Mark Deathridge has always been known to tinker.

Growing up in Knoxville, he and his family “never had anything that really worked all the time" and spent weekends tuning up their vehicles to make them drivable for the week.

His mother was a tailor and owned a seamstress shop, designing dresses and suits that found themselves in the city’s Ebony Fashion Fair.

She eventually would work for her sons after they started their own company in 1978. Now known as East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors, the company has been an East Knoxville staple for roughly 40 years.

Although ETMC remains on North Bertrand Street, the business has grown exponentially and has been part of significant projects across Tennessee, from mechanical work on the Tennessee Titans stadium to road work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Get to know East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors

The brothers learned an important lesson from their mother early on: “You can only be so successful when you’re working for somebody else.”

“Your true success and your true benefit, to not only yourself but to society, comes from working for yourself,” Deathridge said. “And there was some satisfaction that we wanted to have in working for ourselves because we saw the satisfaction that she had.”

Family remains a driving force behind his work. It seems like everyone, from his wife, Gloria, to his daughter, Markeisha, has worked for the company at some point.

As Deathridge, 65, prepares to pass the torch to his son, Devin, he is excited about the legacy ETMC could leave behind.

“Sometimes we get into whether it’s a legacy for a Black business or whatever the case may be but, for me, it's just a legacy for the business,” Deathridge said. “We at ETMC, we want to continue to be an asset to the business — to the legacy of construction — and being able to be a positive influence for construction contractors.

“Not only Black contractors, but also construction contractors, period.”

Unique skills built for the business

If there’s one thing Deathridge has learned, it’s the importance of surrounding yourself with people who have complementary skills.

Deathridge started as a draftsman with Tennessee Valley Authority. His oldest brother, Don, was a sheet metal worker at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and his other brother, Larry, worked in the electronics department at the Knoxville Utilities Board.

It was the perfect combination of skills to create Deathridge Heating and Air Conditioning.

Fascinated by watching buildings come together at a young age, Deathridge and his brothers added more construction services over time.

“Even today, I can sit and watch somebody building something and I’m very content with that,” he said. “There’s always all the other disciplines that fit into (mechanical work) … so I’ve always been interested in how all of that integrated and bringing all that into getting a whole building put together.”

The name switched to East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors in the early '80s as the business expanded its services, Deathridge said, which also helped shake people's “mom and pop” perception about the company.

Today ETMC does a little bit of everything in the construction world.

Faith and family lead the way at ETMC

Roughly 12 years after the company reached one of its high points, installing systems at souvenir shops for the 1982 World's Fair, the business reached the lowest of lows.

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Don died in 1994 while president and CEO, which left Deathridge wondering how the business could continue.

It was Don who understood the flow and manpower needed for hands-on work, Deathridge said, and it was Don who had the relationships with the hands-on workers.

"My relationships with those guys was nowhere near as strong as his," Deathridge said. "Even as of today, (people who worked with Don) still bring his name up as how much they respected him and how much they cared for him and what a good person he was. He was just a really good person."

At the time, Deathridge had a decision to make: carry on, or call it quits.

"We had families, including mine, that were depending on us," he said.

Although he was hesitant, Deathridge filled his brother’s shoes as president and has relied on faith to pull him through challenging moments — like the time he didn't have money to pay employees waiting on a paycheck.

Out of nowhere, an elderly man from the neighborhood knocked on ETMC’s door with his cane in hand. He wanted a heating and air system installed in his home just two blocks away and counted out the full cost in $100 bills.

“There’s nothing I could have done about that (payroll) situation at all,” Deathridge said. “But there was intervention that brought that guy to us. … And then other opportunities presented itself that got us out of that situation that we were in."

Opportunities to work on iconic Tennessee buildings

The company has its stamp on significant projects all over Tennessee. ETMC joined forces with Nashville Machine Company as Southeastern Constructors to provide labor, equipment and materials for a full mechanical job at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.

The two companies also worked together on what’s now known as Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

The company has completed grounds maintenance at the Y-12 National Security Complex, facilities work at McGhee Tyson Airport and construction management in Turkey Creek.

At the time of the interview, Deathridge was preparing for his next big project: a general contractor job to renovate Beauford Delaney's childhood home on Vine Avenue.

“For us, being a Black mechanical contractor was even more difficult because it’s more of a skill-type of discipline in the construction business,” Deathridge said. “We don’t pour concrete. … We’re mechanical contractors, and so that was even more difficult to break into that market.”

Being a minority-owned business has led to great opportunities, Deathridge said, “but it does not balance out.”

"Being a Black business is very difficult because you get categorized before you turn your first screw," he said. "And it's seemingly though you never grow out of being questioned about your capabilities, about what your accomplishments are, whether you can actually do the job or not."

He has had great conversations with clients on the phone, only for the tone to change once they met him and saw his Black skin. At business meetings, clients have assumed white employees are the ones in charge.

Deathridge said he has been called racial slurs while working on projects and, in most cases, “it probably shocked them more than it shocked us because it just rolled off their tongue.”

“You call me what you want,” he said. “Just make sure you call me on payday.”

Regardless of race, Deathridge said, all small businesses need help along the way.

“When you get an opportunity, you may not know as much about that opportunity going into it, but it’s something that you can grow into and find out more about," he said. "And I enjoy doing that.”

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville mechanical contractor ETMC does Tennessee construction