The Tower Summer 2017 - 6

The
Director's Corner
I

t's amazing what you can accomplish when
you are goal oriented. Five years ago Josh
Huneke selected a career path in the broad and
fascinating field of masonry at the Schuylkill
Technology Center in Frackville, PA. We're
proud to say Josh was under the good hands of
instruction of former Stevens' graduate Scott
Allvord from the Class of 2006. Josh then came
to Stevens College knowing he would be able to
hone his skills and increase his competencies
yielding a greater working knowledge of
the unlimited use and extremes in masonry
construction.

Alex Munro,
Executive Director
Foundation & Alumni Association

With the instructional help and encouragement
of his instructors Mr. Gardner and Mr. Hummel,
Josh was able to build some amazing projects
in the last two years. His favorite project by far
was creating the spiral arch. Once he embarked
on the arch building phase of the program, Mr.
Hummel told them to go research the type of
arch you would like to build. In surfing the
internet, he stumbled upon a YouTube video that
showed a man creating a spiral arch. Not being
a young man to stray away from a challenge, he
decided that he would give it a shot. As soon as
he told his instructors what he was planning on
doing they were equally excited and willing to
help him make his vision come to fruition.
Josh said once he started working on this
perplexing project, only then was he able to
start wrapping his mind around it and he
realized how intricate and daunting this project
was going to be, but he was hooked. After he
laid the starter courses on both piers he started
to work on his arch form. The form was one of
the more interesting and difficult parts of this
project but it was by far the most rewarding part
of it. Josh spent many hours laying out the form
and constructing it. If the layout was incorrect
in any way the whole project would have been
a failure. He said it was a very good workout
mentally. After he built the form and

6 Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology

set it between the piers he was ready to rock
and get his project completed. He spent many
13 hour days in the shop building the spiral arch
and was relieved to see that it was moving along
quite smoothly and coming together.
All in all he spent 60-70 hours working on this
project from start to finish. There were so many
challenges that he encountered and was most
favorable to overcome with his knowledge and
commitment. Mr. Gardner and Mr. Hummel
were always there if advice was needed. With a
big smile he said, "It's a great feeling to be able
to stand back and look at this project and know
that I was able to build this whole project from
the ground up with not much more than a video
to go on. I'm so thankful to have been given
the privilege to attend Stevens College and to
receive the super training and opportunity
to build a project with the highest degree of
difficulty as the spiral arch presented."
He's not only a very talented young bricklayer
nearing journeyman status, Josh exudes the
artistic creativeness of a burnt clay artisan.
Having the skill and mind to take bricks of
clay and lay them into a very difficult manner
of configuration, fashioning them into a spiral
arch of beauty is a monumental challenge.
The talent of Josh Huneke isn't the ordinary; it's
the extraordinary which takes immeasurable
skill. We congratulate him for his self-discipline
for perfection and may these attributes be the
light to his pathway for a long successful career.
Josh's spiral arch may very well be one of two
ever built in America. To have earned front page
coverage on the Stevens Tower publication is a
lofty honor that was never expected but, deeply
appreciated by Josh.
Respectfully,
Alex B. Munro



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Tower Summer 2017

The Tower Summer 2017 - 1
The Tower Summer 2017 - 2
The Tower Summer 2017 - 3
The Tower Summer 2017 - 4
The Tower Summer 2017 - 5
The Tower Summer 2017 - 6
The Tower Summer 2017 - 7
The Tower Summer 2017 - 8
The Tower Summer 2017 - 9
The Tower Summer 2017 - 10
The Tower Summer 2017 - 11
The Tower Summer 2017 - 12
The Tower Summer 2017 - 13
The Tower Summer 2017 - 14
The Tower Summer 2017 - 15
The Tower Summer 2017 - 16
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/2022-annual-report
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/the-tower-annual-report
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/Tower_Summer_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/Tower_Summer_2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/Tower_Summer_2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/Tower_Winter_2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/TheTowerSummer2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/TheTowerWinter17
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/TowerFall2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/Summer2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/Winter2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/stevenscollege/tower/fall2015
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com