Ben J. Brush, Sr. (1933-2007), Founder
Ben J. Brush, Sr. was born and raised in Columbus, Georgia. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1950 and built his first home in 1951 at the age of 18. He built over 1,500 homes during his lifetime. He married his wife Nancy in 1953 and they had two children and were blessed with six grandchildren. Mr. and Mrs. Brush moved to Charleston, South Carolina where they continued in the building industry. In 1963 they moved their family to Augusta, Georgia, to open a new location for their church. As his building career progressed, Mr. Brush joined the local homebuilders association in 1967 as President of Brush & Collier Builders, Inc., building more new homes during the 70’s than any other builder in Augusta. He served on the state and local board during the mid 70’s. Mr. Brush served three years as Treasurer, Secretary, First Vice President and in 1993 as President of the Builders Association of Metro Augusta, Inc. Ben Brush was a Life Director of the Board of Directors, served on the Board of Directors as Chairman of the Builders Political Action Committee, the Governmental Affairs Committee, the Codes Committee and a number of other committees. He served on the State Board of Directors in 1993, and was a lifetime Spike Club member. Mr. Brush was voted the Sales and Marketing Council’s Builder of the Year in 1998. In 2007, at the age of 74, Ben Brush was still actively designing and building new homes. He was a member of the Bonded Builders Warranty Group and received several awards for his outstanding ‘claim-free’ record and aggressive warranty program. Mr. Brush made it a policy to always be present personally during warranty service. As the founder of a family-owned business, Mr. Brush was especially sensitive to the needs of the family. Building quality homes, affordable apartments, and commercial properties was a part of his life for over 54 years. Mr. Brush insisted that his children, staff and sub-contractors at Brush & Company work each day to be the best. He always believed in “a day’s work for a day’s pay” – “if you’re breathing, you should be working”. Through his hard work and dedication, Mr. Brush enriched his community with numerous neighborhoods and churches.
Ben Brush was the founder, founding Pastor and a charter member of Bible Cathedral. He served on the Board as Treasurer and Property Trustee. He was also a member of the Gideons, serving as Vice President of Metro Augusta Camp, and enjoyed handing out Bibles.
Another passion in Ben Brush’s life began at the age of 13, living in Columbus, Georgia. He built a soapbox racer, the old-fashioned way, out of crates and participated in the local race. There, he fell in love with racing – Nascar and soapbox racing. He looked forward to the day when his first grandchild was finally old enough to race. Through the years, he enjoyed working with each grandchild building and racing soapbox cars. He was a member and served as Vice President of the Augusta Soapbox Derby Association. Mr. Brush enjoyed the children and soapbox racing so much, he even recruited children from his church, friends and business associates to race. He said this was one thing he could do to bond with the kids.
Over the course of his lifetime Ben Brush lived according to certain principles, morals and values. After much thought, he developed and wrote out four specific principles with which he strived to live his life. Ben Brush’s lifetime principles were: (1) fair play is good business, (2) be loyal to Bible principles, not to institutions – institutions will change, (3) be a friend to my friends, and (4) put God first. Ben Brush was a loving and wonderful husband, father and grandfather. He was a godly man, highly respected and loved by his wife, children, relatives, friends, business associates and brothers and sisters in Christ.