Staying Sharp

For Stew Sharp, success is measured in ten-thousandths of an inch. 

Those are the precise tolerances that must be maintained at the complex industrial projects he oversees as senior superintendent. 

“Nothing's really close enough when you're setting and aligning equipment,” says Sharp, who has spent more than two decades mastering the installation of industrial equipment like motors, pumps, turbines and generators.

For the last three years, Sharp has managed teams of McCarthy craft workers contributing to the large-scale expansion and renovation of a major food production facility in rural southeastern Wisconsin.

That project has encompassed positioning a massive 26,000-pound filler and other processing equipment on the second floor of the existing facility. “We had to shore up the structure, cut holes in walls and build a bridge crane just to get the equipment installed up there,” he explains. McCarthy team members also fabricated and installed miles of sanitary process piping, using orbital welding techniques that demanded near-perfect alignment to meet the facility’s stringent sanitary standards. 

Though most of the precision craftsmanship is hidden behind walls, Sharp takes pride in knowing how vital it is to the facility’s success. “No one sees it, but that equipment is the heart of the project,” he says. “Everything else revolves around it.”

Sharp thrives on the unique challenges that each industrial project brings. 

As the Wisconsin project continues to wind down, Sharp has channeled his expertise into helping the McCarthy pursuits team secure the Industrial group’s next project challenge. His contributions have included assisting the preconstruction team in developing man-hour estimates and participating in project interviews to share his expertise with potential clients. “That’s a little outside my comfort zone,” he admits, “but it’s been a great experience—and a lot of fun—to be involved in the full life cycle of a project.”

Sharp’s extensive experience in power generation and plant modernization has only grown in importance as energy demands skyrocket and the U.S. continues to transition from coal to alternative power sources.

A Fortunate Mix-Up

Sharp grew up in Sullivan, Missouri, surrounded by craftsmen. His dad, Lloyd, and Uncle Bob were both union carpenters. “I remember working with my dad as a kid in the shop, building cabinets and little projects,” Sharp recalls. “It amazed me that he could build a deck or a house from scratch. I knew I wanted to learn how to do that too."

After graduating from high school, Sharp joined the Carpenters Union in 1994 and honed his skills as a millwright, a multi-skilled tradesman specializing in machinery and equipment installation, maintenance and repair. 

He gained his first hands-on commercial experience helping to pour a bridge deck before signing on with a St. Louis-based general contractor and working as a millwright on industrial projects across the region.

Sharp’s McCarthy career began serendipitously. A McCarthy supervisor called him unexpectedly in 2003, thinking he was reaching out to someone else. “He thought we’d worked together before—and I played along,” Sharp recalls. “I showed up for a two-day outage at a chemical plant in St. Louis, and he said, ‘Well, you’re not who I thought you were—but we’ve got two days of work.’”

The mix-up proved fortuitous, as Sharp ended up completing the job and parlaying the experience into a McCarthy gig that has lasted more than two decades.

With expertise spanning the power, manufacturing and food production sectors, Sharp’s projects have ranged from installing conveyors in the Bevo Bottling Facility at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis to installing a submerged flight conveyor at Ameren's Rush Island Power Station in Jefferson County. 

In every instance, he credits his McCarthy teammates for making the experiences both successful and enjoyable.

Sharp also appreciates McCarthy’s commitment to living its culture and core values. “A lot of companies talk about culture, but here, it’s real. People truly care about each other…and that makes a huge difference.”