David Schuff, founder of Schuff Steel Company, died on August 25, 2023, at age 92.
Schuff founded the Arizona-based steel fabrication and construction company in 1976 with his son, Scott. It started in the family’s home garage and grew into one of the nation's largest fabricators and erectors. Operating out of seven fabrication shops and eight offices, it counts the 2023 AISC IDEAS² Award-winning SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. among its recent major projects.
“You don’t grow from a family-home start-up into one of the largest fabrication and erection companies in the country without vision, ability, and drive,” said American Institute of Steel Construction President Charles J. Carter, SE, PE, PhD. “Dave exemplified the entrepreneurial spirit of our industry.”
Schuff’s legacy includes a generation of delighted children who have scrambled up the steel beams and columns that make up the 37-ft-tall Schuff-Perini Climber at the Children’s Museum of Phoenix. In a 2010 interview for Modern Steel Construction, Nancy Stice (then the museum’s director of exhibits and facilities) credited him as “the impetus to move forward on such a colossal undertaking.” Schuff donated 50 tons of structural steel and its professional services for the whimsical yet technically complex climbing structure that remains a beloved part of the museum today.
Current Schuff Steel CEO Rustin Roach noted that David Schuff leaves a remarkable legacy. "His pioneering spirit and love for the steel business was evident in all that Dave touched," he said. "There will never be anyone else like him."
Current and former employees shared remembrances on social media. Controller Shawna Willis called him “one of my favorite people” and fondly recalled how shocked she was that he took the time to greet her on her first day as a staff accountant in 1999. “The nicest, most humble man you could ever hope to meet,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “He was truly one in a million and will be missed by all who were lucky enough to meet and know him.”