07/03/2025
To all of my new followers… and even the ones who have been following me for some time now. Here is just a little bit about me.
My name is Justin (most of you knew that already) and I am a husband to an amazing wife and father to two of the greatest kids ever. I am blessed beyond belief. Casi RN BSN - Hormones, Wellness, & Sports Mom
I am a chemical process operator at a large chemical company in my home town and have been working here for nearly 10 years. Before that I was a structural ironworker for 7 years and before that I worked in steel fabrication shops building structural steel members for large buildings such as U of M hospital, airplane hangars and Hemlock semiconductor.
Life had been wierd. I was 28 years old when I discovered my love for history even though I hated it in school. I was not a great student but I got good enough grades to get a diploma. I’ve always been a hands on learner and worked hard for everything I have. It hasn’t been easy, but nobody said life was.
7 years ago I began my family history journey that then brought me to my new joy… cemeteries! When I first started I had no clue what I was doing. I researched, I emailed people, and I watched a lot of YouTube. I stumbled across some opportunities to take some hands on training classes not far from home and I jumped on them. This was when I decided to take what I had learned… and what I’m continuing to learn and make it more accessible to the general public.
Through this process I realized that it was far too complicated to find information on how to clean and repair headstones… and while there is no replacement for hands on training I also realize that there are many capable people out there that just need to see how it’s done and they will be able to duplicate that result where they live. In this moment Past Preservation LLC was born.
I have taken what I learned from those two classes and decided what I liked best from both of them and use those practices on every single project. My posts are meant to inspire people, teach people, and start a discussion around this field of preservation that has far too few hands working in it.
As my friend Cristine put it… if we don’t do something now, we will lose the few monuments that we still have from the last 200 years. And that is how I truly feel!
I hope you all have a safe and exciting 4th of July weekend! I will be spending the next 9 days at work making materials you use every single day… or maybe I just scrub toilets… (inside joke) 😂