Meet The Tech

Jesse grew up in rural west Michigan, living the farm life with his family until early adulthood. They had a hog farm when he was young, and later they owned and operated a very successful paint horse showing and breeding farm as well.

Around the time he started driving, he realized that having a running car was a necessity when you live out in the country. He made it a priority to learn how to work on his car so he’d never be stuck at home if it broke down. Not long after, a school counselor suggested auto mechanics as a possible career path and he enrolled in his high school’s tech center to take the automotive technology course; he exceled at these classes and really enjoyed them. While he was there, he was offered a job by the Ford dealership so he was already working in the field before he even graduated high school.

From there he not only worked at the dealership but he started building mud trucks and ‘suping up race cars for friends and other locals. He had a real knack for picking up the mechanical theory behind why things worked the way they did and was able to apply that across all engines, equipment and systems so he wasn’t limited to working on “just Fords” or “just Cadillacs”.

Jesse has held positions at many different companies across many different industries over the years; not to mention the side projects he’s been able to take on as well. Dealerships were the beginning but he also worked at a bumper manufacturing plant, a heavy equipment reseller, a machine building and fabrication shop, a construction company as an iron worker, and a truck upfitting shop.

Each of these positions allowed him to hone and build on his skillset so that when he moved to Big Island, Hawaii in 2011, he was able to start his own business – Jack of All Trades. This mobile mechanic and welding business was started out of a local need for a trustworthy and local mechanic who could travel to where he was needed. The Big Island is quite rural and many of the roads are in less-than-good condition, not to mention most other repair tech’s either didn’t travel or just wouldn’t go most places. Jesse’s midwestern work ethic and highly technical know-how boosted him straight to the #1 spot on most people’s speed dials.

Not only did he travel the jungle and beaches, fixing cars and lifting trucks, but he also had the opportunity to do the structural steel work on an amazing home built on the Kapoho tidepools, work as on-call emergency welder for the geothermal energy plant, handled fleet and equipment maintenance for a banana farm, and was the lead off-grid solar system installer for the area covering the entire east side of the island. The business was hugely successful, to the point that appointments were being booked weeks out and clients were happy to wait. It was sad to leave the island behind when he moved to California in 2017 but he left on a high note and still fields calls for his old clients when he’s able to help.