In 1960, Miller Gorrie was around 25 years old. Throughout his life, he had taken his earnings from paper routes and poured them into IBM stock, which had compounded at 20%+ for many years. This led to the young man possessing a portfolio worth more than $100,000, which adjusted for inflation, is more than $728,000 today.
He attended Auburn University and studied engineers and spent three years in the U.S. Navy’s Civil Engineering Corps prior to the purchase. After this, Gorrie was able to use the money from his investment portfolio to purchase a small construction company called Thomas C. Brasfield. He renamed the firm Brasfield and Gorrie.
Over the subsequent decades, Miller Gorrie turned that small company into one of the largest contractors in the United States with more than $2 billion in annual revenue. Today, he is one of the richest men in the world and he owns all – yes, 100% – of the membership equity of Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC.
