[Company Logo Image] BV Detailing & Design, Inc.

      Copyright © 2007 BV Detailing & Design, Inc.

 

Home

History of BV Detailing & Design, Inc.:

Bruce Vaughan had experience detailing reinforcing steel and bar grating before obtaining a position with McMurray Structural Steel Company of Nashville, TN in 1973. George Dillard, Engineering Manager, began giving after hours work, primarily stairs, to Bruce after about 6 months at McMurray. Steve Varnell (Chief Draftsman), Gary Donegan, Laszlo Vovesz, Tommy Temple, and Bill Brothers were also employed at McMurray Steel. The economy turned sour in the mid 70’s and McMurray was bought out by Ingalls Iron Works of Birmingham.

Bruce continued to moonlight with Steve Varnell and Laszlo Vovesz, but mostly for other fabricators and detailing firms. In 1977 Bruce went to work for a relatively new company, Steel Detailers, Inc., owned by Paul Butler and Gary Donegan and continued to moonlight on occasion. Steve and Laszlo decided to work out of their homes full-time after Ingalls closed the old McMurray drafting room. Bruce joined them in August 1979, Tommy Temple and Stan Bimson in 1981, Gary Donegan in 1982, Tex Hollingsworth in 1983, and Bill Brothers in 1984. This unique cooperative successfully completed numerous large and complex projects, up to as large as 2500 tons. BV Detailing incorporated in 1982.

Bruce Vaughan and Stan Bimson began using computer aided drafting for shop drawing production in January 1985 with Autocad Version 2.0+ADE2. Each system included an IBM AT (6 MHz, 640k ram, 20 MB hard drive), Hercules monochrome graphics on a 13" screen (342x768), HI Hipad digitizer, and HI DMP-52 plotter. Tommy Temple, Steve Varnell, and Bill Brothers joined them within a few years. BV Detailing purchased a license of SDS/2 in early 1998 and soon began producing all shop drawings with this state of the art 3D modeling software.

Moonlighting in the dining room (1974)

BV Detailing owes a debt of gratitude to mentors and those that believed in them including but not limited to:

  • Stedman "Ted" Vaughn Allen, Sr.
  • John Barton
  • C. Fred Couch
  • George Dillard
  • Steven G. Varnell
  • David Dean
  • Tommy Jacoway
  • Carl Walk
  • George Wallace
  • Stedman Vaughn Allen, Jr.
  • Warren Scott Goodrich
  • Herb Cohen

We will not forget the people that are important to us and are no longer with us on this world:

  • Stedman "Ted" Vaughn Allen, Sr.
  • Thomas D. Temple
  • Harry Livinggood
  • Tex Hollingsworth
  • Gene Canaday

Ted and Vaughn Allen at the Summit Office Building project in Knoxville (c. 1983)

Laszlo Vovesz and Steve Varnell in the press box at Vanderbilt Stadium (c. 1981)

Gary Donegan's 1970 Chevy Pickup - sweet!

NASCC Dinner 2005 - Tekla's Chris Keyack explains how it should be done to Brent and Scotty Goodrich.

     

       Send mail to BV Detailing with questions or comments about this web site.
       Last modified: 12/29/07
       This website is maintained by Bruce Vaughan using Microsoft Frontpage.