Jon Stahl, a 2019 Marion graduate, had initially thought that he might become a math teacher. But after a college visit to Mid-Michigan Community College, he changed course.
He went into HVAC, earned his certifications, and hit the ground running. First with Advanced Mechanical out of Leroy, and now with Maveric Mechanical out of Cadillac.
These days you can find him out and about in the area, fixing and installing furnaces and A/C units. He enjoys what he does, and loves that every day brings something different.
But there’s more to Jon than just HVAC.
The son of Jeff and Shana Stahl, Jon grew up on the family farm in Ina. A member of 4-H, he raised beef cattle, pigs, and chickens. He grew up spending time at the local dirt tracks with his dad, wrenching on cars and tractors. These days, he still enjoys raising cattle, and has future plans to possibly put together a dirt-track race team of his own.
We caught up with Jon recently where we learned a little bit more about his story. We learned that Jon Stahl is more than just another face in the crowd.
Marion Press: Where were you born and raised?
Jon: So I was actually born down in Kent County, in Grand Rapids. And I was raised right there in beautiful downtown Ina.
MP: What kept you busy growing up?
Jon: I was pretty decent in school; kept my grades up. I was a three-sport athlete through 6th grade, then I had some heart problems, so I dropped down to a two-sport athlete through middle school. Then I dropped down to just baseball for most of my high school career – until my senior year, when I joined basketball.
MP: So you had a bit of a heart issue growing up?
Jon: I was born six weeks early, and I had a heart murmur – a small hole in my heart – when I was born. They told me to keep an eye on it, so every year I’d go in and have a couple physicals a year and check on it. She’s still pumping!
MP: What was life like growing up in Ina?
Jon: At home, we have a small beef farm – that was my grandpa’s. We’d stay busy with that; we had between 25 and 30 head of cattle, and a couple of horses, and chickens, and pigs. Stayed busy helping out during haying season doing square bales. I did 4-H, and showed pigs and steers up here at the Cadillac Northern District Fair every year. Started that when I was 6 or 7 years old and did that all the way through and stayed busy.
I worked – when I was about 14, 15 years old – I started working down at the Marion Ice Cream Shop. Then I went to college down and Mid-Michigan, and went into their HVAC program.
MP: What are some of your best memories of going to school at Marion?
Jon: I always liked to hang out with friends – in class, and in the hallways. I liked playing sports. My junior year, I took and finally did shop class – I enjoyed that. It was awesome, I had Mr. Schmidt as shop teacher, and having Ed Kirkby come in and help all the time was awesome. I liked math class – math was my favorite subject. It came real easy to me, and your dad [Tim Michell] was a great teacher.
MP: What made you decide to get into HVAC?
Jon: Junior year, it was me, Robert Hubble, and Damian Schwab went down to Mid [Michigan Community College] for a college visit. We toured the HVAC program. I drove us down there, and we toured it, and it was a cool program. At that time, I was half-thinking I’d become a teacher and teach math. But with my financial situation and how everything was playing out, it was a better opportunity to get into the HVAC field than it was to get into teaching at that time.
MP: So where did you get your start in HVAC?
Jon: Back in college, it was a fast-track program; we did three semesters. And one of the requirements was that we needed to have 150 internship hours. So I got with a company out of Leroy – Advanced Mechanical – and I knew one of the guys who worked there. He took me on as an intern, and I bought my tools and did my internship hours. I’d go to school four days a week and then intern on Friday.
I got out of school, and I had all my certificates, so he started me out at a decent wage. I worked for him for a few years, and then I decided I wanted to get more into the heating and cooling side of it, so I switched companies. And now I’m working for Maveric Mechanical out of Cadillac.
MP: Tell us about Maveric Mechanical. What all does Maveric do?
Jon: We do a wide range of stuff. We do your basic heating and cooling: your furnaces, your boilers, A/C systems, mini-split systems. We do plumbing work up here; we have a great couple of plumbers. We do a lot of new construction houses. We do some commercial work, we do a lot of residential work. We’ve got a really good crew up here.
MP: What do you enjoy the most about your job?
Jon: One of the things I enjoy the most is that I’m not working the same thing every day. I’m not sitting at a desk; I’m out in the sun, in the breeze, in the weather. It’s nice.
MP: Outside of work, what keeps you busy?
Jon: One of the guys I work with, he lives right around the corner from me. And when my grandpa [Al Grover] passed away back in 2019, he had an old ¾ ton truck – an old ’85 Chevy. He loved that truck, but the body had just fallen apart on it. So I decided that I’m going to redo it. So we’ve been working on that, it’s been sitting over in my buddy’s garage.
I recently picked up another project: I’ve got a ’92 S-10 Blazer, and I’m putting a V-8 motor in it. I like tinkering in the garage. Still farming – still keeping my grandpa’s farm up and going.
Another one of my hobbies is that I love going to dirt tracks. One of the things on my bucket list is to go to every dirt track in Michigan – and I’m down to three. I’ve only got three left. My dad worked at Merritt [Speedway] for 20 plus years, so I kind of grew up there on Saturday nights, and Cherry Raceway on Friday nights before it shut down.
I’ve got a couple of different drivers that are good friends. A couple of years back, I actually hopped in a car myself – a little 4-cylinder – and I liked doing that. The money wasn’t there for me at the time, so I got rid of it. But I’m hoping, in the future, that I’d like to put a race team together. Get a couple of drivers and put a team together. That’s something that me and my dad enjoy, and we can do together. I like wrenching on the cars.
MP: What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Jon: Couple different pieces of advice. The first one, that’s most helpful to me: Learn how to manage your money young. Learn how to get your bills paid, get your taxes done, so that way you don’t have to worry about stuff. Another good piece of advice – and of course back in school I was a pretty big procrastinator – “Don’t Procrastinate!”
MP: Who have been your role models over the years?
Jon: I’ve had a couple different role models. Tim Michell, he really got me into teaching, and taught me how to push myself very far. I really respect him, and what he’s done for me. Another one of my role models in school was Kurt Gillespie. He was a really good teacher and baseball coach. He taught me a lot of life lessons out on the baseball diamond.
MP: What do you enjoy the most about living here? What’s keeping you here?
Jon: One of the things that’s keeping me here is that it’s peaceful. It’s nice and quiet, and I can go and have plenty of land to hunt, I can go ride my 4-wheeler. I’ve got room to move. I’m not sitting a quarter mile down the road from my neighbor.