Company forges ahead after owner's death in T-6 plane crash (PHOTOS)

FORT WALTON BEACH — Tim McDonald was the heart of Fort Walton Machining, the company he bought in 1997.

He handled the marketing himself, meeting with clients to sell the company and the work it did. He reinvested funds into the firm to make sure it always had the best staff and equipment.

His death in a plane crash this summer left a void. But rather than selling the company, his family has become even more dedicated to Fort Walton Machining and is determined to continue to improve the company as McDonald would have.

MORE PHOTOS

To see more photos from the crash scene, click here.

In March, The Log flew with McDonald. To see photos from the flight, click here.

To see a video of the plane's final moments, click here.

Wreckage recovered from a T-6 that crashed into the gulf in March. »

The scene immediately after the crash of a T-6 in March. » 

“It was tough. The first week you could tell people were not themselves,” said Greg Britton, the company’s general manager and senior vice president. “You could tell we were missing the heartbeat a little bit. But I’m really proud of the group.

“It was one of those things where everybody … started thinking ‘What would Tim have wanted,’ and what Tim would have wanted was for us to be carrying it on, carrying his dream forward and making sure we service our customers to the best of our abilities.”

“(His death) made us stronger. It made us work harder,” added McDonald’s son, Tim M. McDonald, the secretary-treasurer and a mechanical engineer with the company. “Everyone felt that they needed to pick up the slack. It just made us drive a little harder toward the end goal, knowing what he would’ve wanted.”

It’s been two months since McDonald and his brother-in-law, Tim Turner, died when McDonald’s T-6 Texan airplane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico July 2. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the accident, and a final report is not expected for several months.

Before his death at the age of 57, McDonald was planning to retire in about eight years. He already had started working on a succession plan with Britton. That plan, which is now being implemented, called for his only son, Tim, and Britton to take over the day-to-day operations of the company.

After McDonald’s death, a seven-member board of directors was formed. The board includes his widow, Jan, his son, Britton, Jody Henderson, a partner and CPA with O’Sullivan Creel, and three others who had worked with him in the past. While his son and Britton will run the daily operations, the board of directors will try to follow the late McDonald’s vision in shaping the company’s future.

In 2007, McDonald put the company in a trust and left it to his family upon his death. Henderson, a friend of the family, was the executor of the trust. When he asked Jan McDonald if she wanted to sell her husband’s company, she flatly declined, said her son Tim.

“This is what we do, this is what we know,” the younger McDonald said. “The question had to be asked. Obviously it’s a painful question to ask. But no way (did we ever consider selling). Dad would have haunted us for the rest of our lives.”

In the wake of McDonald’s death, Britton has met with several of Fort Walton Machining’s clients to reassure them the company is still capable of meeting their needs. David Goetsch, a local economist and vice president for community relations and workforce development at Northwest Florida State College, said that will not be difficult.

“It is a niche market company. It does precision manufacturing in small lots,” Goetsch said. “That may not mean a lot to the general public, but it’s a huge thing because almost nobody else does it and does it to the precision that Tim’s people do it. He’s developed a real advanced capability that is not done in very many places in the world.

“That’s the secret of their success,” Goetsch added. “Not only will it continue, but what’s nice about it is they keep getting better and better about it.”

Fort Walton Machining was founded in 1987 as a two-man operation that offered support to Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field. The company had grown to about 35 employees when the elder McDonald purchased it in 1997.

In the 13 years since, Fort Walton Machining has grown to about 215 employees and has more than 60 clients, including Boeing, L3 Communications, DRS, Lockheed Martin, Kel-Tec and Baker Hughes.

“He’s just one of the greatest businessmen you ever knew, and he had such a great intuition about how a business should be run,” his son said. “He had a great intuition about people and what they were thinking.”

According to Britton, one of the keys to that growth was McDonald’s willingness to reinvest in his company rather than trying to make a quick buck.

Fort Walton Machining constantly invests in the latest technology and produces products to the highest specifications. The average piece of equipment at Fort Walton Machining is less than 5 years old, which has allowed the company to meet the aerospace industry’s AS9100 quality standard. That has opened the door to more contracts with the Department of Defense and with companies that it otherwise would not have been qualified to serve.

Fort Walton Machining is projecting a 19 percent growth this year in part because of the AS9100 quality standard.

That willingness to reinvest continues as Fort Walton Machining builds a new metal-finishing facility on Anchors Street in Fort Walton Beach’s Commerce Technology Park. It is expected to open by the end of the year.

“The company will go on, as strong as ever,” Tim M. McDonald said.

COLLECTION OF COVERAGE

'A tribute to Tim': Warbirds take flight in memory of fallen comrade

To view more photos of their tribute flight, click here.

Read the initial NTSB report about the fatal July 2 crash »

Pilot's wife: He loved that plane »

Remembering Tim McDonald: A photo gallery »

To read more about the latest crash, click here.

To read about the first crash in March, click here.

To read a story about the victim, click here.

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