Vignette — Jack Kay, McCarthy Assistant Job Superintendent
A Funny and Painful Thing Happened on the Way to the Loma Linda University Campus Transformation Project
Vignette – Jack Kay, McCarthy Assistant Job Superintendent for the LLUCTP
by Dennis E. Park, MA
Jack (left) places his mechanical skills to work as he assists in fixing a stubborn piece of equipment.
For a young man of 37, Jack Kay has been around the block: More so than many men his age. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Jack remembers going to work with his dad, a custom home builder, and contractor. Jack remembers, as a young boy going to the job sites with his dad. In looking back on those early years, Jack says that his dad tells the story “that whenever he went to various job sites, and there was a piece of large equipment on the on the site, Jack wanted to get on it.” Jack remembers “that in those days, there was an equipment driver named Dennis who worked the sites, and if the driver were operating a piece of equipment when dad and I pulled up to a job site, dad would stop his truck, unlock my door, and out I jumped.” The equipment operator knew the routine and would stop whatever piece of equipment he was driving, and open the door to the cab. I would jump up in the cab and off we would go.” Jack continued, “dad would not see me until break time, lunch, and when it was time to go home.”
Although these early life experiences in the construction trade were a boost to young Jack’s DNA, he was a typical youngster in many ways. Around seven years of age, he “was introduced to skateboarding, and I used to ride around,” Jack recalls. Fast forward through the years: As Jack matriculated through school, both of his parents instilled in him the importance of going to college. “My dad insisted that I was going to college. My mom always told me, I was going to school and get a college degree.” Although going to college was instilled in young Jack, he continued to work on his dad’s construction sites every summer. Then his parents bought a home “that we could completely remodel. I worked on that project every weekend, every winter break, and every Christmas break.” By the time Jack had turned 18 and was heading to college, his construction resume was impressive! He had “built barns, houses, and had pretty much been indoctrinated into the construction trade.”
Since he had been working in and around construction, when not in school, Jack wanted something different in college. He recalls that “TV and radio sounded like a good choice.” Fumbling for the right way to phrase his words, Jack, with a bemused chortle confessed that “ kind of … I thought it would be cool because I loved music, but I couldn’t play music, so I wanted to be around it. So, I thought, I would work somewhere in the field of radio. A major in business and mass communications had an appeal to me.
When he entered college, skateboarding became more of a necessity than a sport. “I obviously had to find a way to get myself to and from classes. We lived about three-quarters of a mile from campus, and one day, I found a longboard left by one of my sister’s roommates. So, I started to ride the board to class. Soon some of my friends and neighbors began riding as well. When we had some free time, my friends and I would go bomb hills (per the URBAN DICTIONARY: “bombing hills; to ride down a hill using a longboard or skateboard as fast as possible.”) and find other neat places to ride. It kind of took off from there.” Jack admits that he “was never into skateboard tricks. I can ride one, but I can’t do any of the tricks.” Jack sheepishly and parenthetically admitted that he has broken a wrist, a shoulder blade, and collarbone longboarding: not all at the same time, he assured me as he laughed off the events. “kind of painful,” he added.
Fast forward to Jacks senior year in college: Jack remembers that he and his friends “were always looking at different designed longboard trucks (for the uninitiated Longboard Trucks that were coming being introduced.” According to the internet: Trucks “are the metal T-shaped pieces that mount onto the underside of the longboard deck and attach to the wheels, and are a necessary component if you want to build a complete skateboard. Every longboard requires two trucks, which can be measured by hanger width or axle width.” In those days, Jack recalled that “lots of companies were coming out with newly designed trucks.”
A Shower, an Idea, a Drawing, Many Prototypes, and a Patent
An epiphany moment: “One day, I was taking a shower and an idea kind of came into my head.” Jack said with a wry smile: “I turned the shower off, threw a towel around myself, and began to draw out my idea on a piece of paper. Then I jumped back in the shower.” He explained that at the time he was “working with a fellow student in the chemistry building. We were both maintenance guys. He was going to school to be an aerospace engineer. So, I came to him with my drawing, with my idea, and told him, I wanted to make this. And so, he did the engineering. As it turned out, he had been an ironworker before he was a student. He helped me with all of the calculations. We then made a jig, got all of the materials, and started bending the parts for the trucks, machined other parts, and then we welded the parts together.” Many of the prototypes were made in his parent’s barn (the one, as a lad, he had helped to build). After the eighth prototype, Jack decided to seek a patent for his longboard truck idea.
