Community leader.

World Traveler.

Competitor.

Christian.

Engineer.

Industrialist.

Philanthropist.

Max Biery took on a lot of roles in his journey from Northern Indiana farm boy to the mountains of East Tennessee. But the one he valued most was family man, a devoted husband and proud father of three boys.

Biery died Sunday surrounded by family. He was 81.

“He was just an incredible person for our community,” said Boys & Girls Club of Morristown Executive Director John Seals. “He was a great family man, a very honorable businessman and a leader who tried to do right by the community.”

Born in Lafayette, Indiana, Biery was a Boilermaker through and through, receiving a pair of degrees from Purdue, his hometown university.

He married his high school sweetheart, Marsha, in 1966 and embarked on an industrial career that would lead him around the Rust Belt and around the world and eventually to Morristown where he led the founding of TOYODA TRW, the facility that would eventually become JTEKT.

Ben Simpson was the third person hired to work at the facility as Biery was spearheading the effort. The two co-workers quickly became friends.

“He was a compassionate leader,” Simpson said. “He was always looking out for those that worked for him, but in a way that grew the company, too. The original plan was to have 250 employees, that grew to over 900 while he ran things.

“He was a very good man, very charitable. He always had the community at heart, made that part of the management team’s objectives. Each one of the management team had to fill that goal of giving back.

“There’s people who manage companies well that don’t have that personal touch. Max always did. He made an effort to get to know not only yourself and your spouse, but also your family, too.”

Another early member of the TOYODA TRW team was Tony Harris, a sales engineer early in his career who looked up to Biery and considered him almost a surrogate father.

“Everything he would do, he was absolutely tenacious,” Harris said. “If he had a goal or an objective, he would go to the nth degree to achieve the objective. He taught that to all of us.”

Sometimes the lessons took unique forms. Biery loved competition, especially on the basketball court. In fact, the Biery family and the Seals’ have had an ongoing annual family game around the holidays.

But there wasn’t much Christmas cheer when Biery invited Harris to a two-on-two game early in their working days together. Harris may have taken the older man a little too lightly.

“Max was just a few years younger than my own father… I remember coming across the foul line and Max clotheslined me. I remember going almost horizontal in the air and landing on my back and looking up at him,” he said. “Max was always a very competitive individual.”

However, he said Biery was also exceptionally kind and supportive.

“He always treated everyone as family members,” he said. “He treated everyone how he would want to be treated.”

Biery loved to travel the world, which was frequently part of his job.

He worked on projects included forming a joint venture in Italy, a license agreement in China with the “Second Automotive Works” (SAW), a joint venture in India to produce steering gears for Heavy Trucks and Buses and coordinated projects in Brazil, Australia, and Europe.

Along the way he became a million-miler for three different airlines. He also raced a Passat through the streets of Paris to Monte Carlo, walked the Great Wall of China and went waterskiing on the Mediterranean Sea.

Harris was able to join him on some of those trips, recalling that traveling with Biery often wound up with a memorable adventure or two, like the time in San Francisco Max went driving up a one-way street.

Another time, while in Indianapolis, Biery wanted to tour a Ford plant he heard might be going on the market. They didn’t have an appointment and just planned on stopping by to see if they could get a tour. Then Biery saw a side door open. The parked the car, walked across the field and took a self-guided tour just as if they were supposed to be there.

Biery and his family moved from Detroit to Morristown in 1989 and quickly became part of the firmament of the community.

In addition to his role at TOYODA TRW, which later became JTEKT, Biery was fervent supporter of multiple organizations. He was a board member at the Boys & Girls Club for more than 30 years, where he earned the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was Board Director when Seals took over in 2008.

“We just became close over the years,” he said, adding that Biery devoted himself to mentoring at the club, leading career programming and other efforts. ”He was an important man in my life.”

His community efforts did not stop at the Club.

He served as the Campaign Chairman of United Way of Hamblen County, where he was the first Chairman to raise a million dollars for the campaign. He was a Board Member of the Chamber of Commerce, where he was involved with the creation of HC*EXCELL; President of the Rotary Club; Board Member of the Morristown Utilities Commission; member of the President’s Trust at Walters State Community College; and Regional Board Member of First Tennessee Bank, as well as many other examples of community involvement. He was also the past President of Earthmoving Manufacturing Auxiliary, and the Farm Industrial Equipment Institute Auxiliary.

He was also a 50-year member of the Masonic Lodge, a member of the Scottish Rite, and a member of the Sip-n-Flip coffee group.

He was a devoted Christan throughout his life.

He was an active member and Elder of Dayton Memorial Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Indiana; an active member and started the Men’s Club at Garfield United Methodist Church in Pepper Pike, Ohio; an active member of First United Methodist Church in Morristown as a lay leader and serving in many areas of God’s work; and finally, a partner of Arrowhead Church.

Later in life, Biery battled multiple health issues, but kept a positive attitude about life.

“I told Marsha that if I ever get to the point where my health has declined that I hope I can be like Max. He didn’t let it hold him down. He enjoyed life.”

For full obituary information, including details about a celebration of life in his honor, see page A5 of today’s Citizen Tribune.