"Whatever you are, be a good one."

It’s 5:23 in the evening at Eastern Vault Company, the Evercast branch located in Princeton, West Virginia, nestled up against the Appalachian Mountains. A group of workers head to the parking lot with their hard hats in hand, wiping a mix of sweat and dust from their face. They fire up the engines of their cars and head home, eager to slip their steel-toed-boots off on their front porch before heading into the house for supper.

With neon work vests still on, some stragglers chat in the parking lot about the Mountaineers win from the night before.

The day that started hours before the sun came up has been full of meetings and bridge beams and black coffee, but it’s not until every last car has left that Terry Kanode locks up shop and heads home as well.

“I don’t leave until all my guys have gone home,” said Kanode, a West Virginia Native. “That’s just my nature. I can’t run off and leave my guys. No matter how long I’ve been here, it doesn’t matter. We’re all in this together as a team.”

Even now, working as the Prestressed Superintendent, Terry says he’ll never forget where he came from.

“It’s better for me in this position now that I’ve held all those positions,” Kanode said referring to the forklift operators and the field team members. He’s worked in just about every position at the plant.

“What those guys are up there doing right now, I did for a long time. I did that for over 20 years.”

He was in his early 20’s when his cousin told him about a job working as a general laborer at a prestressed and precast concrete company. He joined the team at Eastern Vault, and although his cousin only stayed for two more years, Terry has stayed for 31.

“It’s been a journey,” said Kanode, who could even remember the exact day he started. “July 14, 1992. I hope it continues.”

From form work to carpentry, it’s been his willingness to learn new skills and trades that has taken him so far in his career.

“I self-taught myself just by watching the older generation.”

As he enters his third decade in the business, he reminisces on all the projects that he’s been a part of. He points to a picture that hangs in the hallway of the office building of a bridge that stretches over the PeeDee River that he worked on about five-years-ago.

“It’s one of the most unique projects we’ve ever done. There was a lot of challenges, but we overcame it. We never lost product on that job. We were anticipating a 25 to 30 percent loss on one of the products, but the way we did the curing process, we didn’t lose the first piece of product.”

There have been a lot of deadlines to meet and obstacles to overcome during his tenure. The biggest has been navigating change.?

“Change has been a challenge, but a lot of the change that we’ve done was for the very best.”

Terry always tries to have a positive attitude when it comes to work. His attitude and his hard work have helped get him to the position he holds today.

“There's this saying I really like. ‘Whatever you are, be a good one.”

It’s a principle he uses both in his personal and work life. That no matter what you are, whether you’re a carpenter, an accountant, a technician, a project manager, a forklift operator or a superintendent…be a good one.?

Article by Corinne McGrath