Gladney Darroh: Building a Career on Grit, Service, and Second Chances

Gladney Darroh is a veteran entrepreneur, business owner, and philanthropist based in Houston, Texas.

With a career spanning more than four decades, he is best known as the founder of Piper-Morgan Associates, a top recruiting firm that served the technical and professional market for over 48 years. His path, however, was anything but easy.

Born in 1950, Gladney came of age during times of family hardship, moving often and working several jobs simultaneously to help make ends meet. He self-funded his college education in night classes at the University of Houston obtaining a degree in Economics, while working full-time with the disadvantaged to support himself. Those experiences gave him a deep empathy for people who simply needed a second chance, or a first chance — something that shaped his career and set the trajectory for the rest of his life.

In 1977, after eight years of helping over nine hundred parolees and the underserved train to become certified welders and placing them on well-paying jobs he had developed, Gladney launched his own recruitment firm in a borrowed office with two rotary phones, a Yellow Pages, and a spiral notebook. Within a week, he made his first successful placement.

While proud of his business achievements, Gladney has always been committed to philanthropy. Today, his primary focus is on Loud and Clear, a voice exercise app created by his son, a Certified Speech and Language Pathologist, to help people with Parkinson’s disease. Gladney has personally funded the app since inception. It’s now used by thousands of people in over 100 countries and has gained the attention of healthcare professionals and global sponsors, including Abbott.

“My work has always been about helping people succeed,” he says. “Now, I’m privileged to support something that’s changing lives every day including in remote parts of the world.”

Inside the Life and Lessons of Gladney Darroh: A Career in People

Q: Gladney, your career spans decades. Where did it all begin?

A: I was born in Houston in 1950, the youngest of three boys. Dad was an independent cattle trader and my mother a devoted stay-at-home mom. We were raised to believe in working for everything. My brothers and I peddled pecans, mowed lawns, sold lemonade. But life got hard. My dad’s business failed and he took a job overseas. Mom and we moved in with my grandmother in Palestine, Texas, our only option. That’s when I really started working—several jobs in high school just to help the family stay afloat.

Q: What were some of those early jobs?

A: I shined shoes, worked retail, and sold tickets at the drive-in theatre in the evenings every weekend. There were other jobs. The grimiest was scrubbing crude-soaked sludge and caked paraffin from downhole oil pumps brought in for repair, but at $1 per hour it paid the most and I was happy to have the job. Then we moved back to Houston, and I started selling Cutco knives door-to-door. That led to a commission-only job at a ladies’ shoe store. I was still in high school, but now earning $60 a week—that was real money back then, especially for a kid in 11th grade.

Q: How did that lead you to recruitment?

A: It didn’t—not right away. I put myself through the University of Houston at night while working full-time at Industrial Welding School. Over the next eight years I helped a mix of parolees and people from tough neighborhoods train as certified welders and placed them on good paying jobs I’d developed. The school abruptly closed in 1977. With three months of savings, I began looking for something to do. I discovered the staffing business. Literally, I was stunned to learn that companies paid a fee for hiring people who were upstanding, well educated, and already had good skills. My experience was perfect for this. So, I borrowed a back office at a friend’s firm and set-up my new company, Piper-Morgan Associates. Using the Yellow Pages, I began cold calling. By Friday of that first week I’d made my first placement.

Q: What made you successful in such a competitive space?

A: Honesty, persistence, best practices. Also, I developed an interview technique I call “Winning the Offer.” This interview roadmap was key to teaching my candidates what an interview is really all about. Learning it enabled them to have their very best interview. All things being equal among applicants, using the “Winning the Offer” formula meant my candidate won the offer. This method of interviewing was my secret sauce. In large part it’s why I won the top professional/technical recruiter award in Houston for 18 consecutive years.

Q: You’ve also had a deep focus on service. Tell us more about that.

A: My mom gets all the credit. It was by her graceful example and steady devotion that we brothers learned early on the importance of giving back. She wove this principle into our lives by her life. Mom promised us there is a profound blessing bestowed on people who practice charitable giving. She wouldn’t say what it was – only said it would reveal itself to us one day in a quiet moment. I served on the board of Today’s Harbor for Children for years. I built a new 4,500 sq ft residential home on campus for little girls in 2008. I wrote a book, Women of Uncommon Strength, to honor my mother and women like her, and from that book adapted a play, This American Family, which raised funds for breast cancer research and honored Gold Star Mothers. But lately, my energy has gone into supporting Loud and Clear.

Q: Let’s talk about Loud and Clear. What is it?

A: It’s a voice exercise app for people with Parkinson’s. My son, a Certified SLP, imagined the concept and shepherded its creation from idea to reality. Steven has put in all the sweat equity over six years. I’m simply the Angel Philanthropist underwriting it. The app delivers speech strengthening exercises through a mobile device, anywhere, anytime. It’s completely free. Now, it’s used by thousands of people in over 100 countries. Loud and Clear is a 501c(3) organization.

Q: Why does Loud and Clear matter so much to you?

A: Because I’ve seen what Parkinson’s does to people’s confidence and independence. Losing your voice is like losing your identity. This app gives people a chance to reclaim that. It’s free, scalable, and changing lives every day. That’s worth everything to me.

Q: Any advice for someone starting out in business today?

A: Start with values, not just vision. Work harder than anyone else. Be kind. Give back generously. And remember, as my mother told me, “You can only take with you what you leave behind.”

Q: You mentioned your mother again. That profound blessing she promised, has it revealed itself to you?

A: Yes.

Q: May I ask what it is?

Of course. This was shortly after my Harbor cottage was dedicated. As my thoughts drifted one evening, I began thinking about those little girls who were now sleeping securely and safely in my cottage. It was a quiet, serene moment. Suddenly, I was infused with a sense of total joy. Understand, this was not a moment of philosophical reflection. It was a peaceful, harmonious feeling dispersing within me until it suffused my whole being. I was physically experiencing the joy of Acts, chapter 20, verse 35, and happily so. This was and is the profound blessing my mother promised. It’s promised to all who embrace charitable giving throughout their life journey.