From Fields to Facilities: The Roots of Rich Mrugala
By Darra Kubera, Director of Communications
August 22, 2023
Born and raised in Western New York, Rich Mrugala has always been hyper-focused on not just growing personally and professionally in his hometown but investing in it. He was instilled with an appreciation for hard work and respect for nature at an early age, due in part to growing up in his family’s lighting protection systems company.
If you’re like me, you’ll hear “lightning protection systems company” and a quizzical expression will cross your face. Rich appears to be no stranger to this reaction, and excitedly launches into an explanation.
“My grandfather and his brothers were born on a hill farm in the southern tier of Western New York. Once they realized that their land wasn’t the best and that a life of farming clay soil would mean a life of relative poverty, they looked for other opportunities. My great-great-grandfather was a turn of the century, wild west type, lightning rod salesman. My grandfather had worked with him a bit, so he thought he’d carry on where his grandfather left off. Together with his brothers, my grandfather restarted the lightning rod sales business and turned the farm into a factory to make the system components themselves rather than buy them. As the company grew, so did the family, resulting in a true multi-generational family business — my mom worked there with incredible dedication while she was raising me. And that’s where I got my early experience with what business is all about. But family business is complicated, so eventually my mom moved on, landing at what is now Canisius University.”
The admiration and passion Rich feels for his family is palpable, so I stay quiet and let him continue sharing his story. “My father started out as a carpenter. When something wasn’t built to his liking, he would insist that it be torn apart and rebuilt until it was done right. Eventually my dad moved into commercial construction. Car rides around Western New York have always been imbued with the monuments of my father’s career, places he had either built or remodeled. My mom, my sister, and I would often spend weekends helping my dad with final cleanings of his projects. This is where I was first introduced to construction sites. As I got older, my ability to contribute to his projects increased. After graduating from high school, I was able to finally go on the books, working with my dad primarily on hospitals and K-12 schools, nearly up until the time I came to FOS.”
Rich began his college education as a chemistry major at Canisius. “Coming out of high school I wanted to get involved with renewable energy research, but that department at Canisius was very focused on bio chemistry for students pursuing a medical track, and not chemical engineering, so after my first year I made the switch to pursue my other passion — trying to figure out the geopolitics of the world as a history major.” Having grown up in a small town myself, I ask Rich if moving to an urban campus was a big gear shift. “My parents had exposed my sister and I to the positive attributes of the city pretty consistently throughout our childhood so moving there for school was a very positive experience for me. I’ve always been open minded and curious of other cultures and people. While at Canisius I studied abroad in Sweden. That allowed me to see how Europeans design cities differently and was very inspirational to me. I came home from that experience and wanted to bring some of that to Buffalo. That’s actually what inspired me to shift gears again and enroll at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo.”
At the time of Rich’s graduation, it wasn’t the best period for the economy and he struggled to land a job in architecture. “I’ve always kind of felt like I’d rather be an exceptional carpenter than an architect — I’m drawn to wood and the hands on physical experience. But I just never got a foothold in architecture.” Carrying on with his dad in construction, Rich kept moving forward. “I’ve always wanted to stay in Buffalo to bring some of the good ideas that I’ve experienced elsewhere home, to better this place for myself, my family, and my community.”
In his late 20’s Rich was already beginning to notice the toll that his work in construction was taking on his body, so he accepted a position with a millwork manufacturer bidding jobs and getting his first experience with cost estimating. He worked there until his wife stumbled upon an architectural assessor opening here at FOS. “Thanks to my wife I landed in a place that’s a perfect blend of my construction and architecture background.”
The story of how Rich met his wife was one piece of his puzzle I was already familiar with, having chatted about their unique wedding planning story at a company happy hour this past summer (Rich’s wife is Chinese and so they planned not one but two celebrations to accommodate both families). “We met at UB; she was also in the urban planning program. Being married to someone from another country gives me a certain awareness of national and international issues, which I’ve always had an interest in, but now I’m really living it. It influences how I think of a lot of things, but I enjoy having family in two countries. It keeps me open-minded, and I feel blessed for that.”
Last year, Rich was promoted to FOS’ new quality control leader. This role allows him to help our facility condition assessment teams elevate the quality of their report deliverables by providing an additional round of quality assurance review. Rich helps make record writing more straight forward and efficient, setting goals to establish best practice methodology, maintaining relative cost consistency throughout the duration of projects, and providing assessor support to help our teams be the best they can be. “My background in construction has been very valuable in my time at FOS, it positively influenced my comfort level in and around buildings, but my education adds another layer. I’m able to think about buildings in a more systematic, scientific, and abstract way — enhancing the knowledge I gain in the field.”
Bringing a calming, caring, and considerate presence to every project and person he works with, Rich truly embodies our firm’s values. I cannot gush enough about how I appreciate the amount of time, effort, and sincerity Rich puts into training each of our new hires. Sitting across from me, Rich is visibly taken by surprise, but also pleased, by the praise. “I’ve worked with plenty of people who don’t know how to train, mostly who don’t want to share knowledge, but I’ve tried to do the opposite. It’s all about our people and the quality of our team so it’s my responsibility to try and make them as productive as I can — not just in terms of the amount of work but the quality of the work, and being people you want to work with.”
When he’s not bringing peace to the office, Rich spends his time restoring his well-being by engaging with nature — gardening (“I only have enough grass left in my yard to put my garbage can out for pickup, the entire yard is a garden.”), camping, canoeing, skiing, biking, hiking, and even hunting for wild mushrooms. And although he doesn’t have a favorite food “My favorite food is good food. There are far too many good foods out there to name just one or two.” Rich hungers for enduring solutions. This hunger strengthens everything FOS does to solve for tomorrow’s complex challenges.