PROFILE
John Coon W
DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE | STARPORT
hat career path do you take if you have a degree in animal husbandry? Become an A&P mechanic, of course! Or so it was with John Coon, director of maintenance
for Sanford, FL-based StarPort. We sat down with Coon to learn how he went from being a farmer in Massachusetts to being a director of maintenance in Florida. John Coon grew up in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. His uncle owned a farm, and Coon spent a lot of time working on the farm. After graduating from high school, Coon thought he would enjoy a career in farming and decided to pursue an education in animal husbandry. He attended State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill (SUNY Cobleskill) and graduated with a degree in animal husbandry. After graduation, Coon went to work for some local
farmers. His goal was to save some money and eventually own his own farm. “Unfortunately, I soon realized that my dream of owning my own farm was just not going to happen,” he tells D.O.M. magazine. “It was fi nancially impossible. I eventually gave up on farming.” Coon then worked a variety of jobs including
construction. “I realized that it just wasn’t working out,” he says. “I wasn’t happy and I decided to fi nd something else.” Some of Coons friends worked in aviation. They asked him if he had ever considered a career as an aircraft mechanic. Coon thought he would enjoy working on aircraft. For him, it was the romance of aviation that caught his attention. He was mechanically inclined and enjoyed working with his hands. He also had experience working on automobiles.
A&P SCHOOL So Coon started looking at A&P schools in the Northeast. Eventually, he came across Embry-Riddle Aeronauti- cal University in Daytona Beach, FL. He applied to the University and was accepted. “I sold everything I had and packed up my little blue car and drove down to Daytona Beach,” he says. “It was a total life change. In Massachusetts I had a job. I had money to spend. There I was, in Daytona Beach, going back to being a broke college student.”
By Joe Escobar
11.12 2014
6
DOMmagazine
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