My First Job

I started working at the age of 14 as an office boy in downtown Chicago, making 55 cents an hour. But I quickly realized I didn't want to spend my career in an office. I always wanted to be in construction. My father was a bricklayer and I would help him during the summers. My uncles were also in construction.

"Nonetheless, I began pursuing an electrical engineering degree. After graduation in 1952, I discovered this, too, was not something I wanted as a career. So, I saved my money and went back to school and got my civil engineering degree in 1956. That same year, I went to work as a field engineer and assistant project superintendent for E.H. Marhoffer Jr. Co. in Chicago. I was 26 at the time and I worked there until 1958, when I joined Power Construction. I was an assistant superintendent and my supervisor was George Kraft. We both left in 1964. George headed to Naples, where he founded George F. Kraft Construction in 1968.

"In March 1970, George asked me to work for him on a project called Naples Community Hospital, which I have been building ever since. I served as George's right-hand man until his untimely death in 1974. His widow sold the business to me and in 1979 Fred Pezeshkan joined me in the company."

-Kelley Kaminsky