Spotlight on Marlboro County’s Sterling McDiarmid & His Commitment to Family
Sterling McDiarmid’s road to success wasn’t paved for him. He paved it himself. And continues to do so today.
McDiarmid, representing six generations of his family in the asphalt paving business, today owns Sterling McDiarmid Paving Co. in Marlboro County that serves North and South Carolina. Originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina, the entrepreneur graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and practically hit the ground running post-graduation.
“My dad retired before I got out of school, so I had to start from scratch,” he says. “I was picking up day labor making payroll on the hood of my pickup truck for years and I wound up with hundreds of employees to do state highway work. But I don’t do that anymore.”
Using only a few machinery hand-me-downs from his father, McDiarmid rapidly expanded the paving business and even purchased an asphalt company in North Carolina, which opened the door to paving jobs under Corps of Engineer contracts, municipal contracts, and grading and paving for major projects, like Wal-Mart distributions centers.
McDiarmid sold the asphalt company in 2003 and today concentrates on smaller work, such as commercial parking lots, golf cart paths, private residential streets, and driveways. His biggest project was a recent one in North Carolina for a two-mile road in a subdivision.
Seven years ago, McDiarmid and his family moved to Marlboro County, where they purchased an historic home that dates back to 1790. He says he and his wife settled down here to be closer to her family that is scattered from Murrells Inlet into Horry County and Florence in South Carolina. The home also intrigued him.
“Seven years later, the home is still a project,” he laughs. “It’s not as much of a project as it was, but, it is a labor of love fixing it up.”
Working with his hands has always been a labor of love for McDiarmid.
“I’ve always been hands-on. I like working,” he says. “It’s very rewarding for me on a bunch of different levels. I’ve just developed my skill over the years of my adult life until I’m really good at what I do – and I really enjoy doing it. I like working with people and I like meeting people.”
His paving company, in fact, is known in the Carolinas for its exceptional customer service and personal attention. And McDiarmid is known to be on the job site of each project, from running the paving machine to filling any cracks to making sure the work meets his standards.
When he’s not running his paving business, McDiarmid loves being at home in Wallace with his wife and kids, ages 6, 4, and 11 months, working on the house or playing in their big yard. “We love it here. We love the pace of life and the people” says McDiarmid. “It’s such a blessing.”
