Jay Grow loves to hunt, loves to garden, loves to ski, and loves cars.

“I’m a car guy,” confesses the Rapid City native, who joined Team TSP’s office in his hometown on Oct. 8.

And he has the cars to prove it. Among them is a 1986 Dodge Shelby, a limited-production sport compact produced only in the mid-1980s.

“That one needs a full restoration,” Jay says. “It’ll be time for the Shelby whenever I get a garage to work on it.”

Jay, a senior mechanical engineer, graduated from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in 1991. That was 10 years after graduating from Stevens High School in Rapid City. He had work in his family’s sheet metal-HVAC-roofing-contracting business through high school, then joined the Navy before returning for his degree.

His first job post graduation was with George Dunham of Dunham Associates in Rapid City, then he became a subcontractor with John Hey for about a year. His next position took him to Schwickert’s in Mankato, MN, for four years. After that came a stint with the Harris Companies in its satellite office in Mankato, Cuddy Mechanical. Harris is the largest employer Jay has worked for and is one of the nation’s top 25 mechanical contractors.

Size didn’t protect Harris after 9/11, however, and the satellite office was closed. Jay worked for ESI Company that specializes in food processing and food distribution design for almost six years before returning to South Dakota. Five years ago he left Wisconsin to return to South Dakota, joining first Tessiers in Rapid City, then FourFront Design before moving to TSP.

“My resume shows I’ve jumped all around, but that was due to life, mostly, not my job record,” Jay explains.

Jay currently lives in his parents’ home. He and his two sisters in Rapid City work together to fulfill his parents’ wish of staying in their own home. Jay also has one brother.

“It’s good to be back around family,” he says. “I’ve been away a long time.”

Jay’s plans to take hunting trips this fall have been curtailed by the lack of receiving a tag in the game lottery. He does hope to hunt birds later on, and when the snow falls he’ll hit the snow slopes.

Come spring, it will be time to ready his vegetable garden for another bountiful year. “I grow a little bit of everything,” Jay says. Sounds promising for his coworkers in Rapid City!