Close-Up Profiles IT ISN’T TOO OFTEN THAT WE COME across an individual like Ken Hutcheson. On the outside he is warm, engaging and charming. However, under his skin lies a savvy, dedicated businessperson.   More

Close-Up Profiles The irrigation industry was completely different than what it is now when David D. Pagano designed his first system in 1957. Smart controllers were years away from being invented, as were sensing devices. If you asked anyone in the industry what a rotary nozzle was, most likely your answer would have been a silent, quizzical look from someone wondering what on earth you were talking about.   More

Close-Up Profiles WHEN JOHN MILLER WAS STILL A teenager he was managing his own lawn care company. Called Superior Lawns, Miller’s company handled everything from mowing lawns to working with tractors. It was a pretty successful venture. Between high school proms and mid-term exams, Superior Lawns occupied much of Miller’s focus, and before long, he was pulling in enough business to bring some of his schoolyard friends onboard as workers.   More

Close-Up Profiles Ken and Harold Fay’s parents started a lumber yard back in 1947 in Ojai, California. When their father passed away, the sons—Ken and Harold— helped their mother run the lumber yard. In time, the mother phased out of the business and Ken and Harold were the proud owners of Ojai Lumber.    More

Close-Up Profiles As Stephen Smith assumes the presidency of the Irrigation Association, he realizes the challenges the irrigation industry currently faces. Pressure to reduce water consumption is building and landscape sustainability is the new buzzword. But Smith assumes this position with a background of invaluable experience and a wealth of knowledge of the irrigation industry.   More

Close-Up Profiles “My father emigrated from Mexico seven years before I was born,” he said. Gamez was one of five children in a struggling working-class family, growing up “on what you could say was in the lower income bracket, where the possibility of receiving a good education was shaky.”   More

Close-Up Profiles Tim Malooly was 12 years old when he started his first job. It was a part-time gig, selling greeting cards door-to-door. Not the most glamorous job in the world, but it offered Malooly his first taste of making money on his own.    More

Close-Up Profiles ROY BAILEY AND HIS FRIEND, RUSS Dresen, were hanging around one summer night having a few beers. They were, in many ways, no different than most other 20-somethings on a summer evening, knocking back drinks and talking about their plans for the future.   More

Close-Up Profiles During the hot summer afternoons when the rest of his peers were lazing in swimming pools and catching campy action flicks at the local movie theatre, Bryce Bousquet spent his teenage years stocking shelves at his dad’s company warehouse.    More

Close-Up Profiles It was January of 1988 and John DeCell was out of a job. He’d worked as a loan officer for the First American Bank in his hometown of Baytown, Texas for five-and-a-half years, but the banking industry had fallen under hard times and DeCell suddenly found himself without a job. Factor into this the added pressure of knowing your first son is only months away from being born, and you’ve an idea of the headspace DeCell was in on this particularly tumultuous New Year.    More