Meet Your 2024 President:
Dennis Shriver
“O
riginally I thought I wanted to be an architect; I liked engineering and drafting,” Dennis Shriver said, as he reflected on what drove him to be a builder. Shriver grew up in Raytown, Mo., and gained experience in high school and college learning the trades, working on a foundation crew and doing general labor. “Anything you can think of [when building a house], I did it… not always at the highest level,” Shrived laughed. “But I always enjoyed seeing something physically built.” Shriver started his college days in architecture school at UMKC, which acted, at the time, as a satellite campus for K-State students on the Missouri side. After one semester he realized it wasn’t for him and transferred to what was then Southwest Missouri State University. “I realized I wanted to build the things as opposed to designing them,” stated Shriver. After pausing his formal education to join the Marine Corps for six years, Shriver graduated with a degree in Construction Management. “[The degree] was helpful in landing my first job as a superintendent. But four years of college didn’t fully prepare me for navigating job sites. Some things you just get to experience firsthand.” Shriver has now been experiencing the residential construction industry firsthand for over 25 years. “I started building homes in 1997 in Overland Park, right after I got out of college,” stated Shriver. “I’ve been building homes ever since.” After a few years of working in Kansas City, Shriver received a job offer in Saint Louis, Mo. He moved to the other side of the state for several years before coming back home in 2004. “I moved back with the same company,” stated Shriver. He was tasked with starting a division of the organization in Kansas City. But then the calendar turned to 2008. “The market conditions [that year] caused the company to constrict. I left and went out on my own. In 2009 I became a part of Hearthside,” said Shriver. Hearthside is a multi-generational business, but not in the Shriver family. “I didn’t have anyone in my family that was in construction, but I always liked the idea of how things got built,” said Shriver. “The concept of building a building out of nothing always kept me in awe.” Shriver and Chris Valentine originally purchased the company from Valentine’s father. When his co-owner of Hearthside wanted to retire in 2017, Dennis bought out his partner’s share and became the sole owner of the company.
12 | KCHBA.ORG | DECEMBER ISSUE
