Get to Know Leonard (Len) McCain, Rotary Club of Columbia County West
By Barbara Myers Myers Mason APR


Preacher's Kid, Veteran, Trailblazer, Engineer, Volunteer, Builder, Reader, Learner, Investor, Traveler, Leader, and Rotarian.  Leonard "Len" McCain can be described as many things, but his story speaks to overcoming segregation, transition, poverty, and cultures in a way that led to a successful career.  He is still working through service and volunteering.  Read more about this Rotary Club of Columbia County West member. 
 
“Looking back over the years, it's hard to condense so much of my life into a few paragraphs....I went from the segregated world of sleeping in airports and rental cars in the South on business trips because of hotel barriers for people of color, and yet could not complain because that would result in pulled projects and the subsequent loss of experience with the assignments that nobody wanted...Back of the bus, segregated housing and a lot of the civil rights indignities that came with being the first or only person of color on a location assignment in various power, local  and social dynamics ...Come early, work late, volunteer for coordination, communication or project miscellany, helping recruit females, and other minorities, coaching, networking.

“Always studying to be the most informed, deep into interfaces, constant vigilance, detailed situation awareness, speech, dress, deportment, life in a fishbowl, always on the best, first, and error-free tightrope of heightened scrutiny and yet be the picture of equanimity, calm, cool and collected... Ever aware that success has a thousand fathers and that failure is an orphan...This cauldron of change and challenge eventually bore fruit as constant learning, varied assignments, multifaceted background tasking, and relentless work paid off and I became the ‘go to’ guy for the upstairs, and the downstairs of the work environment, and the ‘go to’ guy for tough assignments and uncertainties, which I learned to relish...and benefit with a cornucopia of great travel, exposure, growth, and wonderful experiences....A helluva ride...”

At age 83, Columbia County West Rotary Club member Leonard (Len) McCain is a self-described “autodidact.” In other words, he loves to learn and has contributed his knowledge and experiences to his community as a Rotarian for 16 years.

McCain’s engineering and management career began with a company now known as Unisys, a global technology solutions company. He worked for the company for 30 years in such locations as Philadelphia, Greenland, Boston, Vietnam, Princeton, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Washington DC. As a young man from a rural community in West Virgina, he was “anxious for opportunities.”

McCain was brought up in a large family with roots in South Carolina. His father, who was born in 1901, was an agricultural agent whose life revolved around farming. His dad was also an ordained pastor at age 19 without a church. “Pastors stayed in churches until they were run out of town or died,” he said.

His father decided to move his family to West Virginia, where he built the first Black Baptist church in the area. Believing that sons assume the role of manhood at age 12, McCain’s father farmed his son out to tradespeople in his church for work experience and training to improve the limited employment and civil rights opportunities available then for people of color.

Along with his regular school and farming responsibilities, McCain apprenticed with a plasterer, a painter, an electrician and a radio-TV repairman. Tinkering with electronics became a hobby for him and his father soon enrolled him in a correspondence diploma program.

“I read everything that I could get my hands on in electronics, mechanics and science,” he said, thus giving him an excellent understanding of electronics as a young teenager.  

McCain joined the military with a grounding in electronics and was soon sent to anti-aircraft missile school where he learned about radar and computers.

After three years in the Army and with some college under his belt, he accepted a position as one of the first Black engineers with Remington Rand Univac in Philadelphia. After a couple of years, he transferred to a ballistic missile warning site in Greenland where he worked as a shift supervisor.

With the opportunity to earn money tax-free, he said he “moved from a poor country fellow to solid middle class.”

During and after his three-and-a-half-year stint in Greenland, he invested in real estate, helped his family and married.
He transitioned with the company, becoming a district engineer based in Boston. Following a promotion, he relocated to support the fighting troops in the Far East with responsibility for company computers in Vietnam, Okinawa, Korea and Japan.  He and his wife came back to the United States after their son was conceived in Okinawa, and he accepted a position as the Director of Worldwide Field Training in Princeton, NJ.

McCain, who received multiple promotions with relocations, found it difficult to graduate from college because of these frequent moves. However, he participated in graduate level classes at Princeton and studied accounting at the University of Maryland. He taught program management classes and specialized in risk management. He attended extensive military and company training classes and maintains an extensive library. And he has worlds of experience to share.

McCain was enjoying the “intellectual feast of being in an educational center” when he was called to become a general manager in Puerto Rico with opportunities to travel and support Univac facilities in the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and other Caribbean sites. After three-and-a-half years, he was promoted to National Director of Engineering in Brazil.

“I became a big fish in a big pond,” he said.

McCain is proud of hiring the first two female engineers in Brazil, facilitating the acquisition and merger of the German company Siemens computer base, and completing a regional reorganization.

After completing his assignment, he transferred to Washington DC, where he designed and built an environmental test room for computer systems, a video course production unit, and a secure classified information facility design team. In addition, he led a federal proposal development group and a federal overseas supply sales function, among other challenges. He held several positions at Unisys, Federal Systems, eventually retiring as the Director of Solutions Development.

With the roots of his family in South Carolina, he came back home and moved across the Savannah River to Georgia. Having made investments in real estate through the years, he bought 20 townhouses and joined the Rotary Club of Columbia County West near Augusta. He has served as president and as a “jack of all trades” for the club.

Rotary interested him because “it was an opportunity to fellowship with successful business people and professionals who have similar aspirations for contributing to the community,” he said.

Unfortunately, his wife, Laraine, who McCain described as a steady partner in life and business and an eager traveling buddy, passed away five years ago.

He enjoys staying busy and keeping active, reading five newspapers every day and playing Wordle with his son, Len, who works in the computer field in Boston. He also does volunteer work for his church family at Carey Hill Baptist Church and others.

McCain focuses on pro bono remodeling work for older people on fixed incomes. A family with disabilities needed new kitchen cabinets, flooring, lighting and extra outlets. He and a church friend were there to help with the skills and funding. Earlier last year, termites destroyed a bathroom, and the residents had no money to fix it. “We gutted it, installed a new shower, new ceramic tile, new light fixtures – everything that needed to be done with a cherry on top,” he said.

He loves to cook his favorite foods from Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Puerto Rico, in addition to gardening. He also took four years to build his own home which was filled with customized features.

Hailing from West Virginia and eventually finding his way to Georgia, McCain has a rich life filled with travel, family, friendships and giving back to his community. And he has the memories of a wonderful career that provided experiences spanning the globe.