Doug Drye
Inducted 2020
Technology Program,sponsored by the North Carolina State University Apprenticeship Program, studying construction technology. The first three years, he was classified as an apprentice and later became a masonry superintendent for Austin Construction overseeing residential and commercial jobs.
Doug left Austin Construction to work for Award Construction for two years. Doug continued with his construction career and accepted a job with The University of North Carolina at Charlotte as an Electrician 1 and Electrician 2. During these seven years Doug enrolled in Rowan Cabarrus Community College working towards an electrician certification degree. He only lacked one class completing his degree as an electrician when he got the call that his high school masonry instructor was retiring. Doug accepted the position as masonry instructor at Mt. Pleasant High School in 1986. Doug earned his teaching license in vocational education at A&T University in Greensboro NC.
Doug taught at Mt. Pleasant High School for twenty-three and a half years and built a nationally recognized masonry program. Doug holds the record for the highest school secondary masonry national champions. He has seven first place finishes and one-second-place finish. Doug also has one first-place finish and one second-place finish in the post-secondary division. MCAA Masonry Hall-of Fame member Sam McGee once commented that Doug Drye has "more titles than the Yankees."
What is most impressive about Doug's career was his ability to place young people in the trade and show them that a career in masonry is a viable choice. Doug is recognized by the masonry industry as an instructor that consistently placed students with companies and who developed the exceptional program at Mt. Pleasant High School that still produces job-ready employees.
Doug resides in Mt. Pleasant with his wife Thyra. They have two sons, Mark and Trent, and four grandchildren. Doug is still seen around the community today helping promote the trade to young people and watching the countless number of students that he introduced to the trade enjoying their own successful careers and making a difference.
Plaque Engraving
Doug Drye studied masonry in school and was active in the construction community. He was working on his electrician's certificate when Mt. Pleasant High School offered him a masonry instructor's teaching position to replace his former high school masonry instructor. Doug began teaching high school masonry in 1986.
In Doug's almost twenty-four years at Mount Pleasant, he built a nationally-recognized program, holding the record for the most VICA/SkillsUSA secondary masonry national champions seven first-place finishes and one second-place finish in the secondary category and one first-place and one second-place finish in the post-secondary division. Doug has helped guide hundreds of young people to successful careers in masonry and construction.
