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Recently I sat down with three of our longest-running employees to inquire about their careers and lessons learned over the years. Their stories exhibit the deep roots that anchor and feed the Hall Irwin team.
My final interview was with none other than Jesus Quezada. If you haven’t heard of this man, it’s long past time to become acquainted as he’s been with us for 23 years—longer than anyone else in the company (besides those in the Hall/Masi family, of course). Jesus is a Superintendent, slurry wall guru, and general wealth of knowledge. Below is a summary of our conversation.
Tell me about your life and career journey leading up to your arrival at Hall Irwin Corporation [HIC] in 2001.
I was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. My dad applied for US citizenship in 1986, and when he received it in 1993, I went with him up to New Mexico to work at a landscaping company. I used to return home about every other month to visit, until the rest of my family moved to the US in the 2000s. I have two daughters—one 17 and one almost 6.
I came to Colorado in 1997 and started working in Aspen. Not long after, I moved to Fort Collins for a while, and then to Greeley, and I’ve been here ever since. I worked for Clayton Homes for a year, then started a drywall company with a friend, then when that didn’t work out, I found a job in 2001 working in the landscaping division of Hall Irwin.
What have been some of your best years or most memorable projects while you’ve been at HIC?
Well, every slurry wall is pretty much the same, so I’ve just been proud to work on all of them and produce good results. I like being an operator, though, and am excited about the new Hitachi excavator we’re getting next month [more details to come soon]!
What aspects of our company culture do you appreciate most?
HIC shows they care about their employees, and that’s one of the things that keeps me here. It means a lot that they, especially Lori [our CEO], listen to my ideas and respect me and the guys on my crew.
If you could go back and give yourself advice at the start of your career, or to anyone starting off their career now, what would that be?
Always put in 100%. If you don’t, then you won’t grow. My eldest daughter has always done this—in school and sports—and I’m very proud of her. I hope her younger sister will follow in her footsteps.
What do you love most about your work?
I love being able to teach my crew how to do things well and consistently, showing them the tricks of the trade alongside Mike Smith [our Foreman]. We’re a great team.
How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance? What keeps you grounded when you leave work?
My daughters are with me on the weekends, and I love spending time with them. We often go to Estes Park to shop and get ice cream. I also like making beef jerky and working on cars [Mike says he can fix anything]. Right now, I’m fixing up a 1986 Corvette for my eldest daughter; I’m going to paint it Vampire Red. [I asked him if that was a good idea, giving such a vehicle to a teenager. But he trusts his daughter to be responsible with it—lucky girl!] When I lived in Chihuahua, I used to be pretty good at hunting squirrels with my .22 rifle in the mountains near my home; I’d come home with almost a dozen some days. I enjoy a lot of things.
When you leave HIC (at the very end of your career, obviously), how would you like to be remembered?
I just want people to know I was helpful.
That’s Jesus for you—humble and to the point. To that last, I would personally add that he will be known as a hard worker and a man of integrity. When I asked his coworkers, they contributed that he is knowledgeable, patient, kind, honest, not afraid to get dirty, a good mentor, and generally “the best.” Then for fun, we looked up ‘How to describe a good man?’ on ChatGPT and agreed with every characteristic it listed as additional descriptions of this guy.
Jesus is a diamond in the rough of the construction world and we’re incredibly lucky to have him. He saved Mike’s life a few years back, jumping into action when an equipment malfunction almost killed him [ask them about that story in person]. Mike is another invaluable team member, so without Jesus, we wouldn’t be where we are today in a multitude of ways. Thank you for everything you do, Jesus! Cheers to 23 years and counting…
I hope you’ve enjoyed the beginning of this Roots Series and getting to know these core members of our team a bit better. I also hope you get to meet them, if you haven’t already. We’ll add to these articles as the years continue to extend the tenure of other team members, but for now, I couldn’t be prouder to work alongside these three. They embody our core values, particularly Connection, Ownership, and Fun and exemplify them to the rest of us.