This has been a profound week for me personally. Jim Redpath, the mentor whose philosophy shaped my approach to leadership and life, passed away. As I've reflected on his incredible legacy, I felt called to celebrate his life through the lens of everything I believe about heroism, culture-building, and creating positive change.

Jim Redpath embodied what it truly means to be a hero throughout his remarkable life. At its core, heroism is about having the strength to care deeply, to act with integrity, and to make sacrifices for the greater good. As the founder of what became The Redpath Group, a billion-dollar global mining contracting business, he didn't just build a company—he created a philosophy that continues to ripple through countless lives more than six decades later. My story is just a very small part of Jim's legacy, but it illustrates the transformative power of a leader who understood that true success comes from touching lives, not just building businesses.

The Unconventional Beginning

In 1962, most underground mining contractors followed the same path: work your way up from laborer to supervisor to manager, then after a decade or two, strike out on your own. Jim Redpath rewrote that script. At just 26 years old, armed with a mining engineering degree and a revolutionary vision, he started J.S. Redpath Limited with an audacious belief: engineering expertise could transform how vertical shaft construction was done.

His early brochures captured the adventurous spirit that would define Redpath. One showed Jim swimming next to an iceberg while his company supported a far northern mine with a cable car system extending high to a cliff, where Redpath employees—true mountaineers—created access for miners to excavate into the side of the cliff. That photo changed my life. As a young civil engineer working at Climax Molybdenum Company in Colorado in 1974, I saw that image and said to myself: "I need to figure out how to work for this company."

The Philosophy That Changed Everything

What made Jim different wasn't just his engineering background or entrepreneurial spirit—it was his philosophy. From the beginning, he established that "the focus of every employee must be on doing a good job for the client" with guidelines built on being "honest, fair and responsible" and "safety first, last and always."

When I finally joined Redpath in 1979 at their new US headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, I was immediately exposed to what we called the Redpath Philosophy and Guidelines for Success. These weren't just words on a wall—they were living principles that guided every decision, every project, every interaction.

The Master of Questions

Jim possessed a remarkable gift: the art of asking questions. During project reviews, his questions seemed unending. You had better be prepared when you participated in a meeting with Jim. But here's what made him extraordinary—his questions were never meant to put anyone to shame. His curiosity and methodology always led individuals to become better people and engineers.

This questioning approach became part of who I am. Like Jim, I became deeply curious about people and ideas. Some might wonder how long these questions can go on, but Jim taught me that curiosity is the gateway to growth. His deep caring came through in every interaction, never making people feel diminished, but always challenging them to rise higher.

The University of Redpath

Perhaps the most remarkable testament to Jim's impact was something we called "The University of Redpath"—not a university in the traditional sense, but a place where everyone learned and grew. The curious fact was that most of our competition had come through Redpath. Our best competitors had grown up in our organization first.

But here's the beautiful paradox: we loved our competition because they shared our same values and did mine contracting the right way—caring about customers and employees. We were fierce competitors, but competitors with whom we could always share a beer at the end of the day. Jim hadn't just built a company; he had launched an entire movement of ethical, innovative mining contractors around the world.

The Mentorship That Transformed My Life

In 1993, during a major industry downturn, Jim faced a difficult decision: sell or shut down the engineering division that was losing money. The entrepreneur in me rose to the occasion. Between Jim and me, an idea emerged—I would buy two-thirds of the failing engineering business.

The rules were simple: I had put cash into the business, but Redpath wouldn't put in another cent. If I failed, I would lose my investment. But the real treasure wasn't the business opportunity—it was that Jim became my mentor.

Jim had pursued his passion for art and had an office on Main Street in North Bay, filled with amazing high-end art. I would bring sub sandwiches to meet with him, and he would ask questions in the way he always did—challenging me constantly. What a gift.

Jim met with me regularly during those early months, bringing submarine sandwiches to his art-filled office on Main Street in North Bay. He would ask his characteristic penetrating questions, challenging me to think differently about every aspect of the business. When I was running the engineering business while trying to do everything myself—including the accounting—Jim saw I was spread too thin. He told me I had to hire an accountant. When I said I couldn't afford to, he said, "You can't afford not to."

Jim understood something I was too close to see: I could do the accounting, but that didn't mean I should be doing the accounting. With a desperate need to generate revenue, I had much better things to focus on. His lesson wasn't really about accounting—it was about learning to build a team and recognizing that trying to do everything yourself is a recipe for failure.

He was right, of course. That lesson about building teams and focusing on what only I could do has governed every business decision I've made since.

