TD Celebrates World FM Day With Family Legacy in Facilities Management

Facilities management (FM) serves a critical role in business continuity by ensuring operational efficiency, managing costs, and providing healthy and safe places to live, work and play.

As we celebrate World FM Day, spotlighting the essential role of facilities management professionals globally, we turn our attention to a tale of three generations united by their dedication to facilities management and the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) trades. TDIndustries is proud to share the story of a family whose legacy in FM spans decades of client service and a commitment to a job well done.

Cultivating a Passion for Mechanical Expertise

“If a human built it, a human can fix it.” That was the foundation of mechanical maintenance that Kenneth Cummins Sr. and Jerry Durrett passed along to their son, Kenny Durrett. Whether young Kenny was spending time with his biological or adoptive father, he was consistently exposed to mechanical systems. Both men took it upon themselves to repair and rebuild machines, appliances, engines and the like – and they were good at it. From early childhood, Kenny had tools in hand. He learned how things worked and how to fix them, and in the process, he found his career calling.

The family heritage includes Kenneth Sr., an HVAC Technician and General Superintendent for TD for many years. Among his notable projects was McLane Stadium at Baylor University, which opened to the public in 2014. Kenneth Sr. was part of the crew that installed 11 air handling units, 500,000 pounds of ductwork and 45,000 feet of HVAC piping at the facility. He was also part of the Texas State University Performing Arts Center crew, which won the ABC Eagle Award in 2013 for Excellence in Construction. Today, you’ll find him enjoying his retirement as a semi-pro bass angler.

Facilities Management: Destined for Success

With mechanicals embedded in his DNA, aspiring Kenny Durrett took his first job out of high school as a welder with a plumbing company. It didn’t take long for him to realize that plumbing was a great trade, enabling him to pursue many different career paths. He could work in construction, renovation, service or even start his own business. Kenny spent four years and 8,000 hours learning the trade as an apprentice before passing his journeyman exam in 2001.

With a plumbing license in hand, he went to work for American Airlines at Alliance Airport. Then, in 2014, Kenny joined TD’s facilities management team at the Alliance Airport, where he was quickly promoted to Facilities Manager II.

Kenny then transferred to serve as a Facilities Manager III the American Airlines Headquarters Campus at the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport. During his tenure at American Airlines (AA), Kenny worked with over 100 full-time on-site TD employee-owners overseeing the MEP and Central Utility Plant (CUP) operations. TD recently completed a 600-room hotel on the campus and has also assumed oversight of MEP procurement operations for the AA site. Given his roots in and passion for mechanicals, Kenny was once again promoted to Facilities Manager IV/Senior Facilities Manager while on the AA job.

In the Spring of 2024, Kenny Durrett achieved even greater FM success when he moved to the Baylor University campus in Waco, a 1,000-acre, 9.5-milliion-square-foot integrated facilities management contract for TD. There, Kenny serves as Director of Facilities Operations. This project is scheduled to begin in the Summer of 2024 and includes all MEP, CUP and oversight of all trades, including mechanicals, carpentry, painting, etc.

Kenny is humbled and excited about his continued opportunities with TD. He states, “TDIndustries is a rare and special company where, if you give 100% – you’ll get 100% back. They invest in their employee-owners and help them grow their careers.” Kenny is also a practitioner of servant leadership, which is a core TD value. He adds, “I started with tools in my hand, and there’s nothing I’d ask someone to do that I wouldn’t do or haven’t done myself. It’s a different kind of respect.”

Kenny’s favorite aspect of facilities management is building relationships with his customers. He wants customers to know that TD is not just another contractor but a partner with equal accountability. And he finds it very rewarding to know that his customers can go home at the end of the day without worrying about what might happen while they’re away.

His advice to anyone interested in MEP or FM: “Go for it, but watch your speed. Take on different projects and learn as you grow. Take advantage of every opportunity as a chance to learn and advance your career.”

And that’s precisely the sort of advice Kenny passed on to his son, Cooper Read.

The Next Generation: Empowered for Excellence

Being raised in a family of mechanical experts, it’s no wonder that Cooper Read continues to carry on the legacy of hard work and passion for MEP. At just 16 years old, Cooper learned how to work on his car so he could drive himself to school and social events. His first job at Discount Tire taught him how to use basic hand and power tools efficiently. When he joined Kenny to help out family and friends with their broken water heaters, residential air conditioning or any other construction work, Cooper started learning more about the trades.

Electrical engineering is what piqued Cooper’s interest, though. He had an affinity for building circuits, tinkering with gadgets and rebuilding computers. So, when TD was hiring facilities management personnel at the Denton Independent School District (DISD), Kenny encouraged Cooper to apply. Cooper’s official foray into MEP started at DISD in 2019, where he served as an HVAC technician for over a year.

He then transferred to the American Airlines Headquarters, working alongside Kenny and the remaining FM staff as a Building Technician II in facilities. TD has been handling integrated facilities management at AA since 2012 and continues to grow its partnership with this leading global carrier. While there, Cooper has worked in several campus buildings, doing diverse MEP troubleshooting work. He started at Skyview 8 on third shift, helping maintain the air handling units and doing various plumbing jobs. Cooper has also worked at the Skyview 3 Flight Academy building, where he was responsible for maintaining the breathing air skids of the flight simulators. The 122,000-gallon emergency water landing pool is also in Skyview 3, where Cooper jokes that he served as pool attendant. Kidding aside, keeping the flight academy building in top operating condition is critical to the operations of AA, as pilots are required to participate in ongoing training to enhance their skills and protect passenger safety. One of Cooper’s favorite projects is re-routing shared neutral circuits in older campus buildings, bringing them up to current code and keeping employees safe. Today, Cooper works at AA’s new, on-campus credit union facility, where he is growing his skills in all aspects of facilities management.

Becoming a licensed electrician is Cooper’s next career goal. He is leveraging TD’s employee education benefit to attend Dallas College’s Construction Education Foundation (CEF) electrical program. At CEF, he is learning about his chosen trade. At TD, he is working on building the field experience to take his electrician journeyman exam – and is getting closer every day. He looks forward to adding new electrical construction to his growing resume of retrofit and maintenance electrical work.

Cooper credits Kenny for recognizing Cooper’s passion and steering him in his career with TDIndustries. “I grew up with TD,” he says. “I’ve always known that it’s a welcoming place and a great place for hard workers to pursue their career dreams.” Cooper also recognizes Ray Blanco, a shift manager for TD at the AA headquarters. “Ray has been a great help on the job and has taught me much about becoming an electrician.”

Cooper thrives on leaving a project better than it started and making customers happy. He likes to “do his job and then some.” And like Kenny, Cooper likes connecting with and learning from others. He is the proud recipient of a TD Servant Leadership Award for his work training new hires at American Airlines.

When it comes to advice, the family legacy is resonant. He was taught early on never to stop learning and is astounded at how much there is to know about the trades. His advice for others: “Set short- and long-term goals and always work toward the next step. You can take your career anywhere you want to go. Just buy good tools!”

Cooper most likes TD’s core value of Celebrating the Power of Individual Differences. He says, “We all come from different walks of life, and we can all learn from one another.” He even mentions that TD’s logo is three people linking arms – like a family.