Lee W. Dodson
323-243-0404
Lee W. Dodson is a retired general contractor in Los Angeles, California. Raised in Texas, a true son of the South, he traces his lineage, on his mother’s side, to the Skiles tobacco plantation in antebellum Bowling Green, Kentucky, and on his father’s side, to the Lee family of Virginia and is rumored to be descended from White Wolf of the Comanche Territory of northeast Texas.
After a collage career of colleges, Dodson moved west to work in the motion picture industry first as an assistant “whatever,” then as a commercial producer, then as a motivational film producer/director while simultaneously mounting music concerts and promoting television pilots under the banner Idea Express and Forerunner Films. He invented the miniseries and held rights to Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” for two years until it was handed off to another company.
In 1970, Dodson re-invented his career by becoming a rough-frame carpenter. Not satisfied by the quality of the foundations for his hillside projects, he apprenticed for Saxon Concrete in 1980, and in 1982, he added hillside foundation and concrete skills to his repertoire. Concentrating on limited-access and hillside, he honed his trade to produce better quality and higher efficiency crews further enhancing his ability to turn quicker turn around on construction in high risk locations and difficult environments.
Dodson’s knowledge and expertise in caisson and grade beam construction equals any in California, and he is widely considered an expert in deep-hole placement, post tensioned platform, and in place high-pours.
Dodson has a reputation for being an innovative planner, an inveterate researcher, and a tenacious objective-oriented, highly motivated individual who consistently presses for higher quality and time pressure results without sacrificing the safety and well being of his subordinates. He motivates by example and leads with respect.
Dodson has been responsible, either as prime contractor, as
supervising personnel, or as consultant on projects ranging from $50K to $10M from the
early 70s through the 90s and into the new Millenium. He has produced over $60M
in projects since 1996. In 1998, He was named "executive of the Year" by the Conejo Valley Chapter of The National Association of Women In Construction.
Dodson owns thecontractorsside.com, a trades-person oriented dispute resolution website, and is currently mounting a multipurpose website skoshitiger.com, with one side aimed to assist and advise tornado, flood, fire, earthquake destruction homeowners, the other side devoted to major federal property development.
Dodson has appeared on numerous web-based
construction/business programs and has been published in various construction
magazines i.e., Buildernews. He has served as an expert witness and
currently advises on construction and foundation issues, and he works as a professional consultant on disaster affected property reclamation.
Dodson has written:
Four screenplays:
Here In The Light
The Laughing Gas War
Ghost Bet
Little Dreamer
Two one-act Plays:
Chaos
Saxophone
Three novels:
This Never Happened
Pastiche
And Then….
Dodson is bi-lingual, loves to fly, holds a black belt in American Free Style Karate, and coaches public speaking.