Origin of Work Ethic

Joe worked summers growing up and part-time jobs during school, often multiple jobs at a time. It was the foundation of his work ethic. He started off young with a paper route and working on farms weeding fields and de-tasseling corn. He worked for utilities digging trenches, mowing and painting, and for the City he grew up in blacktopping roads, taking out old and then putting in new sidewalks, and prepping baseball and softball fields. He stocked and bagged groceries, and was a youth baseball and basketball instructor. He delivered shingles and other building supplies, and delivered industrial chemicals, both trucking jobs. He painted houses, and did maintenance work for UW-Madison’s Athletic Department and for UW-Whitewater’s Building & Grounds Department. Joe bailed hay, cultivated beet fields and worked the pea harvest. He worked 12-hour nights for a paper mill. All of this provided spending money in high school and college, and paid for most of his undergraduate education.

Role Models:

Joe’s mother Maureen and late father Jim have always been his role models. He said that he admired their commitment to family, careers and their hometown. Further he admired their work ethic, honesty, integrity, selflessness, optimism and absolute love. He said his parents always treated people with dignity and respect, and that influenced how Joe interacts with people that he meets.