宫廷之王

约翰Giganti, SECS ’74, grew up in Detroit with his mother, father and two siblings. His father was a union worker at Ford’s vinyl plant in Mount Clemens and frequently dealt with big machinery.

“He was extremely capable with his hands,” Giganti explains about his father, “He taught me about carpentry, 工程, 各种各样的东西. He learned through reading manuals top to bottom, to familiarize himself with his equipment.”

Giganti’s father was a master carpenter, 建车库, 悬挂式铝壁板, fixing roofs and laying concrete. 当吉安提长大了, he would work on jobs alongside him, sparking his lifelong interest in 工程.

“和我爸爸一起工作, mechanics and physics became part of my life,吉安提说。, “He encouraged me to continue down this path. He wanted me to have a better life.”

Giganti’s father talked to his employer, who recommended 韦德体育app官网 for 工程 and that’s all it took. Giganti enrolled in classes in 1970.

约翰Giganti

Post graduation, Giganti weighed his options. It was the middle of the oil crisis and jobs were scarce. He opted to join the Army as a Department of Defense civilian employee, which was offering an 工程 trainee position. From trainee to chief engineer and deputy program manager in 10 years, Giganti’s last big job was a $530 million military truck contract with General Motors.

After a decade with the Army, Giganti spent 40 years in positions of increasing responsibility, working for major defense contractors in the U.S. — Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and L3 Technologies — and traveling the world.

“Then I decided to retire at 56,吉安提说。. “It seemed like it was time. 我错了. I got a phone call about an opportunity to go and work in Kuwait.”

Giganti became General Dynamic’s customer-facing executive for the Middle East and North Africa. 将近三年了, Giganti sold the Abrams Main Battle Tank to surrounding countries, before retiring for the second time.

In 2014, Giganti and his wife moved from Kuwait to a gated community in Florida. He had come out of retirement one more time, running his own consulting firm, but he retired for a third and potentially final time right before the COVID-19 pandemic, but his services were still needed.

“I got approached by the community’s 工程 committee to help with some smaller projects, basic day-to-day things,吉安提解释道。. “But then a big project came up.”

Pickleball法院

The community was looking to transform three of their six tennis courts into pickleball and bocce ball courts. After some extensive research, including the amount of decibels a pickleball hits a paddle with a couple mock-up drawings, Giganti had a plan in place to convert the three tennis courts into six pickleball courts, 两个地滚球场.

After three days of construction, the first four pickleball courts were ready and being used. Since then, the remaining two more pickleball and 两个地滚球场 have been added. 用新的, 永久的法院, the community’s pickleball club has grown from six members to more than 175 members. Giganti has become a certified pickleball coach and is working on coaching the community to enjoy the new courts to the fullest.