Honesty Prevails: A Legacy of Leadership and Integrity
The youngest of five children, Larry Gescher was born and raised in Stayton, Oregon. Growing up in the country meant learning the value of hard work early. By age five he was milking cows, later picking beans and berries, and irrigating mint and strawberry fields through high school. His mother drove a school bus during the school year and transported farm workers in the summers.
After graduating from Regis High School, where he played football and baseball, Larry went to work the graveyard shift at Freres Lumber before joining his father and other family members at Frank Lumber. While working nights, he attended Chemeketa Community College during the day. After several demanding terms, he left his job to attend school full time, eventually transferring to Oregon State University. He began studying civil engineering before finding the Construction Engineering Management program.
Construction entered Larry’s life through his father, who left the lumber industry after 17 years to become a welder and millwright for Mike Adams Construction. Larry also remembers spending a childhood summer fascinated by the road construction in front of his house, especially the backhoe operator.
During his first summer home from college, Larry landed a job with Holm II, a new bridge construction company, through his brother-in-law. He started as a laborer, advanced to managing flagging crews the following summer, and by his third summer was handed a set of plans and assigned as superintendent on a small bridge project in Lebanon. Though inexperienced, he successfully completed the project with guidance from seasoned coworkers.
The next summer he was the superintendent of a five million gallon prestressed concrete water reservoir in Stayton. He hired several college friends, and together they worked 12-hour days, six days a week. The summer work earned Larry enough to graduate debt-free and purchase his first home.
Larry met his wife, Michelle, when he was a high school junior and she was a freshman. After dating for nine years, they married the weekend after his graduation from Oregon State. Michelle’s parents owned several successful restaurants, exposing her to travel and opportunities Larry had never experienced. Seeing what entrepreneurship provided their family inspired Larry to earn a degree and eventually own a business so he could provide similar opportunities for his own family.
Their planned two-week honeymoon lasted only one week when Larry’s employer called him back to work. The experience reinforced a lesson that later shaped his leadership philosophy: employees deserve respect for their time, personal lives, and families. Larry and Michelle raised three daughters while Michelle stayed home with the children, allowing Larry to devote long hours to his career, admittedly more than he would recommend today.
When Larry joined Holm II, he was promised ownership within four years. After 14 years, ownership discussions finally began but ultimately collapsed after three years of negotiations. In 2005, he accepted an opportunity with Slayden Construction to establish its highway division.
At Slayden, Larry helped pioneer CMGC (Construction Manager/General Contractor) delivery with the Oregon Department of Transportation, leading several major alternative-delivery transportation projects alongside Hamilton Construction. Once again, ownership had been promised but never materialized after nine years, due in part to changes in company ownership. Larry and three colleagues decided it was time to build something of their own.
They founded HP Civil, with “HP” standing for “Honesty Prevails,” a principle Larry had embraced throughout his career. The company was intentionally structured with succession planning from the beginning because Larry and another founding partner were later in their careers. As ownership evolved, Larry remained committed to ensuring his younger partners received the opportunities he had repeatedly been denied.
“It wasn’t easy,” Larry says, “but it was the right thing to do.”
Honesty and doing the right thing have remained the foundation of HP Civil. From the beginning, the company’s focus has been hiring good people, taking care of them, and making decisions based on integrity rather than short-term financial gain. Larry believes that when business is conducted honestly, everyone benefits.
Larry’s involvement with AGC began at Oregon State, where he participated in the student chapter, served as an officer, received an AGC scholarship, and attended an AGC of America conference in Hawaii. Working alongside companies such as FE Ward, Morse Brothers, Wildish, and Hamilton Construction further strengthened his connection to the Oregon-Columbia Chapter.
After presenting on Design-Build project delivery at a Highway Council meeting, Larry was nominated to chair the council the following year. He later served on the chapter’s Board of Directors before eventually accepting an officer role after waiting until his daughters were older. Larry served as chapter president in 2015 and contributed on numerous councils and committees while receiving several chapter and presidential awards.
Mentorship has also been a defining part of Larry’s career. He has worked with career and technical education programs in the Salem-Keizer School District and the Willamette Education Service District, welcoming students and educators onto construction sites while encouraging young people to consider careers in construction.
A cancer scare in 2015 prompted Larry to establish a timeline for retirement from HP Civil. Gradually reducing his workload, he is confident the company is well positioned for continued success under its next generation of leadership.
Retirement, however, will be anything but quiet. A longtime supporter of the Santiam Canyon Stampede Rodeo and the Sublimity Harvest Festival, Larry plans to help raise funds for new facilities at the event grounds.
His lifelong passion for horses will also become a second career. Larry has built an indoor arena where he can train and sell horses and mules. He showed horses throughout his youth and once raised a wild mustang adopted through the Bureau of Land Management that earned honors at both county and state fairs.
Family remains Larry’s greatest source of pride. He and Michelle continue to live in the community where they both grew up, close to Larry’s siblings. Their three daughters, sons-in-law, four grandsons, and two granddaughters all live nearby, allowing Larry and Michelle to spend plenty of time with their growing family, including weekly Sunday dinners.
Looking back on his career, Larry is proud of the projects he helped build, the businesses he helped grow, and the opportunities he created for others. More than any title or accomplishment, however, he hopes to be remembered for leading with integrity, investing in people, and proving that honesty truly prevails.