2019 Dayton Business Hall of Fame

In celebration of Dayton’s heritage of business accomplishments, Dayton Magazine, in partnership with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, created the Dayton Business Hall of Fame to recognize the rich tradition of success and civic involvement of the region’s business community.

The Dayton Business Hall of Fame honors men and women who have made a lasting contribution to the community in economic, cultural and civic endeavors. Inductees will be honored at the third annual Dayton Business Hall of Fame event at The Mandalay on March 7. Coldwell Banker Commercial is sponsoring the event and the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce is the community partner. For tickets visit dayton-live.com/events/dayton-business-hallof-fame19.

BY TIM WALKER

Patricia McDonald

FORMER PRESIDENT, KEYBANK, DAYTON DISTRICT 2017 CHAIRWOMAN, DAYTON AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, BOARD OF TRUSTEES INTERIM CEO, DAYTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY With over 30 years of experience managing financial services divisions dedicated to the affluent market, along with a lifetime of service on a variety of boards and committees, Patricia McDonald is familiar with the ideas of leadership, of community and of giving something back.

“My parents influenced me with that,” McDonald says. “My father was in the Jaycees and when I became chair of the Dayton Area Chamber Board of Trustees I found an article, dated almost 50 years prior, which showed my father when he became chair of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. So he set the standard for me.”

After she and her husband arrived in Dayton from North Carolina in 1989 McDonald went to work for National City Bank in Dayton. It was in that capacity that she was first asked by her boss to serve on its board, as well as on the board of the Dayton Ballet Association. From that point on, she remained committed to helping the community, serving on the boards of the Victoria Theatre Association, the Kettering Medical Center Foundation, the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance and the Better Business Bureau, among others.

“Obviously many of us are influenced by family members and others around us who do good work,” she says.

“I learned an amazing amount from some very stellar high-profile business men and women. I saw these pillars of our community serving in these capacities and so I learned a lot about nonprofit leadership. It’s not one thing, but many people who have inspired me.”

— TIM WALKER

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DAYTON MAGAZINE . February/March 2019

BUSINESS HALL OF FAME

David Wyse

CHAIRMAN OF PROJECTS UNLIMITED INC. David Wyse’s involvement in Projects Unlimited Inc., the local electronics business which employs three generations of the Wyse family, goes back as far as he can remember.

“My dad started the company back in 1951,” he says. “As a family business I’ve been involved since I was old enough to walk, but I actually started working here when I was 10 years old—when it’s your dad there are no child labor laws.”

Projects Unlimited Inc., an aerospace contract electronics manufacturer, is based in Dayton near the crossroads of Interstate 75 and Interstate 70. It builds electronics for audio applications and the aerospace industry, and electronics control boxes for a wide variety of applications.

Greg McAfee

PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER OF MCAFEE HEATING AND AIR CONDITIONING Greg McAfee began operating a business out of his garage in November 1990. McAfee Heating and Air, which now sets the standard for HVAC services in the Miami Valley, was launched there—with a used truck, $274 and McAfee himself as the only employee.

“I’m extremely blessed,” McAfee says.

“From the very beginning, when I was operating from a kitchen table, I wanted to do things differently. I wore a uniform from day one, even when I was the company’s only employee. My truck was always clean and professionally lettered, no paperwork on the dash. I would run calls any time, whenever my customers needed me. I wanted to serve people better… we tried to raise the bar.”

Sticking to those principles and serving Dayton residents better has certainly paid off for the entrepreneur. McAfee Heating and Air has a stellar reputation in the local

communit y, and McAfee now has a crew of nearly 50 professionals working day and n ig ht to ensu re the comfort and safety of its many customers.

Born in Ak ron and raised in Mansfield, McAfee moved to the Dayton area when he was 19 years old. He was employed at Firestone for three years, then served t wo yea rs i n t he United States Marine Corps before coming back to his job and night school, where he learned the ins and outs of the HVAC business.

“They’re not our products,” says Wyse. “They’re our customers’ products. They design them and we build them.”

Projects Unlimited has expanded over the years since its inception, and now employees more than 160 people. Even with all its growth, however, Projects Unlimited Inc. has maintained a family focus. The company is now run by Wyse’s son Chris Wyse, CEO and president.

In 2012 Projects Unlimited and Chris Wyse were recognized by Ernst and Young, which awarded Chris Wyse the “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in manufacturing for the South Central Ohio and Kentucky region. Sixteen years earlier, Wyse received the same award, making Projects Unlimited one of the few companies to have two Entrepreneurs of the Year working in management.

— TIM WALKER

“A lot of the things that I was doing out of that garage—we still have that same culture today,” he says.

— TIM WALKER

DAYTON MAGAZINE . February/March 2019

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BUSINESS HALL OF FAME

Wilbur and Orville Wright

THE WRIGHT BROTHERS CO. The names of Wilbur and Orville Wright are known worldwide, and with good reason. As the developers of sustained, powered and controlled flight, and the inventors of the world’s first heavierthan-air flying machine, the two brothers from Dayton truly transformed the world for all time.

The Wright brothers’ most important contribution to aviation was the conception and development of an effective control system for aircraft. Without their concepts of control—ones still in use by all aviators today—the airplane would never have become a safe or practical means of transportation. A little known fact, however, is that even with brother Wilbur Wright’s untimely death in 1912 at the age of 45, the Wright legacy continued and extended beyond the invention of the airplane.

In 1910 the two brothers opened the world’s first civilian flight training school in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1918, Orville helped to design the Liberty Eagle, an unmanned “aerial torpedo,” which was the forerunner of today’s guided missiles. In 1924, working with James Jacobs, Orville developed and patented the split flap, which slowed airplanes in steep dives and later became an important component in World War II aircraft. In 1933, his tests of automobile shapes in a wind tunnel led to the first aerodynamically designed automobiles, and in 1942 Orville designed an encryption machine for the US Navy. In 1949, Orville passed away after a heart attack in Dayton. He was 76 years old.

The Wright brothers technological contributions to our world cannot be overestimated.

— TIM WALKER

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DAYTON MAGAZINE . February/March 2019

BUSINESS HALL OF FAME

Alan Pippenger

PRESIDENT OF THE REQUARTH CO. Alan F. Pippenger, the president of The Requarth Co., will tell you his success is built on the solid foundation of the five generations who came before him.

After all, the lumber company, a local institution which once supplied wood to the Wright Brothers, was founded in 1860 by apprentice woodturner Frederick August Requarth, the great-greatgrandfather of the current president.

For 160 years now, The Requarth Co., located on Monument Avenue, has provided Dayton residents with all the services of a traditional lumberyard, featuring a mill suitable for custom jobs, a massive on-site inventory of quality building materials for new construction and remodeling, and now a kitchen and bathroom showroom.

“The biggest change to the business during my time here,” says Pippenger, who has been president since 1994, “has been the addition of the kitchen and bath showroom in our facility here.

It’s changed the nature of the business.

But every generation over the years has had to confront changes—from the Depression to world wars to the Civil War—and each one has found ways to keep the business successful.”

While he is honored and humbled over his recent induction into the Dayton Business Hall of Fame, Pippenger is quick to point out that he shares the award with the generations that have preceded him. A true family business, The Requarth Co. has weathered the changing business landscape for over a century now and promises to be servicing local customers far into the future.

— TIM WALKER

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