth in that process than Martin was.”

Like his brother, Charles Eby ran marathons and looked for creative ways to get exercise, such as riding his bike to work decades before it was cool.

For one Texas job, Eby would kayak a river from his hotel to the job site in the morning and then walk the kayak back home at night.

Eby was known for often wearing a hard hat in the shape of a cowboy hat.

Kurt Grier said that once, his uncle wanted to get a run in and also check out how the company was progressing on building the Kellogg Flyover, so he donned some shorts and a hard hat — meeting job site code with the hat but not the shorts.

“He’d just run right down Main Street.”

Almost 30 years ago, Eby learned he had a form of leukemia, and his daughter said it impacted how he viewed his life and his contributions to it.

“I think he felt called by God to serve and to make the most of his life,” Susan Eby Koch said.

She said her father already had been contributing to the community, but “it really shifted his focus.”

Fox, who said Eby was the only one she ever knew with a personal mission statement, said Habitat was a huge beneficiary of that.

She laughed about how math was his strong suit — not necessarily working on Habitat job sites, where he tended to climb too high on ladders, jump from dangerous heights and nail into the wrong walls on builds.

However, Eby was essential to her and the organization in Wichita.

If she or anyone else ever wondered how to do something or possibly how other Habitat chapters handled things, Fox said Eby would volunteer to find out and then report back a week later after interviewing about 15 people.

“He would do that over and over again.”

Mike Grier said his uncle would do that in work as well by going to competitors’ job sites and studying their means and methods.

“He was one-of-a-kind.”

The middle child

The same year the company was born, so was Carolyn (Eby) Grier.

She had a business degree from K-State but never worked for Eby Construction — at least not officially.

“She was a true gem in that family,” Diehl said. “She just had the biggest heart, and she was so kind to everyone.”

Over the more than four decades that Diehl worked for the company, she said Grier regularly sent her thank you notes after company events or dinners.

“That doesn’t surprise me a bit,” Kurt Grier said of his mother.

“So much of that would go under the radar.”

He said if people ever looked alone at events or parties, his mother always was the one to approach them with her trademark smile to make sure they felt welcome and a part of things.

Mark Hutton worked for the Ebys and Jim Grier for 15 years before starting his own firm, and he said he had a lot of respect for the family, including how they supported the industry in general and his pursuit of his own dreams.

However, it’s Carolyn Grier who seems to have made the biggest impact on Hutton. He grew emotional reminiscing about her, calling Grier “the sweetest, most caring person.”

“She didn’t let anything get in the way of respecting people first.”

All three Eby children were known for their philanthropy and hands-on volunteering — Charlie Eby particularly after retirement and Martin Eby through numerous boards — but Grier was involved with a variety of organizations throughout the decades.

The Sedgwick County Zoo was a favorite for her, Mike Grier said, and his mother helped kick off the now-popular Zoobilee party.

“When nobody wanted to go to it, she’d buy the tickets and give them away.”

Tough times

In the early 2000s, Martin and Charles Eby had mostly stepped away from day-to-day operations when financial devastation hit.

In 2004, two Florida and Texas projects cost significantly more than planned and resulted in ongoing litigation.

“Due to our strong relationship with our surety company, Eby Construction survived that time but restructured to where the focus became solely on the Wichita area,” Mike Grier said.

The company is now a third of the size it once was.

Diehl said when Martin Eby Jr. retired, the firm hired division managers who supposedly were good in the industry but didn’t take the time and effort to visit job sites like the Eby family did.

“I don’t think those people took to heart and cared as much as the family did.”

Grier said it took about four years, but the company finally rebounded.

He said it’s a testament to the culture that the Ebys and Jim Grier built, particularly that employees and clients remained supportive.

“It was our clients here in Wichita that really stayed loyal and saw us through that trying time,” Mike Grier said.

Eby Construction in turn has been able to help other companies through difficult times, such as longtime client Spirit AeroSystems after a tornado hit its Wichita operations in 2012. Jim Grier worked with his sons to help Spirit rebuild.

“The company was really, really instrumental in getting us back on our feet after the tornado very quickly and very effectively,” said Jeff Turner, former Spirit president and CEO.

Hutton said the principals at Eby Construction could have simply closed shop in 2004 and been fine, but their commitment and integrity wouldn’t allow it.

“The Eby name is still highly respected across the nation from that history of being good stewards to the industry.”

‘Not forgotten’

As it is with many family companies, Hutton said, Martin Eby Sr. “was the entrepreneur, and Martin and Charles and Jim Grier were the ones who executed, kind of took it from there.”

“It was clearly Martin Sr. (who) had the vision for it,” he said. “Charles and Martin were more reserved in their approach to the business — more calculated.”

He said that’s not uncommon for the second generation while with the “first generation, you’re kind of flying by the seat of your pants.”

Hutton said the younger Ebys were generous about sharing ideas in the industry and supporting subcontractors.

“They were about making the construction community better.”

In addition, he and others said the Ebys were about making Wichita in general better.

Through an e-mailed statement, businessman Charles Koch said he’s “had the privilege of knowing the Eby family and witnessing their leadership and generosity in Wichita,” and he said it’s a legacy that will last.

“For decades, Martin, Charles and Carolyn contributed positively to the community, generating numerous opportunities through their business and personal dealings. Their dedication will be deeply missed but not forgotten.”

Services for Charles Eby will be at 1:30 p.m. on March 27 at First United Methodist Church.

At Martin Eby Jr.’s request, a small family service will be held at a later date.