“He is an excellent teacher, and our young apprentices benefit greatly from their time with him. Chris was trained under a master plumber with 35-plus years of experience in the trade, so he takes a great deal of pride in passing along the wisdom he acquired along the way. His commitment to performing top quality, code-compliant work installed in a professional manner makes training the next generation of talented plumbers much easier.” — Matthew Waller, vice president of operations, Dierolf Plumbing & Water Treatment.

Prindle’s thoughts: “I got started about eight years ago when my second son was born. My good friend got me the job doing water treatment, and I was off the books just trying it out. Now, here I am, I’ve been with the company about seven years.

“I like that it’s something new every day. You don’t walk into a house and see the same things because everyone has different tastes. And I love helping people by turning their water back on and seeing how grateful they are when it’s working again. I also have a great boss and work environment. It’s unique. It’s not everywhere that you find a boss that cares about your home life — I’ve never been treated so well. I hope more people join the industry. My advice is it will pay off eventually. You might not start out at the best rate, but it gets better. And eventually, we’re going to be very rare people in high demand.”