A profile of Jack’s longboard with a clear view of how the longboard hangs from the Tarantula Trucks.
Of the two-year patent process, Jack explained that since he was so close to graduating: “I waited to begin the process after graduation. It’s kind of a frustrating and costly experience because we went through a patent attorney. I had to give them my idea, including drawings, and a prototype. From there, a patent search is begun. They search all of the existing patents to determine if there is anything like or near the design I came up with. Basically, the attorney told me that his firm would start the process and they would contact me in about a year and a half. It literally took them about that length of time to go through the red tape and bureaucracy in the government patent office to get the patent to me.”
A closeup of the patented Tarantula Trucks.
I asked Jack how he felt when the patent finally arrived. He gave me a wry grin, paused, then kind of chuckled. His answer was one, I didn’t really expect: “It had been so long by the time I actually got the patent, I wasn’t excited about it (snicker). It was just like—okay, I got my patent.”
We then got into the nuts and bolts (so to speak) of his invention. He explained that his longboard trucks “differed from the others out on the market. The distinction between my longboard trucks and those on the market are: The trucks mount to the top of the longboard instead of the bottom. The rider kind of hangs from the longboard as opposed to…well, it’s more of a cradle motion. It lowers the board, so it reduces the rider’s center of gravity. I think it gives one a smoother ride. It’s a different feel, and it looks different.”
When asked about the safety of his trucks, Jack stated that he doesn’t think his “trucks are any safer. When it comes to skateboards, longboards, bikes, motorcycles or anything with speed, I was taught, and have the philosophy, that you don’t ride faster than the speed you’re willing to crash.”
Jack opined that even with his patent, he has one last change that he wants to make, then it will be “one hundred percent perfect.” I asked what the improvement might be, and when will he make it. His answer was punctuated with laughter coupled with a long pause. “Well . . . , as for the first question, I can’t or won’t tell you. The other might take a while, I have a wife and two young children.”v
To view a television interview Jack did with his former TV station where explains how his Tarantula Trucks work click the following link:
Jack shows off the proper stance on his longboard.
The Rest of the Story
After Jack graduated from college with a degree in business and mass communications, he didn’t become a radio engineer or disc jockey. For a couple of years, he “ended up working at the Outdoor TV channel, in Temecula, California as a production assistant. After a time, a TV news channel opened up down the street from the Outdoor channel, and so I began to work there part-time. Soon, I worked my way up to news director. I would direct the evening news, I started on the morning show and then began directing the evening news.”
Unbeknownst to Jack, lurking in the background was the nation’s economy and his extensive experience in the construction trade. Long story short: the national economy turned south. Jack reminded me that: “TV and radio stations thrive on advertising revenue,” and “when the Temecula market dried up because of a decline in revenue, the news channel turned out its lights and closed the doors.”
Enter the construction trade, which was still part of his DNA. Jack stated that he “quickly went back to my roots and approached a construction company my dad had worked for, and where I worked as a laborer on my winter and summer breaks. They hired me as a job superintendent. While with them, I built about a dozen chase banks. From there, Jack hooked up with McCarthy Construction Company.
Jack told me that he has been with “McCarthy Construction for “six years and two months.” He stated that he came to “Loma Linda on July 28, 2015, as a McCarthy trade manager for the site make ready 1 and 2 (relocating pipes, rerouting electrical, and changing incoming and outgoing traffic patterns), which was required before the Loma Linda University Campus Transformation Project could commence.” Once the make ready job was complete, Jack moved over to the current location where he serves as one of the assistant project superintendents.
PostScript
The reader may wonder what Jack did with his invention. “Uh, well, I started making the trucks,” Jack said. “I went through the whole process to start a business, but as you know, it takes a lot of money to get started. I needed to get a more solid career going, so Tarantula Trucks kind of went to the background, or onto the backburner as I tried to focus on work and make money to support my family and pay off student loans. Unfortunately, I was unable to start a business. I would like to one day, but my job (the Loma Linda project), and family doesn’t leave a whole lot of time right now.” The patent is in a safe, and one-day Jack hopes to improve on it and manufacture the Longboard trucks once again. In the mean time, Jack is doing his part, through his efforts at LLUCTP, to advance the motto of Loma Linda University–’To Make Man Whole.’
To view the 2009 Valley News Network’s television interview with Jack Kay as he explains how his invention–the Tarantula Trucks–evolved. Click the following link:
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