Arizona Contractor & Community Fall 2015 V4 I3 | Page 26
JFK Electrical Contracting
Construction Around Arizona
Questions with CEO John Krecek
Katie Mayer
J
Images courtesy of JFK Electric
ohn Krecek wired his first home when
he was just 12 years old. Today, the
third-generation electrician is founder and
CEO of JFK Electrical Contracting in Gilbert.
He talked with us recently about his
family’s history in electrical contracting,
some of his toughest jobs, and why more
young people should consider a job in
construction.
ACC: You’re originally from Pennsylvania.
What brought you to Arizona?
JK: I worked as an estimator for a union
contractor and in January 1981, after
sliding around on ice, I phoned a friend in
Arizona and he informed me that he was
outside shooting a game of basketball. At
that moment, I said “I’m moving to a
warmer climate.” I traveled down the East
Coast and across the country stopping off
for interviews along the way, and I decided
to stay and make this my new home. My
wife moved here a few months later.
ACC: You’re a third-generation electrician.
Tell us how your grandfather got into the
industry.
JK: I don’t know for sure, but he was smart
enough to know that this was a field that
would grow. He was a superintendent for
the Work Projects Administration (WPA)
following the Great Depression. In 1941,
he wired a farm in Ligonier, Pennsylvania
for electricity when word came over the
radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.
Around 1943, he went to Hanford,
Washington to work on a top secret atomic
project. The funny thing is that they did a
big search into his
background for a security
clearance and he, a cardcarrying
Communist
prior to this time, was
not
considered
a
security risk and went
out West.
ACC: How about your
father?
JK: Dad joined the Local
Union after his return
from the Navy, where
he learned the trade as
a ship electrician. He worked with the
Local Union at different companies for
more than 35 years. He was a quiet man
and was passionate about his work and
trained a lot of apprentices over the years.
ACC: You followed in his footsteps, but
also became the first generation to start
your own business. Tell us about that.
JK: I’ve been doing electrical work for more
than 40 years. I wired my first house, which
was my grandmother’s house, when I was
12. My dad would drop me off in the
morning and teach me what to do and then
go back and check my work. When I moved
to Arizona, I was working for an electrical
contractor as an estimator and then
managed their service division. On my 30th
birthday, I announced that I was going to
start my own electrical contracting
business. My wife Deb and I set up the
office in our home in Mesa. We ate a lot of
hot dogs for that first year.
ACC: Tell us about your company’s most
prominent and interesting jobs.
JK: We did the electrical in the Grunow
Medical Clinic in the early 1990s. You
couldn’t touch the lobby because of all the
old stone. I have an old switch gear that
we took out of that building and painted
John Krecek and his father
Francis John Krecek
and it’s now the b X