Whether it is suspending 22,000-pound boulders in an underground parking garage or creating a large-scale art installation within a volcanic cinder cone, masonry and stonework experts Dee Brown Inc. have seen it all. “There’s not anything we can’t do,” says President and CEO Robert Barnes III. “If someone can dream it up and has the means and ability to pay for something, we can put together the technical team to get the job done.”
The Richardson-based contractor is a national leader in interior and exterior stone installation and custom fabrication, sourcing materials from around the world. It also tackles complex masonry projects—like matching the aged and weathered bricks at Southern Methodist University so new construction projects look uniform. “You’re trying to match something that is 70 years old, and a lot of times, the bricks aren’t being made anymore,” Barnes says. “Masonry is a craft, sure, but I really think it’s an art form.”
Before Barnes took the helm as CEO in 2015, his father, Robert “Buddie” Barnes Jr., had been president, CEO, and chairman since 2000. Barnes’ grandfather, C. DeWitt “Dee” Brown Jr., the company’s namesake, founded the enterprise in 1955. “My grandfather spent a lot of time with me in my formative years teaching me the business,” Barnes says. “Some of my fondest memories are on the golf course with my grandfather; he’d do everything possible to throw me off my game. He’d throw golf balls at me while I was trying to putt. He’d create all these distractions to try to mess with my focus.”
The lessons have paid off. Barnes now leads a company that has had a hand in the construction of the Dallas Federal Reserve, Crescent Court, the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and the Nasher Sculpture Center. In the firm’s 68-year history, it has also worked on all the major sports stadiums in DFW, except for Globe Life Field in Arlington and Toyota Stadium in Frisco. The company also completed renovations to the Old Parkland Freedom Tower and the Trammell Crow Center in 2019.
So, what’s the secret to staying a family-run business for nearly seven decades? Barnes says community involvement is key. He’s a Salesmanship Club member and on the board of the Friends of Brain Health for UTD’s Center for BrainHealth. “My grandfather and my father did a good job of laying out the roadmap of what to be involved with,” Barnes says. “Our company has a vested interest in helping make our city a better place to be.”
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