I was born in Arizona and raised in Idaho and Oregon. In 1974 my beautiful bride Shirley and I were married. We then left Oregon to attend school at BYU in Provo, Utah. I have been stuck in Utah ever since! Shirley and I have seven children (4 boys and 3 girls). Five of the seven are married and we have eight grandchildren from ages 8 to 4. Shirley is the loving, caring, sit-on-her-lap-cookie-baking grandmother. I am the hit-with-the-nerf-football and jump on him grandpa. It seems to work out OK.   I enjoy most sports and participate regularly in basketball, softball and golf. I really enjoy shooting and hunting. Utah is a great place for big game hunting. My big game hunting goal is to take a 6-point bull elk scoring at least 350. Some day it will happen. All of my sons and two of my sons-in-law hunt along with me. It is great family time. Shirley will come if I promise not to shoot anything. (She is very tender-hearted!)   Shirley and I enjoy snowshoeing together. We often go snowshoeing in the dark of night. It is great to wander about in the snow covered mountains without the noise and bustle of normal daily activity.   I have been associated with A&K since September 1982 working closely with Ray Yamasaki, Claudia Miller and Karen Burke with the implementation of the Qantel computer system.   Due to personnel changes at A&K, a job offer was made and I started working for A&K August 18th of 1986 with the title of Assistant Controller. I am sitting in the same office with the same desk since that day. However, I do have a new chair!   I have responsibility for all IT (Information Technology) functions in A&K as well as development of internal financial statements. I am directly involved with voice and data communication systems used in A&K.   There have been tremendous changes in IT, voice communications and data communications during the past 22 years. Teletype machines were replaced with FAX machines. The Coordinator was introduced in 1987 as the first email system for A&K. The Qantel computer system was replaced with Varnet in 1991. In 1994 sales offices began entering sales contracts locally instead of FAXING to Salt Lake City for entry. Full-time yard locations began processing work orders and entering Bills of Lading directly into the computer. Local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) technology was introduced in 1997 using Windows server network operating systems to usher in Microsoft Exchange and Outlook email systems along with the .com and internet era. Microsoft Office with Excel and Word became the new standard for spreadsheets and word processing.   The next IT challenge is on the horizon. Varnet is being replaced by a new state-of-the-art ERP software system – Microsoft Dynamics AX. I can hardly wait to get started.   A&K has been a challenging and rewarding employer. The work has been great and the association with A&K associates even greater!

In September this year, the Toledo yard installed a new rail scale and laid new track to accommodate the scale. Previously they had to unload the rail car, carry seven pieces of rail by forklift up to the truck scale alongside the office to weigh it which was very time consuming to say the least. Now the cars are pulled across the scale and it weighs each axle and prints a ticket for each car both coming into the yard and leaving the yard.   Installation of the track was done by the Toledo yard crew under the supervision of Joe Shinsky and Marcos Dominguez. They built approximately 800 track feet of new track along with two new #8 switches and replaced the bumping post. All the construction had to be scheduled when they were sure they were not going to receive any rail cars. The old track had been there for who knows how many years before Kern purchased the property in 1984.   The office and warehouse and all the trim were recently painted. This was a huge project since the outside surface had to be scrapped caulked and all the bad spots mortared. The improvements were a joint effort of everyone in the yard and our Toledo employees are extremely proud of their efforts and the looks of their yard and office.   Toledo Employees (left to right): Lorenzo Villaneuva, Juan Mireles, Ramiro Cruz, Martin Hernandez, Rudy Valasquez, Francisco Munoz, Marcos Dominguez, Joe Shinsky, Joey Shinsky.