Fifty Years of McGarr, as Told by the Man Who Started It

Before there was a McGarr Service Corporation, there was a young father with a good job. Kevin McGarr worked as a sales representative in NCR’s accounting-machine division — a respectable career with an established company. At home, he and his wife were raising two young daughters: Kelly, age four, and Stefanie, just one.

Walking away from that to start a company was not a casual decision. It carried real personal and financial risk, and Kevin knew it.

The idea came from an unexpected place — a factory representative from Certified Chemical Company, a cleaning-chemical manufacturer out of Dayton, Ohio, who encouraged Kevin to take a serious look at the commercial cleaning industry. Kevin didn’t jump. He researched the market. He sat down with business owners he trusted and asked hard questions. Only when he was convinced the industry had genuine long-term potential did he make the leap, founding McGarr’s cleaning division in 1974.

That instinct — get all the facts before you act — would become a family principle. His daughter Kelly, now President of the company, still calls it the best advice her father ever gave her.

McGarr’s earliest clients would shape the company for decades: the Jimmy Fund, Simmons College, The Beacon Companies, Boston College. From the start, the young company was learning to serve healthcare, higher education, commercial real estate, and residential facilities — the same mix it serves today.

But Kevin learned quickly that winning an account was only the beginning. In a demanding service industry, a client’s needs can change overnight. A contractor who isn’t fully committed and responsive will fail that client — and eventually lose them.

“If you want to succeed in the cleaning business, you have to get out of the office and kick the tires.” — Mort Lederman, General Services Manager, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, to a young Kevin McGarr

That’s where Mort Lederman’s advice came in. “Kick the tires” became Kevin’s defining management principle, and he took it literally: visit the properties. Talk directly with the customers. Watch your employees work. Find the problems yourself. Confirm with your own eyes that the service meets the standard.

It’s a philosophy that produced results you can measure. McGarr served as Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s environmental services provider for more than 34 years — and during that partnership, Dana-Farber’s environmental services scores in Press Ganey patient-satisfaction surveys consistently landed in the mid-90th percentile. In a healthcare setting, where cleanliness is inseparable from patient care, there are few numbers that matter more.

Here’s something unusual about McGarr’s growth: much of it wasn’t planned in a boardroom. It was requested by clients.

McGarr began as a commercial cleaning company. When existing clients asked whether McGarr could provide security guards as well, Kevin’s answer was to build a security services division. Over the decades, that same pattern — listen to the client, then build what they need — added professional concierge services and package-room attendant services to the company’s offerings.

More than fifty years on, McGarr serves residential, commercial, academic, medical, and research facilities throughout Greater Boston. The capabilities have multiplied. The standard hasn’t moved an inch: provide every client with honest, high-quality, affordable service.

If Kevin’s philosophy ever faced a stress test, it was the COVID-19 pandemic.

As cleaning protocols, disinfection requirements, occupancy rules, and health guidance changed by the week — sometimes by the day — Kevin was on the phone with clients constantly, often speaking with many of them daily, working out what each one needed to keep their facilities healthy, safe, and open.

McGarr adjusted its programs as fast as circumstances changed. It was the clearest demonstration yet of what Kevin had always believed: a service company should be a working partner, not a contractor performing a fixed list of tasks.

Ask Kevin about the future of the industry and he won’t dismiss the technology. Robotic cleaning equipment, automated systems, data analytics, artificial intelligence — he sees real value in all of it, for productivity, quality control, reporting, and affordability.

But he draws a firm line: technology cannot replace personal accountability.

In Kevin’s view, even as robotics and AI become more important, a successful service company must keep close working relationships with its clients. Technology should help employees and managers deliver better service — never create distance between the company and the customer. The tires still need kicking. A robot can’t do that part.

Kevin’s daughter Kelly grew up alongside the company — she was four when it was founded. Over her 30 years at McGarr, she has worked in sales, marketing, finance, information technology, and strategic growth. There is very little of this business she hasn’t had her hands in.

So when it came time to name a President, Kevin’s judgment was simple: no one was better positioned. Kelly understood the company’s history, its employees, its customers, and its service philosophy — and she brought the experience and perspective to guide its next chapter.

Under Kelly’s leadership, McGarr has continued to modernize while protecting the family-business culture that built it. The company is also a certified women-owned business. Kevin remains Chief Executive Officer, and Kelly’s presidency represents something he cares deeply about: continuity of the standards on which the company was built.

Ask Kevin whether he’d make the same choice today — leave the secure job, take the risk, start the company — and his answer comes without hesitation. If he could advise his twenty-something self, the message would be simple: do it all over again.

The rewards, he’ll tell you, went well beyond the growth of the business. Over five decades, customers became personal friends — friendships that lasted for many years, built on the trust that forms when a company consistently keeps its promises and stands behind its work.

Research before taking a major risk.
Kevin entered the industry only after studying its potential and consulting experienced business owners.

Remain close to the customer.
Direct visits and candid conversations reveal what reports and contracts often cannot.

Respond as the client’s needs change.
Long-term partnerships require flexibility, urgency, and personal commitment.

Use technology with purpose.
Robotics and AI should improve service quality and affordability while supporting human judgment — not replace it.

Protect honesty and quality.
Clients must be able to trust both the company and the people serving their facilities.

Kevin G. McGarr is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of McGarr Service Corporation, a family-owned provider of cleaning, security, and concierge services throughout Greater Boston since 1974.

Next in this series: a conversation with Kelly McGarr, President — on growing up inside the company, modernizing a 50-year-old business, and leading as a woman in facilities services.