Employees
Construction Career Month in Indiana
Governor Holcomb has declared October “Construction Career Month“. It’s great to see this recognized, but we at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. (ECC) promote this year in and year out.
Over the years, we have sent dozens of employees to various forms of construction training in order to advance their careers. This has varied from National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accredited Apprenticeship Training through Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) to leadership seminars to task certifications, such as welding to various safety training events. We believe strongly in helping our employees advance their careers.
Over the years, we have also participated in Culver Community Middle School Career Days. It has been interesting having the opportunity to spark interest in the construction trades, dispelling myths and touting benefits. One of my favorite things, that seemed to garner interest, was to point out that with a successful career in construction, you can drive through your community and see the results of your efforts in the building projects with which you’ve been involved. In my case, there are four generations of Easterday Construction projects in Culver and the surrounding communities.
One class was particularly memorable as it had a student that was a daughter of one our our superintendents. Not only did she listen raptly, I heard that she repeated my presentation at home. It was obvious she was proud of the work her father performed. While these kids are too young to be concerned with the financial side of obtaining a higher education, they were generally surprised to hear that construction offered a career path with similar outcomes to many college degrees. Hopefully, sometime in the future, this will make them think hard about taking on college debt. Maybe they’ll come to see me to talk about the advantages of construction apprenticeship… where ECC picks up the cost of their education.
Marty Easterday’s Passing
Another memorable employee and family member passed this past week. Martin “Marty” Easterday was part of the third generation at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. He was the son of Edward Lee Easterday (affectionally known as “Red”) and grandson of our Founder, Russell L. Easterday. He was the last employee with the Easterday name to work here.
I literally have know Marty all my life. He grew up next door to me and was my “baby-sitter” at times. I idolized him and his brothers Tom & Jim as the older kids that always had some cool project going on and they let me watch the successes, failures and often, havoc!
Marty worked at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. in the seventies and eighties (1965-1985) as a plumber and HVAC tech. During one of my summers off during college, I worked as his assistant. He would often regale me with his college exploits including the parties he went to and the girls and the girls and the girls. He assured me I was doing college wrong and not having nearly enough fun there! Ha! Marty always had the gift of gab and was a natural storyteller… So much so, it was often difficult to tell how much, if any, of the story was fact or fiction. He truly was someone who had a zest for life. He will be missed!
Melba Easterday
My Great Aunt Melba was recently named as a Citizen of the Year by the Culver Lions Club. (See the Article to the right). I’ve written about her here before. (previous posts here and here)
She has had a long and interesting life. She is the last surviving member of the second generation of Easterday Construction Co., Inc. She was married to Edward Lee (Red) Easterday, Russell’s middle son and she worked for the company for a time during World War II when Red was in the service.
She’ll be celebrating her 100th Birthday next month. It’s great to have her represent that generation of our family. She has long served as the family historian and I hope to learn a few more anecdotes the next time I can see her. Unfortunately she’s currently living at Millers Merry Manor in Culver and with Covid restrictions, I haven’t seen her in over a year.
Thank you to the Lions Club for recognizing her contributions to the community. I won’t reiterate what’s in the article, but I know it only scratches the surface.
Halloween 2020
Julie did a great job decking out the front entrance for this Fall. Thanks Julie! The mums are looking great and the other decorations came together nicely.
We’re generally not big Fall People around here. Not that there’s anything particular wrong with Fall, it’s just that it’s a precursor to that cold season we don’t like. If we could take Fall straight through until Spring, we’d be Fall fans!
We’re signed up for the Scarecrow contest too. Julie did Corky’s Crow Bar for a few years ago and won first place for us. Let’s see how creative she is this year…
David P. Osborn
We lost another long time member of the Easterday Construction family last week. Dave Osborn was a carpenter at Easterday Construction for decades. As a Merit Shop company, we ask our employees to have many skills and Dave was no exception. Along with Carpentry, he helped as a Cement Mason, Steel Erector, Welder and occasional Mechanic. Dave was a hard worker and never turned down a request.
You could count on Dave to be there giving it his all when there was a concrete pour, sweating through his sleeveless T-shirt and wringing sweat out of his red, white & blue sweat band as he jeered younger workers because, “You can’t keep up with this old man???” Well, except when there was no one around but the crew, that would be enhanced with a string of choice expletives! He was always careful to be sure no one outside the crew around before he cut loose. He was always a gentleman around women and our clients. For example, after building a custom home for the Falender family, Steve Falender wrote us a very nice letter. This is a paragraph excerpt that specifically referenced Dave:
“During framing, I decided the wall between the living room and the kitchen, as built and designed, was 5 inches too long. I asked Dave how difficult it would be to move it. His response was: ‘We’re here to do whatever you want.’ I can’t remember a single time when any of your employees or subs complained about a change.”
Dave was a farmer even while working full time in construction. As a typical farmer, he never had a good year and there was always too much rain or not nearly enough. He maintained a vegetable garden as well and was always bringing in vegetables to share with his fellow workers. Even after his retirement, he would stop by to share his bounty. We could always count on sweet corn, tomatoes or squash at least once during the summer season.
All of us at Easterday Construction have fond memories of Dave. He will be sorely missed.
