Jeanette Crook Looks Back

Throughout her 33-year KA career, Jeanette Crook has demonstrated her capabilities, adaptability and teamwork in dealing with changing roles and changing times. As she retires this month, Jeanette shares a look back at some highlights and insights of a multifaceted career.

What was your background/experience prior to joining Kraus-Anderson in 1992? What did you know about KA?

JEANETTE CROOK: I graduated from Bemidji State with a BS in Business Administration and worked at an insurance company right out of college working with 401K accounts; then we moved to Texas for the army, and I worked for a CPA firm where I was the only one in the office with a computer. I did all the data entry, as well as accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, monthly bank statement and general office administration.

After returning home to MN when my then-husband’s enlistment was up, I signed with a temp agency, interviewed with Kraus-Anderson Development and Finance and ended up at Trans-Pacific Finance (TPF), another KA company. My brothers-in-law worked in the industry and told me that if I got on with KA, make sure that I stayed with them because they were a great company, and 33 years later I am still here.

Q: Can you share more about TPF?
JEANETTE CROOK: TPF was organized to provide financing for the sales of timeshare properties in Hawaii and Colorado. I did the administration and collection for the timeshare accounts.

Q: What precipitated your transfer to KA Mortgage in 1996?
JEANETTE CROOK: Sales of timeshares were starting to wind down, and around that time there was an opening at Kraus-Anderson Mortgage with a retirement, so I moved to KA Mortgage to do accounting. Mortgage was just 3 people, but they interacted with all the different entities of KA in one way or another, financing a project that was being built by KA Construction, paying the real estate taxes for all the KA properties and treasury management.

After a couple of years, you moved on again- to work for Kraus-Anderson Construction, initially as a project coordinator. How did that happen?
JEANETTE CROOK: My move to KA Construction in Circle Pines was mainly because of the location. At the time I was teaching confirmation class in Blaine and it seemed that every Wednesday we would have a snowstorm, it would take me a couple hours to get home, get the kids and then try to get to confirmation on time. That put a lot of stress on me. Rose Manthe told me about a Project Coordinator position open at KA Midwest in Circle Pines, right next to Blaine. Ramona Holmes became my mentor, and she was great.

Q: With this job move, you were no longer working downtown.
JEANETTE CROOK: That was a big cultural shift for me, going from two smaller entities, TPF and Mortgage, where I was working more in a silo, to Construction where there was a larger team with others doing the same thing as me. We were a big family. When there was a bid, we all rolled up our sleeves and helped out.

Q: Talk about your work for Cabela’s nationwide store expansion.
JEANETTE CROOK: I started at KAMW when the Cabela’s in Owatonna was being built; it was our first one. I helped with the closeouts. After that I worked on 17 other Cabela’s.

Q: You really got to see the country working for Cabela’s.
JEANETTE: In Wheeling, WV, we were next to a site where they were getting ready to build a distribution center, and they had great big earth moving equipment typically used in mining to cut down the mountain top to fill in the valley. I also remember having lunch on the Appalachian Trailhead during the Cabela’s project in Hamburg, PA. The Cabela’s in Ft. Worth, TX was within walking distance of the hotel I was staying in, but the long horn cattle roaming round stopped me from doing so!

Q: Another repeat client was the nonprofit Courage Center. What stands out for you about that client?
JEANETTE CROOK: We did work for both Courage St. Croix in Stillwater and the Golden Valley locations. What I remember most was the pool we built for the Stillwater location. It was for physical therapy, so it was warmer than most, had special pool wheelchairs and ramps. They were a really great client to work with.

We also sponsored the Courage Shoot fundraisers. It was always a big event of the year with clay shooting, dinner and live auction at the end of the evening. I think I may still have an award for coming in first place for ladies at one of the events.

Q: When and how did you become a trainer?
JEANETTE CROOK: When I started at KAMW, there was a manual for the PCs but that was mainly for how to format letters and memorandums, how to answer phone calls, etc. I took it further on how to do the processes that project assistants were required to do, like typing up RFIs, PCOs, subcontract agreements and more. Once I had a process written down, I would take it to Ramona to approve and then file away for the next time I had to do that particular step. I had a three-inch binder filled with step-by-step process, and helpful tools that were needed for a project assistant to do their jobs. Gary Hook found out about this and told me that I would be the office trainer going forward. We started to make sure that all of our forms were consistent between project managers.

When the KA Duluth office opened, Jeff Iisakka wanted me to come up and train the new project assistant, and from there I trained all new project assistants for our offices.

The first big Cabela’s where we had on-site staff was in Dundee, MI, after closing out that project it was decided we would need to have someone go out to a site periodically to check on the progress to make sure that paperwork was being done properly, so I started to travel to the jobsites to go through the books and logs. At the end of the project, I would pack up all the documentation for the owner to leave on site and then pack up the project documents from the office trailer to be hauled back to the office and archived.

Q: Your career has spanned major developments in technology, and you embraced it, becoming a trainer for Viewpoint when KA adopted that new technology about a decade ago. Talk about how Viewpoint has helped KA grow its business.
JEANETTE CROOK: We are more efficient by reducing time spent on duplicate data entry, forecasting and reporting tasks. It has standardized processes across all offices and projects and allows us to manage project risk. We can do more work with less effort.

Q: We talk about Project Managers who travel for the work, but you have logged a lot of miles too. Talk about your experience in traveling for the job.
JEANETTE CROOK: There were times where I would fly into one city, visit a jobsite for a day or two then drive to the next city and fly out of another city. This would happen when I had multiple Cabela’s being done in close proximity.

I remember visiting the Madison office, then traveling to a jobsite outside of Milwaukee before heading to the Cabela’s in Richfield, WI. We also had two Cabela’s being built in Texas at the same time, one outside of Austin and one in Ft. Worth.

Once, traveling back home from a jobsite visit, the Project Manager offered to buy me dinner. Dinner consisted of an ice cream cone at one of the airport kiosks. Just before it was time to pay the Project Manager received a phone call and walked away to take it. I ended up paying for “dinner” and holding his ice cream cone, while it proceeded to melt all over my hand!

Q: How would you like to be remembered at KA?
JEANETTE CROOK: As a hardworking, dedicated employee who loved what she did.

I have been very fortunate to have worked for such a great company. The people at KA are the best and I have enjoyed working with them over the years. Thanks for all the memories!