The Healdsburg Museum started the Pioneer Award in 1998 to recognize and honor an individual with deep roots in the local area, strong community involvement and leadership in their profession.
2022 Pioneer Award Honorees:
Jerry and Joanna Engelke
Jerry Engelke has been moving earth — doing heavy construction site work — since he graduated from high school in 1965. He started the first incarnation of his company in 1973 with a well-used tractor and some advice: “Get used to being in debt.” He founded the firm’s present incarnation, Engleke Construction, in 2000.
Born in 1947 to Lee and Mary Engelke, Jerry went to Felta School (now Westside Elementary), Healdsburg Junior High, and Healdsburg High School before studying for a time at Santa Rosa Junior College. Joanna, born in 1950 to Erwin and Camille Derrick, got her education at St. John the Baptist Catholic School, Ursuline High School and Empire Business College. The couple’s children — Chip, Brandi and Lizzie — and their seven grandchildren were all born and raised in Healdsburg or nearby.
Jerry recalls enjoying boyhood rides on his dad’s heavy equipment and always wanting to follow in his footsteps as a contractor. Growing up next door to his grandparents’ ranch allowed him to learn the value of work. It also gave him the opportunity — in first grade — to learn to drive a Model T truck. By junior high school, he was driving tractors.
Joanna also grew up on a ranch — her parents’ — where, among other experiences, she helped dehydrate prunes at harvest time. Fast forward to 1969, the beginning of over three decades as a secretary at Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa. In 2001 she was “promoted” — to vice president of Engleke Construction.
Jerry credits his father with showing him how to conduct business — building solid relationships, being fair in every transaction and always working toward a win-win. He has since learned that knowledge can be expensive but that mistakes provide the power to change course.
Engelke Construction’s many projects include several done for the benefit of Jerry and Joanna’s hometown — Healdsburg Plaza Gazebo, Carson Warner Memorial Skatepark, Little League ballfield, cleanup/restoration of Oak Mound Cemetery’s older section, and Healdsburg Recreation Park’s Clarence Ruonavaara Grandstands. Jerry served on the Engineering Contractors Association board for five years, beginning in 1987. In 2019, the ECA named him Contractor of the Year. He has also served on the Healdsburg Future Famers Country Fair board.
Earthmoving machinery was not the only equipment that sparked Jerry’s youthful imagination. His dad, also a private pilot, would often take his kids up with him, which prompted Jerry to get his own pilot’s license. Today, he and Joanna stick closer to the earth, enjoying gardening, camping, fishing and family. Chip, Brandi and nephews Rich and Jim (sons of Jerry’s brother Dick) are now the ones who “really do the company’s heavy lifting.”