Featured Alumni

Tim Mahoney

Politics were a conversation mainstay around the dinner table when Tim Mahoney was a kid. But it was never his dream to be a politician. Then, in 1998, a Minnesota State Representative seat opened up on St. Paul's East Side. It was District 67A, the neighborhood where Mahoney, who was working as a pipefitter at the time, grew up. "So I made a relatively snap decision to try for it," he recalls. "One day I wasn't running and the next day I was because I thought, 'Boy, I could make a difference for my neighborhood. I'd love to represent it.'"

Lacking a network of politically savvy promoters and fundraisers, Mahoney received much of his campaign support from longtime friends and coworkers he'd met while getting his pipefitting degree at Saint Paul College in the early 1980s. He won the seat, and nearly 10 years later, he still holds it, saying he's happy to keep doing the job "as long as people will have me."

He's quick to add, however, that he loves the pipefitting trade and he believes it makes him a better legislator, particularly in the working-class district he represents. "I think of myself as a bit more down to earth than some of my colleagues on either side of the aisle," he says. "I bring a strong voice of working people because I know how hard it is to make a living. Sometimes people get up there in those marble halls and forget that."

On the career path

As with politics, Mahoney fell into pipefitting in a sudden, almost fateful way. After graduating from St. Paul's Harding High School, he spent several years working different jobs, including a long stint as a full-time salesperson at Menards. Knowing he needed to choose a more permanent career path, he studied air traffic control, working only a short time in the field before then-President Ronald Reagan fired all of the air traffic controllers during the 1982 strike.

Mahoney wouldn't cross the picket line, so he decided to study a trade at Saint Paul College, though he didn't know which one. Then he met a pipefitter, who offered what turned out to be sage suggestion. "He told me I would love my job as a pipefitter," Mahoney recalls. "That was some of the best advice I ever got because there's not a day that I can say I hate going to work."

Indeed, pipefitting can be a rewarding trade—in terms of both compensation and job outlook. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), pipefitting is among the highest-paid construction occupations, with the wage and benefit total package reaching as high as $53.54 per hour. At the same time, the BLS notes that skilled pipefitters are in high demand—a trend that will only intensify as the baby boom generation heads into retirement in the years ahead.

With all that in mind, Mahoney is surprised that more young people aren't encouraged to learn a trade after high school. "Everyone talks about how kids should go to college," he says. "But a four-year college isn't for everyone and there are a lot of different educational options out there that can prepare people for jobs where they'll earn a good living. More needs to be done to encourage that."

"My pipefitting career is the reason I have all the gifts I have today—a beautiful home and two wonderful daughters who are highly motivated," he adds. "I wouldn't be here if I hadn't gone to Saint Paul College. I've got lifelong friends who were in my classes and have worked with me all through my pipefitting career."

Learn more about our Pipefitting program.

Meleah Maynard is a Minneapolis freelance writer.