Terry Huber, president and chief operating officer for BETCO Inc., a single-source manufacturer of self-storage metal buildings and components, is retiring this month.
Huber, a native of New Athens, Ill., has spent a lifetime in the metal-building business. Ive been bending sheet metal since I was a boy, when my father got me involved in his heating and air-conditioning business, he said.
But it was a move to North Carolina for a position with lighting manufacturer McGraw-Edison in 1981 that changed his life. While opening a circuit-protection devices plant for McGraw-Edison in Goldsboro, which manufactured fuses and circuit breakers, Huber met his future wife.
Later, in 1984, when Huber moved to Tharrington Industries, now Precision Steel Works, in Rocky Mount, he began purchasing agricultural ventilation fans from Buddy Whitney at Aerovent. His professional connection with Whitney eventually led to an introduction to Sam Sabri, who was looking for a supplier of metal-fabrication products.
In the mid-1980s, Sabri and Whitney formed BETCO Inc., and Hubers ongoing relationship with the partners eventually led to his joining the company in 1995 as vice president of manufacturing. Huber later became president of BETCO, then president and chief operating officer.
After retirement, Huber and his wife plan to move permanently to their vacation home in Little River, S.C.
