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• Position: Linda Loftis, new president of the Distribution Contractors Association - Brief Article

She was tap-tap-tapped for contractor's top spot

Linda Loftis went to New York and came up three inches short of being a Rockette. So she came home to Charlotte to dig ditches.

Loftis, 45, is president of Loftis Construction Corp., a Charlotte gas-pipeline contractor. In February, she became the first woman elected president of the Distribution Contractors Association. She's not the first Loftis to hold the post. Her father, Murry Loftis, did it in 1971. But she is, so far as anyone can tell, the first former dancer to head the national group.

Loftis' mother enrolled her in tap and ballet classes in Charlotte when she was 2. "I'd watch The Jackie Gleason Show, and the June Taylor Dancers would always come out first. I decided that was what I wanted to be." Her father had other ideas. He named her president of his company when she was 13 to ensure it would stay in the family.

But she didn't quit on her passion, getting a bachelor's in dance from Coker College in Hartsville, S.C., in 1978. She studied business, too. "Dad's theory was, even if I opened a dance studio, I'd have to run a business."

After school, Loftis headed for New York. "I didn't think I'd ever go into construction." The Rockettes helped change her mind. She tried out, but the troupe wanted 5-foot-7-inch dancers. "They even pushed your hair down." Loftis is 5 feet 4 inches tall. For 10 years, she free-lanced and taught modern dance.

In 1988, her father's heart began failing. He developed diabetes. For two years, she shuttled between New York and Charlotte to learn pipeline contracting. She liked going to job sites but hated sitting in the office crunching numbers. "Dad knew it wasn't my first desire to be here, but he let me feel my way through."

Her dad died in 1994. Since then, the company, which lays and maintains pipe for Piedmont Natural Gas Co. and others, has doubled in size. It has 80 employees and had revenues in excess of $5 million in 2000.

Loftis has no regrets about giving up her dancing career. And she sees one similarity with construction: "You're always out there looking for the next job."

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