Will Talbert

A Well-Deserved Congratulations to Will Talbert, Hopke Shop Mechanic for Forty Years of Service

These days not many companies have employees that stay 10 years or longer. At W.B. Hopke, we are blessed with numerous employees that have been with us for more than 30 years. Will Talbert is one of those employees and has been with Hopke for 40 years. In honor of Will’s accomplishment, we thought it only fitting to find out Will’s secret for success and longevity with W.B. Hopke and to share his story with employees seeking to find a career here with our company.

1984 was a very memorable year. Steve Jobs launched Macintosh personal computers. Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart made the first untethered spacewalk. The Space Shuttle Discovery landed back on earth after its maiden voyage, and W.B. Hopke was fortunate to hire a very loyal and hardworking employee, Will Talbert, on March 5, 1984.

Will Talbert started working at the age of 12 at a service station in Virginia. He learned how to fix cars, and by age 18, he was already an experienced auto mechanic. Through his girlfriend, he heard of a job opening at Hopke, and Paul Wassel met and hired Will for a job in the field. Not long thereafter, a mechanic in the shop quit, and Floyd Whetzel, shop foreman, brought Will into the shop as the new replacement. Will made an immediate impact and has been in the shop ever since.

One of the key ingredients in being a shop mechanic is to own your own tools, and Will has quite the assortment. In fact, he owns thousands of dollars of tools that are readily available to fix most anything in the shop including tractors, loaders, trucks and cranes. He has a work truck that has a crane, a welder, a generator and tools. It’s his rolling shop. Much has changed with the job since he started.

“It used to be that everything was mechanical, throttles used cables and now everything is computerized. Even the tools to fix the issues are computerized,” said Will.

When asked what he likes most about his job, Will said, “Every day is totally different. You never know what to expect in the field. One day I’m fixing a water pump, hours later it’s a generator or I’m welding equipment. I particularly like painting and making equipment look like new, right down to the stickers on the trucks and loaders. It is satisfying. I can honestly say that I have never left work angry or upset in 40 years.”

Will explained that when you enjoy what you do, it doesn’t feel like a job at all. He said, “Time flies by, and before you know it, you’ve been working your job for 40 years. If I had to give some advice to the newer employees, I’d tell them in order to have a career at Hopke, you have to come to work on time, show up to work every day and you have to do your job. The Hopkes’ reward those that work hard with little to no fuss. They take notice and reward effort. If you don’t like what you are doing, then move on. I’ve seen guys leave Hopke for $2 more an hour to go elsewhere instead of staying with Hopke and making a career of it and reaping all the rewards a career has to offer.”

Will Talbert grew up in Springfield, VA and attended Lee High School. He now lives in Woodbridge and has been with the same woman for 27 years. Although he used to fish, today he likes to do yardwork, relax and tend to his garden, planting tomatoes and other summer fresh vegetables.

W.B. Hopke is very proud to have Will as a senior member of our team and we encourage all our employees to look to Will and follow his example.

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.