Longevity is a virtue to John, not just in his career, but in his relationships and faith as well. This focus on longevity led John and his wife Judy to spend more than 40 years in Turlock, California, where Judy had been born and raised. After meeting during college at the University of California, Davis, the couple eventually moved to Turlock.
He accepted Christ after going to Campus Crusade meetings with Judy at UC Davis, and from that moment on the church became a large part of his life. John grew up idolizing his father, but a few years before John went to college his father passed away. He went to college and decided he wanted to go into business like his dad. The first 10 years of his career John bounced around. From a large printing company, to a food processor, to a small co-op, and even starting his own pizza company, John got a wide variety of experience.
I made some mistakes vocationally prior to Hilmar Cheese that were important foundationally and helped prepare me for what was ahead. One such mistake happened when John started his pizza business. And then I remembered something my dad told me when I was only sixteenβthat I would have jobs before I would figure out what I was really good at and what I wanted to do with my life. Not much later John was asked to help some local Jersey dairymen explore building a cheese plant to process their milk.
Eventually he became the first employee and CEO of the company. John led the company through both difficult and rewarding seasons and eventually grew Hilmar Cheese Company to the organization it is today.
John was committed to his church and saw both Hilmar Cheese and his church as places he was called to serve long-term.
