Tommy Kennedy

Congratulations to Tommy Kennedy – 29 Years with W.B. Hopke. From Laborer to Tailman, Pipe Layer, Equipment Operator and Foreman.

When W.B. Hopke looks back at it’s top performers, there are numerous employees that come to mind and one such employee is Tommy Kennedy. We would like to dedicate this article to Tommy, thank him for his years of service and present Tommy’s insights as to what it takes to have a successful career at Hopke.

Raymond Griffin, a Hopke employee, encouraged Tommy to check out Hopke as a potential employer. Tommy joined Hopke at the age of 18, right after leaving high school. Tommy and his girlfriend were about to have a baby and Tommy had to choose a career direction that he felt would best help support his family. He has now been married to the same woman, Stephanie, for 30 years. He has 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls, 7 grandchildren, and he is still with Hopke. In fact, one of Tommy’s sons now works on the same crew as him, operating his backhoe.

Hopke has proven time and again, that if you work hard, do your job, and if you are willing to learn new things and take on responsibility, you will move up in the company. This is true for Tommy. He started with Hopke as a laborer, and after just two weeks was moved into the tailman’s position. He then moved up to pipe layer and then an equipment operator where he learned to drive a backhoe, scratcher and loader. Tommy was elevated to foreman at the age of 25 and has been a foreman ever since.

When asked about his current responsibilities as foreman, Tommy said, “As a foreman, I am responsible for making sure everything is installed properly at the project site. My job is to keep up with production, keeping my crew moving and safe in the process. It is important to me, to Hopke and our clients that our team goes home each night to their families. There are so many safety rules today and it is important that we keep up with them as they change from site to site.”

Being foreman is more than keeping jobs moving and staying on deadline, it is learning how to handle diverse personalities. For Tommy, it’s about keeping his team focused, especially when they are frustrated or concerned about potential issues on the jobsite. “Everyone has different personalities. I had one guy that was in a terrible mood and complained about a situation, so I had to put things into perspective and explain that nothing is that bad,” said Tommy.

When asked who had the biggest influence on him at Hopke, Tommy was quick to answer that it wasn’t any one person, it was a combination of people. He learns from each person he works with.

Tommy loves the challenge that each day brings. And every day is different. One of the most unique and challenging projects he was involved in was the Cardinal Elementary School project where Hopke installed a massive Storm Trap system underneath the soccer and baseball fields. There are several reasons why Tommy has worked with Hopke for so many years. He actually left for a short period time to try something else but came back again. Tommy explained, “Hopke is a great place to work. There’s new talent coming on every day, lots of work and we are always busy.”

On a personal level, Tommy has earned his commercial and residential contractor’s licence. He enjoys remodeling homes, doing the electrical and plumbing work. For relaxation he tries to hunt and fish when he can and enjoys spending quality time with his family.

W.B. Hopke would like to thank Tommy Kennedy for years of dedicated service and many more to come.

W.B. Hopke is a fourth generation, family-run construction business focused on building high quality utility infrastructure and lifelong careers. Hopke is located in Alexandria, VA and works throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia. With almost 70 years of experience, Hopke prides itself on repeat customers across all kinds of market segments – schools, churches, data centers, distribution facilities, multi-family, mixed use, residential subdivisions, senior living, self storage, heavy highway, retail, commercial office, automotive, stream restoration, and parks.

Contact W.B. Hopke about a career in utility installation and site work at 703-971-0404 or info@wbhopke.com.