The Steward of a Legacy

Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I never felt like just a business owner. I felt like a steward of the legacy Jim had built. Even as we evolved from Redpath McIntosh to McIntosh Redpath to ultimately McIntosh Engineering, we maintained Jim's philosophy and guidelines for success firmly in place.

When we created our own mission and vision statement, we developed what we called the "McIntosh Engineering Commitments Statement"—a unique blend of purpose, values, and safety commitments. It embodied Jim's original philosophy while adapting to our specific mission. Our commitment statement became our culture, and I didn't realize the power of a strong culture until many years later.

When Stantec acquired McIntosh Engineering in 2008, something remarkable happened. Our commitments statement was on every employee's desk, and Stantec employees who integrated with our business wanted their own copy. Jim's influence had expanded to touch even more lives.

High-Performing Teams: Jim's Living Legacy

The lessons I learned from Jim continue to guide my work with MAC6 and Heroic Arizona, particularly in developing high-performing teams:

Trust: Jim built a culture that created deep trust. His focus on what was in the best interest of the customer long-term solved nearly every people issue we faced.

Productive Conflict: At Redpath, we had strong personalities who shared their opinions forcefully in meetings, sometimes with colorful field construction language. But it rarely got personal because we cared about each other and our customers. This productive conflict, grounded in shared values and trust, made us stronger.

Commitment: We were all committed to Jim and the culture he had built. We were going to compete and win, together.

Mutual Accountability: Everything was done as a team. We were accountable to each other, and with that philosophy, we couldn't fail.

Focus on Results: Behind all the caring and culture was a fierce focus on outcomes. The northern Canadian wilderness environment that shaped Jim taught us that obstacles make us stronger, and bottom-line results were necessary for survival and success.

The Ripple Effect Continues

My story is just one thread in the vast tapestry of lives Jim touched. Each member of the Redpath family has their own story of how Jim influenced their life, their career, their understanding of what it means to lead with integrity. Hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals—customers, employees, competitors who learned from him—carry forward his philosophy into their own lives and organizations.

Even though I separated from Redpath when engineering split off, I have always felt and been welcomed by many as part of the Redpath family. The values Jim instilled, the philosophy he created, the culture he built—these became part of who I am, regardless of where my career path led me. And I know I'm not alone in this feeling. Jim had a unique ability to make people feel they belonged to something bigger than themselves, something that transcended any single project or employment relationship.

This is the true power of heroism: the ripple effect of small actions, multiplied through hundreds of lives. Jim understood something profound about leadership—that our micro moments, those brief interactions where we touch another person's life with a thoughtful question, genuine care, or unwavering integrity, create waves that extend far beyond what we can see.

All of us who were shaped by Jim's leadership—whether we stayed with Redpath our entire careers or went on to start our own companies—became carriers of his philosophy. We learned to ask better questions, to put the customer first, to prioritize safety above all else, to be honest and fair and responsible. We took these lessons and applied them in boardrooms and underground construction sites, in our own businesses and in our relationships with our own employees and families.

Our Call to Continue the Legacy

We've seen how Jim's approach to business created not just successful projects but successful people. We've witnessed how his commitment to asking the right questions, caring deeply about outcomes, and never compromising on values created a culture that transcended any individual location or project. Many of us have taken these principles to other companies, other industries, other parts of the world—but we remain connected by the common foundation Jim gave us.

The mining industry today is better because Jim Redpath showed us all a different way to do business. The hundreds of people who learned from him directly, and the thousands more who learned from us, carry forward a tradition of excellence, integrity, and genuine care that extends far beyond any single company's success.

Jim's life teaches us that true leadership isn't about the size of your company or the scope of your influence—it's about how deeply you care, how consistently you live by your principles, and how many lives you touch with integrity and service. Whether someone spent two years or twenty years with Redpath, whether they're still there today or moved on decades ago, whether they're part of the Redpath family or simply aspire to create something similar—Jim's influence shows us what's possible when we lead with purpose.

We all have opportunities each and every day to touch the lives of others. Let's all think like Jim, act with curiosity and genuine care, and remember that our small actions can create massive ripple effects in the lives we encounter.

We honor Jim Redpath by continuing to live the philosophy he taught us. We celebrate his life by staying committed to the guidelines for success he established. In doing so, we ensure that his ripples continue to spread through our own careers, our own teams, our own families—creating waves of positive change that will touch generations to come.

The University of Redpath never really closed. It just spread to wherever each of us landed. And that's exactly how Jim would have wanted it.

In memory of Jim Redpath - Founder, mentor, and inspiration to countless lives. His legacy lives on in every person who chooses to lead with integrity, serve customers first, and build others up along the way.