Many would treat homebuilding as any other job, but for the late Joe Witt, it was his passion.  That’s best exemplified by the two unpaid invoices Witt’s sister, Bonnie Vance, came across when she was tying up business transactions after her brother’s death. Witt, 49, died on Feb. 18 in an avalanche while snowmobiling with his son in the Snake Creek area west of Midway. Both invoices were related to a home he’d recently finished in Mayflower Lakeside in Park City.  The first invoice was for a cleaning service. Witt’s job sites, Vance said, were always immaculate. He believed the job site was a reflection of who he was as a builder. The second invoice was for some caulking and painting touch-ups. When Vance called the painter, he explained that Witt had paid the $600 bill himself instead of charging the owners. “He knew they were coming into town, and he wanted it to be perfect,” Vance said. “He wasn’t going to … put his name on something that wasn’t top-notch.” Their father, Mike, owned an excavation company, Witt Excavating, so Vance and her seven siblings “all kind of grew up on construction sites.” Joe Witt was a Heber City homebuilder and mentor to students of Wasatch High School’s homebuilding class. Credit: Photo courtesy of Bonnie Vance Witt started working at his oldest brother’s cabinet shop when he was 12 and started a hardwood flooring business in his mid-20s. By the time he became a homebuilder, he had a strong understanding of all the fundamentals of construction, from digging the foundations to driving his father’s iconic red dump truck, which he purchased from his father when he could no longer drive it. “He was really proud of the fact that he could build a house from the ground up,” Vance said.  Witt built a variety of homes in Wasatch and Summit counties, from $8 million mansions to smaller, $400,000 ones. “He wasn’t one of the people who’s like, ‘If you can’t be over $100 per square foot, I don’t want to help you.’ He would help anybody,” Vance said.  Witt built five different houses for Vance over the course of his life, and plenty more for the rest of his siblings. He also renovated his parents’ home to be accessible for his father, who has Parkinson’s disease. That allowed his father to stay in the family home for another four or five years, Vance said. Witt didn’t only extend his generosity to family. Between 2022 and 2023, he helped Lance Larson and his family rebuild their home in Heber City after it was destroyed in a fire. “He rallied all of the subcontractors in the community and got things donated and time and labor donated and built that house for way under the cost of what it should have been,” Vance said.  Witt’s latest passion project was volunteering his time to help teach Wasatch High School’s homebuilding class, in which students gain professional experience alongside industry professionals as they build a home from the ground up. That home is then sold to a school district employee when completed.  Weston Broadbent, director of Wasatch School District’s career and technical education programs, said Witt was truly passionate about the program, which was revived in 2019 after a years-long hiatus.  “It feels like he had a vision that helped us get to a whole other level,” Broadbent said. He said Witt was instrumental in mentoring the class’ current teacher, Canyon Prusso.  When Prusso was hired at the beginning of this academic year, Witt approached him about being more directly involved in the class. Witt was aware that he was a guest rather than a teacher, but Prusso estimates that “he was probably doing 90% of the direct instruction most days.” “He learned everyone’s name and grade level and knew most of their schooling and career goals,” Prusso said. “He’s very direct and candid. … They got a lot of great instruction from him about what it’s really like to be part of the construction industry. He had so many stories and lessons for them. He really took time to teach them good work habits and soft skills, in addition to actual carpentry skills.” Students sit among the beams of the roof on the house they built as part of the Wasatch High School career and technical education program. Student Will Shaw said the class is his “favorite by far.” Credit: Photo courtesy of Canyon PrussoWasatch High School students raise framing on the home they put together as part of the school’s home building program. Credit: Photo courtesy of Canyon PrussoWasatch High School students participating in the career and technical education program spend a day at the homebuilding program worksite installing windows in a new build. Credit: Photo courtesy of Canyon PrussoFramer Chad Fern, left, stands with a class of homebuilding construction students from Wasatch High School in front of the three bedroom home they built. Credit: Photo courtesy of Canyon Prusso Additionally, as an industry veteran and former president of the Park City Homebuilders Association, Witt had plenty of connections with subcontractors, many of whom he called up and sold on the program. That led many subcontractors to come in and teach, sometimes recruiting students for the job site after working with them and witnessing their talent. Broadbent remembers Witt as having a “big personality,” which came to bear when the homebuilding class approached the Wasatch County Council in November with a request to rezone an 8.6-acre parcel owned by the school district to allow more than one home to be built on it per acre. Without the rezone, the homebuilding program could come to an end when the school district runs out of lots to build on after the upcoming school year. The County Council most recently returned to the issue, which has become a broader discussion of how to approach affordable housing in the area, in its Feb. 11 meeting, but no decision was made about the school district’s lot. Prusso said the next step is for the school district to propose a site concept to the County Council. “Gosh-damn zoning,” Witt had said to the County Council in November. “Every time. Every freaking time. Zoning. And it’s like, well, guess what? You guys change zoning. Problem made by man can be solved by man, and zoning is made by man.” Broadbent called Witt’s comment an example of “his intense personality being channelled for something that’s really good.” Vance said that Witt wanted to be involved in the homebuilding class “for the long haul.” As a way to continue on his work, Witt’s siblings have set up the Joe Witt Future Builders Scholarship in his honor. The scholarship was set up through Wasatch Education Foundation, the nonprofit that provides scholarships and awards to the school district. It will support Wasatch High School students pursuing any post-high school education involving building and the trades. Broadbent thinks the scholarship could make a real difference in students’ lives. He’s observed students’ growing interest in the trades over the past few years, particularly because it’s a field not threatened by advances in artificial intelligence. The goal is to raise funds that are rolled into an endowment so scholarships can be awarded in perpetuity. As of Friday, the scholarship has raised nearly $52,000 of its $100,000 goal. “The thing we love about this scholarship is that, I mean, I could live another 40 years, and I’ll be able to give a scholarship to someone in my brother’s name for as long as I live, if we get this endowment big enough,” Vance said. “I’ll never forget him, and with this endowment and this scholarship, he’ll never be forgotten by anyone else, either.” The post Family of late Heber City homebuilder will carry on his legacy of paying it forward appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less