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Tom Ralston Concrete, Santa Cruz, Calif.
A passion for innovation keeps this third-generation contractor excited about the trade.
by Brad Jeske
Northern California's scenic coastline has drawn many local teenagers to a life of surfing and adventure, and Tom Ralston was no exception. His father, however, had different ideas for his future.
"When I started surfing," Ralston says, "my father said he wasn't going to have a beach bum living at his house." That was the summer of 1964 ... almost 40 years ago.
Consequently, Ralston learned the concrete trade, working beside his dad on driveways, curbs and gutters, sidewalks, and small foundations. "Every once in a while I would get to jackhammer concrete with a big 90-pound jackhammer. As a boy I was really short, so that thing was about as high as I was."
But as a third generation concrete contractor (his grandfather, Wilbur Thomas Ralston, started the business in 1928), Ralston harbored the idea of quitting the business altogether. "I was sick and tired of the same mundane concrete," he says. "If it wasn't for decorative concrete I wouldn't be in the industry today."
Ralston took over the company when his father retired in 1989. "My father had actually retired in 1987 and the business was almost dormant until I was asked to do a decorative project for a Victorian restoration project that had some cool concrete work," he says. He put a small three-man team together and finished the project -and found a particular thrill from building a team and doing creative concrete on his own.
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