Brian Mace: Built to Last
This story originally appeared in CTpulse vol. 4. Click here to read the full magazine!
Brian Mace grew up around cars, his grandfather working as Service Manager at a Cadillac shop. At seven years old, his Uncle Junior started putting him under the hood to adjust the hard-to-reach valves. Mace has been fixing things his whole life, you could say he was born for this.
Today, Mace is a technician out of Hartford, a 16-year veteran at CTtransit.
“I’m a mechanic. This is what I do,” said Brian Mace. “Everything in my house gets taken apart. Nothing goes in the trash hole in my house. If the radio stops working, I’m going to take it apart. If I can fix it, great, put it back on the nightstand. If I can’t fix it? It goes into the garbage in pieces, you know? You’re going to figure it out or not, it’s already broken.”
Mace believes there are some people on this planet who subscribe to a theory that it is easier to do nothing than to try something. He would rather try.
“Failure is one of the greatest learning tools there is,” Mace said. “If you let failure define you or put you in a box, you won't ever know what's outside those walls.
It's only by getting out of the box and facing your fears, and your failures, and your hurts, and your hang ups, that you ever excel.”
Mace brings this mindset into the shop, where he also holds the responsibility of being the Shop Steward, a representative for the union and liaison between the members and the company. One of his responsibilities is to meet every new hire, talk with them, explain how the union works, and share what the expectations are for their role.
" There's a satisfaction that goes with being able to help someone out to meet their needs or their goals or those types of things,” said Mace. “At the same time, I think people have intrinsic value. No matter who we are, people need to be treated with a certain level of dignity and a certain level of respect."
Mace is quick to point out that the shop is a very supportive environment. Through the apprenticeship program in particular, each department does their part to share their wealth and wisdom. He is not the only one to lend a hand or help others. It is a collaborative effort that they all share.
“We all help each other out,” said Mace. “It's a great area to work in because we help each other to get done what we need to get done.”
“I've always thought for a long time that if I give you my car, you've got a car, I don't have a car. If I give you my money, you've got money, I don't have money. If I give you wisdom and knowledge, you have wisdom and knowledge, but it's something that I still have too. It's the only thing that you can actually give away and still retain. It doesn't cost me to help you learn something. It costs me nothing.”
Mace still uses a Samsung S9 smartphone (as opposed to the modern S23 version). He has a motorcycle from 2012, but outside of that he drives cars that were made in ’96 and ’76. He is in the middle of fixing up his wife’s ’71 Nova as a birthday present to her.
You know the old saying, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it?” Whether it is a transit bus, a relationship, or even someone’s state of mind, Brian Mace is the kind of guy who rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. And if it is broken beyond repair?
At the very least, he is going to try.