David O' Brien '87 & Stacy Brown '92
Growing up engrossed in the Maine Central Institute community, it can be easy to get caught up in the “Pittsfield bubble” and become fascinated in primarily the connections MCI has to its original hometown. However, MCI’s reach spans not only across the globe through our international students, but right straight down Route 100 to the rural community of Burnham, Maine.
Everyone always loops Burnham and Detroit into the normal population of “town kids,” but anyone who has been to Burnham or grew up there knows that it is like its own separate community of familiar faces and hardworking personalities. Many Burnham residents have passed through the halls of MCI and gone on to do remarkable things, which is exactly the company that alums David O’Brien ’87 and Stacy Brown ’92 have found themselves in. Currently serving as Co-Founders and President/Vice-President of SurvTech Solutions Inc. headquartered in Tampa, Florida, we sat down with David and Stacy to learn more about the work they are doing in the world of geospatial surveying and how their Burnham roots have defined who they are as people today.
David O’Brien was born in Boston, but grew up his entire life in Burnham on the Horseback Road right by the Burnham golf course. His grandfather was a town selectman and a local businessman, owning a saw mill, hardware store, and chicken houses around town. “I had a pretty interesting upbringing in central Maine… the only thing I would say is we had a lot of freedom back in my day,” explained David. “I’m the oldest of 7 boys and us older boys were really pushed out of the house and didn’t come home until dark… I guess we were just country folk and didn’t know any different.”David described how there was the Burnham Village crowd, and then there was “our side of town” where kids would hang out by the Town Hall or behind the Patterson Store and play football or baseball. David and a few of the older kids would play quarterback and throw passes to the younger kids. In fact, that was likely the first time that David ever met Stacy Brown.
Stacy’s family were also Burnham natives, as he grew up right at the head of Unity Pond. Stacy also remembers his youth in Burnham very fondly, as it was just a group of guys looking to pass the time and stay out of trouble. Once he got to MCI, Stacy remarked that in hindsight it was really eye-opening how a school like MCI could stretch the boundaries of that rural atmosphere. “Growing up in a small town and going to school in that environment, you don’t realize what you have at the time,” said Stacy. “Now looking back on the days at MCI, you see the opportunities you have and the different experiences that MCI brings compared to other high schools... with the dorm students and people coming from all over, looking back it was a great and unique experience.”
David’s fondest memories at MCI were Winter Carnival, where his classmates bonded together to compete at the highest level despite having very few athletes to pull their weight. He still keeps in contact with almost a dozen of his friends from the Class of ’87 who talk every day, showing that MCI truly helps facilitate relationships that will last a lifetime. After graduating from MCI, David went to the University of Maine to study Surveying Engineering, whereas Stacy went to the University of Maine to study Civil Engineering. Anyone who knows David knows that he is a workaholic, so it should come to no surprise that upon graduation, David pawed through every surveying magazine he could find, scalped all the contact information from every advertiser and business, and sent over 300 letters to different firms across the country who might be interested in his services.
“It’s funny, I look back on that now and I’m amazed I had the foresight to even do something like that,” said David “I remember I even had some of my friends wet the stamps and seal the envelopes, I printed the letters in the middle of the night in the computer lab because I didn’t want them to see me printing that many letters.”
David’s foresight paid off, and he soon found his way into a firm in Plant City, Florida, where he quickly moved up the ranks. It was at this time in the Fall of 1997 that Stacy, who had spent some time in Massachusetts but had moved back home in Burnham to figure out where life was going to take him, got a call from David asking if he wanted to come work down in Florida. Being able to work with David was a no brainer, and once he got a taste of the Florida air, he never looked back.
One of SurvTech’s helicopters being fitted with a RIEGL LiDAR system, which utilizes lasers to generate precise, 3D information about the shape of the subject and its surface characteristics..
After spending a few years working at that firm, David and Stacy decided that they had the grit and determination to go off on their own. In 2004, they founded SurvTech Solutions Inc., a geospatial firm focused on the surveying and mapping of all sorts of environments utilizing the latest technology. Whether surveying the land through airplanes, helicopters, and drones, to surveying the water through boats, to even utilizing virtual reality to create 3D models of structures, SurvTech provides the basis for which many projects begin. “If you’re going to construct something, you need to know what the existing site conditions are... every step of the way on a project, surveying really is the foundation,” explained David. “A lot of other professions rely on our work like lawyers, environmentalists, engineers, county officials and such... doing quality work on our end allows them to make sound decisions on their own projects,” added Stacy.
Over the years SurvTech has grinded its way through an industry that is extremely competitive and reaches into a wide variety of different markets. David recalls how it took a decade to get into the mining business from when they first started attending meetings, and it likewise took 10 years for SurvTech to get their first federal prime contract in 2017 after they began federal marketing and networking in 2007. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to build the resume and break through in the surveying industry, but luckily David and Stacy have incredible work ethics that are rooted in the working class environment of central Maine living.
Now, SurvTech celebrated their 20th anniversary and has 6 offices with almost 100 employees. Future expansion across the country and globe is definitely in the works, as is growing their technological advancements in the fields of bathymetric (underwater) LiDAR imaging so they can keep earning federal contracts and grow the firm. When discussing their humble roots in Burnham and what their advice would be to current or future central Maine residents looking to leave the nest, both David and Stacy emphasized the importance of just taking that leap of faith, no matter how big or small.
“Don’t be afraid to take the first step... move somewhere, meet friends, build relationships and talk to people, but don’t expect things to just happen overnight,” explained David. “Be willing to start at the bottom and work your way up, that’s what both Stacy and I did at the end of the day.”
“Growing up in our time, we had this small window of what the world was being in Burnham and Pittsfield and these small communities,” said Stacy. “Having those experiences but getting out and knowing that there are other options out there for you... I think just taking that chance and taking that first leap is so important.”
To read more of our monthly Alumni Profiles, head to our Featured Alumni page at https://www.mci-school.org/alumni/featured-alumni