Rick McCanse
Founder and President of
At the age of 25, while working as partner and manager of a large grain and livestock farm, I designed, engineered, and built a 3,000 square foot passive solar home just outside of Oregon, Illinois.
My dream was to design and build my own house with no professional help. I did the road building, excavation, concrete, plumbing, wiring, framing, roofing, and finishing. I scrimped and scavenged to minimize cost. I cut more corners than I should have, but I ended up with a great house with a finished cost of less than $15.00/ft2.
I learned many lessons from that project:
- The power of a dream to motivate and energize.
- I was really good at project management.
- Some corners should not be cut.
- Take the time and spend the money to do it right the first time.
- Building homes is really fun.
After the farm closed in the late 1980s, my father (a professional engineer) and I started McCanse Engineering, Inc., an engineering and manufacturing business. Over a period of 13 years, we grew the manufacturing business to $2.5 million in sales with 25 employees. We sold the business in 1999, and I immediately started building homes, my life dream.
Other Life Experience
- Married since 1972 with two uncommonly bright kids
- While farming, started a construction business building farm buildings and grain handling and storage facilities
- Started and managed McCanse Tree Farm, the 6th largest Christmas tree farm in Illinois
- Built all of the farm and manufacturing facilities, including the factory, warehousing, material handling, semi-automated paint system, 10,000 ft2 office building, and warehousing
- Did all the prototyping, testing, and fixture building for our products
- Participated in the equipment design resulting in 6 patents
- Worked actively in sales, attending trade shows around the country
- Hired, trained, and managed hundreds of employees
- Served on the board (3 years as President) of the Hunger Connection in Rockford, (www.hungerconnection.org) a food bank providing over $20 million worth of free food to regional food banks and feeding sites
- Served on the board of the Illinois Christmas Tree Association, as Vice President and President
- Currently serve on the board of the Oregon Public Library District (2 years as President)