Big W: A Family Tradition
- Adam Witthauer
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
My grandpa did a lot of different work over his life, but I remember him most as a farmer. This was partially because my grandparents lived on a farm, but I think even more so because being a farmer involves doing a lot of different jobs and is more of a lifestyle than an occupation. Also the '70s and '80s were not easy times to be farmers, and most had to take on some other side work to get by. Before I was born my family ran a service station in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and I heard a lot of stories about that. I also remember when I was very young that we had cases of oranges from California, and that was a bonus from my grandpa driving truck. In the mid '80s he officially retired from farming and started renting the land to another farmer.
He did a lot of odd jobs, flipping cars and fixing cars for others. He was always tinkering with something and he was a genuine hot rodder at heart. One of my favorite stories was about after he came back from serving in the Army in Germany, and he had an ignition coil rigged up on a switch to make fire shoot out of his exhaust. One time he was pulled over and it was confiscated because it was considered an "illegal device," and that was that. He was always a huge Mopar fan and was Hemi swapping things before it was cool. I heard stories about his Hemi swapped half ton pickup, but the most outrageous thing was a narrow front end tractor he put a Hemi in. He would always talk about the looks on peoples' faces when he passed them on the highway with it.
For those who aren't familiar, the Hemi was easily the most legendary V8 of the muscle car era, and still serves as the basis for the engines in monster trucks and top fuel dragsters, which are the quickest wheel-driven cars on the planet. Narrow front end tractors were popular until the '50s because of their maneuverability, low cost, and weight distribution across rows of crops. They waned in popularity after gaining the nicknames "deathtrap" and "widowmaker" as they became known for rolling over. They also certainly were not designed for highway speeds.
Fortunately for my family he never got into any real trouble with his hot rod tractor or any of his other creations. After he quit farming his last "square job" was working with HVAC at a local community college for a few years, but he never quit tinkering. I did my first two engine swaps in his shop, and my brother built his first project car ('69 Roadrunner) and also helped my grandpa restore his '77 Continental there.
Throughout the '70s my dad mostly worked with my grandpa, but around the time I was born he settled into a steady job as a forklift mechanic at a local Caterpillar dealer. My dad had some project cars as well, but he didn't end up spending a lot of time on them when we were young. There was always work to be done on the family cars though, and from as young as I can remember I hung out with him and studied his work.
Working at Caterpillar was heavy work, hard work, some late nights, and he got hurt a couple times. Ultimately he wanted more than what they could give him there, and he decided it was time to move on. When I was in high school he created Big T Industrial Service, Inc. His operation ran out of a mobile shop in an enclosed trailer which turned out to be a great business model. It saved his clients the cost and hassle of having to transport equipment to the shop, and it saved him overhead because he didn't need a dedicated shop.
The downsides, of course were that sometimes his clients didn't have a nice place to do mechanic work either so he had to work in the elements. He also had to climb in and out of that trailer like 300 times a day, often with heavy tools. The first thing he did when he got on site was toss down his step to get into the trailer. Towing that heavy trailer through the Iowa winters added its own aspect, especially considering that they didn't surface the road we lived on until the early '00s. We were almost 5 miles off the nearest paved road and in bad storms it took a couple days for plows to clear the road.
It was hard work for sure, but he never had trouble staying busy. His reputation was solid enough that his marketing spend was limited to some vinyl on his trailers, business cards, and pens. This is what I aspire towards.
In addition to an entrepreneurial spirit he taught me that building this kind of reputation takes years of integrity, consistency, and kept promises. As I mentioned before he didn't spend a lot of time on project cars, but he had plenty of time for Scouts. We all lived the Scout Oath and the 12 Scout Laws, and I never would have made Eagle Scout without his help and guidance.
His involvement was consistent too. When I was 19 a few folks from my old Troop decided to take a backpacking trip to Cloud Peak in Wyoming. Since I was an adult he easily could have opted out, but he came along. Now that I'm the same age he was in this picture I can really appreciate what this took, but man was this an amazing experience, and I'm sure that even though he likely needed a lot of aspirin, Epson salt and Icy Hot when he got home, he had zero regrets.
Now that I have 4 daughters of my own I am active in Scouts again, and am happy to say that it's still just as great as when I was young. I will continue my family's tradition of hard work and integrity, and I apply this in my own work by paying attention to the details that can compromise the long-term legacy of a project while also never losing sight of the bigger picture system-level impacts.
I eagerly anticipate the prospect of forging new partnerships that will not only enrich my professional journey but also help solidify my reputation in my field. Each partnership is a stepping stone towards greater achievements and recognition, and I am committed to embracing these opportunities as they arise.