Ed Parrett is the real deal. He’s got over 46 years of experience, and he’s willing to help others learn from it. There’s no way to quantify wealth like that. Ed worked in open-pit coal mines in NW Pennsylvania, and when that dried up in the late ‘80s, he started in construction.
His bread and butter is operating equipment, but he will be the first to tell the young people, “don’t expect to be running equipment every day.” Ed strives to do his job professionally and set a good example for younger people.
He values passing on knowledge to the younger generation and knows that they want the unadorned truth, e.g., “it’s not all peaches and cream.” Sometimes, given that he built his career without modern technology, it can be hard for Ed to be patient with millennials (always on the phone!), but he’s invested in helping them learn the industry.
In terms of his proudest moment at Berg, Ed recalls the Speakman project. It was Berg’s biggest project to date, and when the team finished it, the project was a text-book example of how a project should look.
Ed’s family history goes back 150 years in Elk County, and he still loves “playing” with his tractors on the 46-acre parcel that was part of the original homestead. He’s restored a couple of antique tractors and is currently building a “woods” buggy on top of a military JEEP chassis to get around the property.
A perfect weekend for Ed would be clearing trails, riding dirt bikes with his daughter’s family, and sitting around the campfire before falling asleep under the stars to the lullaby of howling coyotes.