Durwood Stephenson marks 50 years in business.  Real-estate venture has grown as a “design-build” contractor

Durwood Stephenson (left) stands with Jimmy Boykin, his “right-hand man” for more than 30 years.

In 1973, Smithfield’s Durwood Stephenson left what he called “a really good job” with Carolina Power & Light Company to venture out on his own as a real-estate agent and developer. He was a district manager with CP&L, buying rights-of-way and settling damage claims, but wanted something more. When he came home one day to tell his wife Vickie he had given up his job to start his own business, she didn’t object nor seem upset about his decision: “I figured you knew what you were doing,” he recalls her having told him at the time.

Obviously, her instincts were on target. Since that day 50 years ago, M. Durwood Stephenson & Associates, Inc. has grown from a company that initially managed and built apartments into a “design-build” firm now known as Stephenson General Contractors that has produced a number of important commercial and institutional buildings in this region and beyond.

In the beginning, he admitted, “I had my real-estate license but no experience in construction.” He credited David Price, an employee of West Smithfield’s Strickland Lumber Company, for helping him choose the correct materials for his early building projects, which included some single-family houses as well as apartments. That led him to hire Mr. Price, who stayed with the Stephenson company for 25 years.

Early on, Durwood had partnered with Lyle Gardner of Raleigh’s North Hills Inc. to acquire the first of 18 apartment complexes scattered around Eastern Carolina. The first one was Powell Square Apartments in West Smithfield. In recent years the partners have sold off many of those early acquisitions, and some years ago Durwood sold the apartment-management element of his business.

About 30 years ago, Durwood began specializing in construction of commercial and institutional structures – medical clinics especially. Close to home, that has included the Women’s Pavilion at Johnston Memorial Hospital (today’s UNC Health Johnston) – where his granddaughter was born, he’s proud to point out – and an addition to the Smithfield hospital’s Behavioral Health Department currently under construction.

Among prominent Stephenson landmarks are Pine Knoll Manor in West Smithfield (which he says was a first-of-its-kind Farmers Home Administration project for the elderly), Smithfield’s Town Hall (as well as town halls at Four Oaks and Princeton), Neuse Charter School’s high-school building (pictured), and the town’s Fire Station No. 2 in West Smithfield.
VIEW more Stephenson projects on the company’s website>

And yet, offered Durwood, “of all the things I’ve done, Hospice House is at the top.” He’s referring to the State Employees Credit Union Hospice House operated by UNC Health Johnston that was built on the site of Bingham Park where Durwood played football and baseball for the Smithfield High School Red Devils in the early 1960s.

Actually, he was negotiating with the Town of Smithfield to purchase that property for himself when banker Sammy Jackson, chairman of the hospital’s board of trustees at the time, approached him about the hospital’s desire to acquire the old park site. Durwood agreed to let that happen, then went to work leading a fund-raising campaign that brought in $5 million in six months. “It was the easiest money I ever raised,” he said. And to show he wasn’t doing that to feather his own nest, the Stephenson company passed up the opportunity to be the construction contractor.

Looking over his desktop filled with neat stacks of papers during an interview last week, Durwood explained: “Most of my time is spent helping other people.” He institutionalized that personal commitment in 1991 with establishment of the M. Durwood Stephenson Foundation to help at-risk youth as well as the elderly.

He also has found time for public service over the years, and is especially known for his productive service during Governor Jim Hunt’s years in office on the state’s Board of Transportation. That work, along with other charitable activities, is the reason behind the naming of Smithfield’s “M. Durwood Stephenson Parkway” in his honor after its completion along the northern side of town several years ago.

Presently, Durwood is serving as executive director (“a part-time job,” he says) of the I-42/US 70 Corridor Commission that’s pushing upgrades to Highway 70 between I-40 and Morehead City. Current projects include the Interstate-ready interchanges under construction where 70 crosses Wilson’s Mills Road and Swift Creek Road.

He may be well beyond normal retirement age, but obviously, he’s not done yet.