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The “Big Wall” Guy
11.05.19
Wes Shinkle is known as the “big wall” guy on the Wichita baseball stadium’s construction site.
Why?
Well, he built a really big wall. In fact, he built the first wall to go up at the stadium, the outfield wall that frames the field. Red dirt and grass field on one side. Stadium seats rise up on the other.
College to Construction
Wes is the carpenter foreman on the baseball stadium project. He directs and supervises the carpenters who’re building structures, framing and hanging doors, and building and framing cabinetry.
Before his role as foreman, before building the “big wall,” before putting on his hard hat, Wes was going to school to be a teacher. After two years, getting into teaching classes, he found out it wasn’t what he wanted. But he still needed a job.
He called his dad, a second-generation employee of a general contractor in Wichita, Kansas, and asked what he could do at the company. In 2002, Wes set out for his first big construction gig. The excitement of seeing the big equipment, using his hands, being on the move and outside drew him in immediately.
It was supposed to be temporary. Seventeen years later, he’s still there — and he does everything, start to finish.
Train and Get Paid
The Associated General Contractors of Kansas offered training programs for frame, form and finish when Wes joined the industry. But the best training you can get in construction is on-the-job training. His first leader was his dad — a 38-year veteran of concrete and finish — and then he went on to the person that trained his father.
His first five years, Wes got top-notch training from the best people in Wichita. And it shows.
After 17 years, Wes can do more than carpentry and concrete. He can weld, operate cranes, cut with lasers — every day is different in construction. He’s not done learning, either. Construction is not a craft people go into and, in a year’s time, master it. It’s always learning.
Built for Generations
The best thing, for Wes, about working in construction is telling family, friends and anybody around Wichita what he does and where he works. As soon as he mentions the baseball stadium, everyone’s interested.
He sees every day what he and his team have accomplished, and he gets to show his kids. They want to go to the ballpark and show their friends their father’s work.
Wes’ wall is where the stadium started. When he and his family go to the ballpark, his kids can experience more than the lights and sights of a new field, a new team and what we hope are the same delicious hot dogs.
They’ll see and touch the work their father did for baseball lovers and the Wichita community for generations to come.