Ron Calhoun is a proud union pipefitter, but he didn’t always know much about the trades. The West Side native dreamt of becoming an attorney and a federal agent, and he knew that meant he would have to go to college.  

fter graduating from Lincoln Park High School, he went on to Triton College. Of his parents’ three sons, Calhoun says he caused the least amount of trouble, but he admits that he didn’t always apply himself in high school. At Triton, he was able to turn things around and surprised everyone when he made the Dean’s List in his first year. He took his good grades to Southern Illinois University in search of a typical college campus experience, but all of the freedom in Carbondale caused his grades to take a dip. “I went to SIU and had a ball,” he said. He went back again the following year and got the same result. So Calhoun made the difficult decision to come home and get a job. 

Back in Chicago, Calhoun spent five years in retail sales at Foot Action before heading to California to work with his cousin, an HVAC technician for a company that produced water chillers for the printing press industry. It was Calhoun’s first exposure to the trades, so he worked closely with his cousin. “It was like an apprenticeship because he taught me on the job,” he says. “I didn’t know it at the time, but I was doing non-union pipefitting.” One year later, Calhoun was laid-off, and he made his way back to Chicago one more time. 

Calhoun set out to find work for himself and his younger brother, whose troubled background had hindered his ability to get hired. His search led him to a program that helped people of color find work in the trades. The four-month curriculum prepared participants for the aptitude tests required for trade apprenticeship programs. The prep helped, and Calhoun received offers to participate in both the pipefitters and plumbers’ apprenticeship programs. 

Calhoun was eager to start with the pipefitters but says he faced some challenges in a new industry dominated by young white men. “Out of 150 people in my apprenticeship class, there were three women and a few Latino men. I was one of only three African-American men,” he says. But Calhoun says starting later in life made it easier to handle some of the difficult aspects of the job, like waking up early to be on a job site. “Once I got accepted to that program, I knew there was no way I wasn’t going to finish,” he says.

Calhoun says his instructors were always supportive and willing to help. He says he left the apprenticeship experience with a quality education and skills, like welding, that have created many opportunities for him. “It changed my life in more ways than one, and all for the good,” he says. “I don’t just have a job, I have a career that I can take anywhere in the world.” 

Calhoun recently accepted an in-house position with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, the agency responsible for removing the impurities from soiled water and releasing it back into the Chicago River. “I’m still a pipefitter, but I’m doing more maintenance work now,” he says. Calhoun says he loves the stability of having a guaranteed paycheck, something that isn’t always guaranteed when you work for a contractor. “I’m going to retire here. It’s kind of like winning the lottery,” he says. “Water is an essential part of everyday living, just like electricity, it’s not going anywhere.”