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Long before Matt Carroll knew what his career would look like, he enjoyed walking through an empty factory with his father on weekend mornings.
Black Bros. Co. was different in the 1960s. A tight, single-building structure aside the train tracks with offices on the north end. A large gas-fired boiler had just replaced the old coal-burning system, and to a young boy the old shop had its own language of creaks, clanks and unexplained noises. Carroll remembers shadowing his father, Jim, closely as they made their rounds.
“I would follow dad around and learn about what the different machines did and how they fit into our manufacturing process,” Carroll recalled. “It was interesting.”
That interest never really went away. He didn’t know it at the time, but those “security checks” would become the prologue to a story spanning nearly half a century long. Now, after a 48-year career at Black Bros., Carroll is stepping away from the day-to-day duties of running the company. He will remain involved as Chairman of the Board.
For Carroll, the moment carries the weight of history as the manufacturing firm established by his ancestors in 1882 advances to a new chapter.
“It’s a great feeling,” Carroll said. “It shows a commitment the family has to our people, our partners, and our customers—that we are able to hand off to the sixth generation.”
The youngest Carroll boy
Matt is the third of Jim and Marge Carroll’s three sons, raised in what he describes as a “pretty ordinary” childhood. There were sports, friends, and summers spent north at Swan Lake. His father was a Cub Scout leader and Little League coach.
But the family lineage that eventually brought the Carrolls to lead Black Bros. began much earlier. During World War II, Jim was home from his stint as a Navy jetfighter when friends arranged a blind date with Marge Black. They went bowling, and Marge won. The rest is history.
The two married in 1946. Shortly after, Marge began her ascension to Executive Secretary and Jim toiled in the Engineering Department. In 1957, Marge’s dad and third-generation Black Bros. President, Bob Black, unexpectedly passed. Jim assumed the presidency of Black Bros., a role he would conquer for next 38 years.
For young Matt, the company became part of the landscape of growing up. As he got older, he began running the mail and was responsible for the in-and-out boxes among other errands. Eventually, in 1978, he moved into the shop and began operating the machinery, including doing some welding and fabrication.
A second chance
The path wasn’t always smooth.
Matt is candid about his younger years. In his late teens and early 20s, there were mistakes — scrapes with the law, missed days of work. Under ordinary circumstances, he admits, others may have been fired.
His father chose another route. Jim asked then plant superintendent Jim Schmidt to sit down with his son and deliver what Matt remembers as the “Dutch Uncle” speech. It was a stern lesson in accountability, but it was also something more lasting: a reminder that someone believed he was worth the trouble.
“He never gave up on me,” Matt said of his father. “He was my mentor and had an abundance of patience with me.”
That faith eventually took root. By his mid-20s, Matt understood Black Bros. was where he wanted to be. He liked the people. He liked learning how things worked. He stood behind the quality product being manufactured. He systematically moved through many departments over the next decade and a half, learning more about production, customer service, and sales.
“I’ve made my share of mistakes, but if you fail, fail forward,” Matt said, reiterating a pointer he has carried with him since those early days. “Learn from it.”
Matt and his father began traveling together to trade shows, seminars and meetings. For three or four years, father and son shared an office. It was a gradual leadership handoff, built by watching, listening, and working side-by-side.
Choosing to carry it forward
Throughout its 144-year existence, there have been times when the future of Black Bros. was uncertain. One instance was when Matt’s two older brothers pursued their own paths after college. Jim and Marge briefly discussed selling the company.
Instead, Matt made a commitment to keep the family business alive for a fifth generation. In 1995, he took over as President of Black Bros. The responsibility meant becoming the latest steward of a company built over generations, through changing markets, technologies and economic cycles, and held together by relationships that often lasted just as long.
According to Matt, leadership at Black Bros. is not solely about machinery, manufacturing or numbers. It is also about people. Over the years, he came to know and admire generations of employees and their families. He remembers the Jones brothers, Carl and Gene Bruener, the Bonnell sisters, the DeLongs and so many other families whose names became woven into the company’s story.
“Black Bros. had a great team throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s,” he said. “So many good team members have came and gone. And I believe we also have a great team today. There is a friendship that is built by working and helping each other, no doubt.”
And when a customer or supplier comes through the door, Carroll believes in being there.
“Meet them. Listen to them. Be a good partner,” he continued.
It is a style of leadership that doesn’t always announce itself. It happens in hallways and offices, on dusty factory floors and across crowded conference tables. It develops one conversation at a time. It’s how Matt has done business for all these years.
The next generation
Now Matt is watching his own son, Evan Carroll, take those same first steps into leadership.
Evan, Matt and Kristi Carroll’s first born, has been promoted to Executive Vice President, taking on greater responsibility as the company moves into its sixth generation.
Matt says Evan has a strong business sense. He has learned the history of Black Bros., understands the markets the company serves and, perhaps most importantly, understands how to work with people.
“Evan’s done a very good job learning and coming to understand the many areas of the company,” Matt said. “I couldn’t be happier that this transition is working so wonderfully.”
Perhaps because the lessons are not complicated. Matt’s philosophy rolls off his tongue when asked: “Get out of from behind the desk and talk to people. Ask about their families. Trust them to do a good job once hired. Look for ways to save money and continually improve the business. Never sacrifice Black Bros.’ core principles.”
Matt sees those lessons not as a checklist, but as a continuation of the values that have carried Black Bros. through six generations. He is confident in the future.
“The strength of Black Bros. is the innovation of our people. Finding new markets, using automation and technology to develop or improve our products and systems. And of course, our relationship with customers and suppliers. We are in a very good place.”
A career measured in people
Looking back on almost five decades of work, there are inevitably highs and lows, successes and challenges. There are machines that have come and gone. Markets that have emerged. Customers who have become friends. Employees whose children and grandchildren have eventually found their own places within the company.
And there are memories that reach all the way back to a little boy following his father through the factory on a cold weekend morning. The quiet corridors giving way to eerie grumbles of the oversized boiler. Lessons on machinery so perfectly and strategically placed within the Little Factory by The Tracks.
As Matt transitions from President and CEO to Chairman of the Board, there is a natural sense of looking backward. But there is also something distinctly forward-looking about the moment.
Black Bros. remains a family business. The sixth generation is stepping forward. And Matt gets to watch it happen. He takes pride in that — pride in the company, in the people who have built it with him, and in the fact that the business his family has nurtured since 1882 will continue beyond his own tenure.
And there is something underneath the pride, too. Gratitude. For a father who gave him another chance. For the people who taught him along the way. For the employees and families who became part of both his personal and professional life. For customers and suppliers who helped shape the company. Almost 60 years after those first memories — and 48 years after he officially began working at Black Bros. — Matt’s interest in the company has not faded.
Ask him about its history and he still perks up.
Ask him about its people and the names come easily.
Ask him about its future, and his attention proudly shifts toward the next generation.
That may be the most fitting measure of his career. Matt Carroll isn’t leaving Black Bros. behind. He is making sure it carries on.
