Northstar Systems history

Within two years of North Star's first minimill production in 1967, the Nuclear Corporation of America of Charlotte, North Carolina, opened a $6 million minimill in Darlington, South Carolina.

Besides a new presence in the waste disposal, metals processing, and beef and salt production markets, Cargill also sought a place in the steel industry, and in February 1974 it acquired North Star and its thriving minimill business.

The Wilton mill came on line in 1976 and was soon producing 150,000 tons of rebars and structural flats annually and employing 250.

Announced in November 1977, the Horizon was sold in a wooden cabinet, as opposed to the more usual metal or plastic.

A metallurgical engineer who began working in steel mills at age 18, Garvey gave fair warning of his career's promise in 1978 when he was promoted to general manager of North Star's St Paul mill less than a year after joining the company.

CP/M 2 on NorthStar DD/QD User's notes, 25 pgs HRAM User/Technical manual 66 pgs Micro-Disk System MDS-A manual (rev 5 or no rev) 32 pgs each Micro-Disk System MDS-A-D double density manual (rev 2); AD3 schematics, 1979 errata: 40 pgs Micro-DIsk System MDC schematics ONLY, 4 pgs.

In 1982 United States steelmakers fell victim to a punishing industrywide depression that raked corporate profits for four years.

Mike and Myles formed NorthStar in late June of 1983 and brought on Mark Adams, another McCain employee, who is still a team member of the company to this day.

In 1984, within a year of his promotion to executive vice president, Garvey was lifted to the presidency of North Star and continued the breakneck acquisition program he had begun the year before.

His first addition was the rolling mill of the bankrupt Ohio River Steel in Calvert City, Ohio, which he followed in April 1985 with the acquisition of the inactive Hunt Steel Co. minimill of Youngstown, Ohio.

After an aborted move to Phoenix Steel in 1986, Garvey returned to North Star in time to see the newly retooled Youngstown facility come on line in November and to lead the acquisition of Universal Tubular Services of Houston, Texas, which was promptly renamed North Star Steel Houston.

In January 1987, Garvey invited North Star's plant managers and corporate staff to a Florida business retreat where they were introduced to the tenets of the "total quality management" (TQM) movement then sweeping corporate America.

In 1988, the Building Design Department began offering structural calculations for local building projects, both residential and commercial, and our employee count continued to increase.

In 1990 North Star and Cleveland Cliffs Inc. of Ohio formed a joint venture to explore the technical and commercial feasibility of producing iron carbide to replace scrap in the steelmaking process.

In 1992, the steel industry began to recover, and North Star announced an agreement to sell oil industry tubular steel to a new customer in Russia.

In 1993, North Star announced it would double the production capacity of its St Paul mill to 650,000 tons and won Cargill's final approval for the construction of a new $140 million minimill in Kingman, Arizona.

By late 1994 Nucor had completed construction of its own iron carbide plant in Trinidad.

In June 1995, North Star finally broke ground for its Ohio mill, and in September Garvey announced North Star would infuse another $1.3 million into its St Paul mill to optimize its ability to generate scrap from car bodies and appliances.

Despite Garvey's abrupt departure, his two key projects--the Ohio flat-rolled steel mill and the new Arizona wire rod and bar mill--moved toward completion in 1996.

Gallaway Consulting which was founded in 1998.

Additional manuals as of April 2004: all by Northstar unless noted otherwise

In May 2006, Constellation Software began trading publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX - CSU). For additional information on Constellation Software, visit http://www.csisoftware.com.

In 2009, NorthStar acquired Gallaway Consulting, Inc.

On January 1, 2011, GDA Engineering, Surveying, and Planning of Oroville, California joined NorthStar.

In early 2014 NorthStar combined with NCM Group to grow revenue and further expand its national footprint to the northwest, southwest and southeast United States.

I'd appreciate any confirming information and corrections. - Herb Johnson, 2016