nisytn age 5, and 2 nephews, Austin 15 years old and Parker, who is 3 years old. Nathan’s favorite hobby is PC gam- ing. He has always loved playing video games. Nathan enjoys the job because there are always new people to meet and new things to learn about and new situations to figure out. Nathan points out things never remain the same with this job as there is constant change. Nathan gets a good feeling helping out our customers with solving prob- lems and providing and sharing dairy knowledge with customers through our Crest training sessions. Steve Starke has been with Crest Foods for 11 years. Steve resides in Kentucky with his wife Kristy and 11 year old Shih Tzu dog. Steve has 2 daughters, Chelsey 32 years old, and Alysha 28 years old, and one son Andrew, who is 25. Also, Steve has 2 grandsons, Kalvin, age 5 and Remy age 3. Steve is our adventurous member. He loves to power paraglide and ride his motorcycle for fun. Steve loves the challenge of troubleshooting plant issues for our custom- ers and the satisfaction of arriving at the causes to correct and fix the issues for them. Steve feels this is one of his biggest job rewards. Lee Hall has been with Crest Foods for 7 ½ years. Lee lives in Indiana with his wife of 33 years, Julie. Lee has 2 daughters Tessa and Jessica, and 2 granddaughters, Josie (1) and Lilly (8). Lee loves to spend time with family, and especially loves to go on beach vacations with Julie. Lee really enjoys helping out customers with all their trouble shooting opportunities, as well as conducting all the training sessions he does for HTST training. Lee’s most reward- ing moments on the job center around his trainings where an employee has a “light bulb” go off when he or she realize they have just learned something valuable to use on their job; learning new information thanks to him. Nate McKnight has been with Crest Foods for 4 ½ years. Nate heads up the Technical Service group in terms of coordinating our weekly assignments and schedules to ensure that there is adequate coverage in a timely manner to all customers in need of Crest service. Nate lives in Idaho with his wife Tena, his high school sweetheart, who he married 32 years ago. Nate has 3 grown children, Scott (31), Devin (29), and Raelee (28), as well as six grandchil- dren, ranging in age from 2 to 10 years old; Beau 10, Brynlee 6, Sadie 3, Brooklyn 3, Ryan 2, and Ryker 2. And, the list of grandchildren will soon grow to seven, with the next arrival due sometime in June. When not working Nate loves to take advantage of his surroundings and experience the mountains of Idaho on horseback. Also, Nate has a very unique personal interest outside of work, that is, operating a small farm and ranch. When Nate is on the road traveling for work Tena manages this and the 85 beef cattle. Nate really enjoys helping customers troubleshoot plant issues and teaching people why we do what we do within the dairy industry. According to Nate the most rewarding part of his job is working with the entire Crest Foods Team, or as Nate points out, the Crest Family. Nate values his being part of the commitment to always providing high quality service, and like many other Techni- cal Service Managers, the reward of helping plants implement solutions to problems, as well as educate their em- ployees. Nate’s favorite part of getting the opportunity to do these things in the job is meeting new people all the time across this great country and Canada. Al Duthie is the last member of the Technical Service Team to mention. He is the “old timer” in the group, 19 years with Technical Service, and also a total of 30 years with Crest Foods, including positions in R&D and Sales. Al lives in Illinois with his wife of 41 years, Holli. He has 3 grown children, Brad (37), Emily (35), and Eric (28), as well as 2 granddaughters, Claire (5), and Grace (2). Outside of work Al loves spending time with Holli, and making as many visits as possible to be with his grandchildren. Al also enjoys reading crime and mystery fiction novels and being an avid sports “nut” by closely following his Clemson Tiger football team, University of Vermont soccer and hockey teams, The Boston Red Sox, and Major League Baseball games in general. One of Al’s personal goals is to watch a MLB game at all of the teams’ stadiums. So far he has attended games in about half the parks. Al gains a lot of satisfaction in his job by solving the troubleshooting issues that arise in dairy plants and explaining and showing customer plants how to avoid these issues repeating in the future. Over all the years the most rewarding times in the job for Al has been when the week ends for his customer plant visit and he leaves feeling like he truly made a differ- ence with improving things at the plant.
October, November & December 2022 Crest Ink 21
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