Jack Makdad ’85 is a successful businessman who assumed leadership of a small refrigeration, heating, and cooling supply business and helped build it into a regional success story, but the Altoona executive’s true talent may be most evident in building relationships. Let’s start with his family. Jack is the only son with three sisters, all of whom are very close. Jack’s mother, Marian Makdad Love, was strong enough to take over Makdad Supply in 1972, when her husband died unexpectedly. Mrs. Makdad kept the business going for the better part of two decades. Then there are Jack and Carolyn Sparks, two longtime educators in Jack Makdad’s hometown of Altoona, who stepped in as an extra set of parents, friends, and mentors to Jack and the rest of the Makdad family. Jack Sparks, who taught biology at Altoona Area High School and served as coach for various sports at the Penn State Altoona campus, made sure the young boy was always involved in sports and outdoor activities, and even made young Jack part of the staff at the camp held every summer at the Sparks’ family farm in Bedford County. Carolyn Sparks, who taught in the Altoona and Bedford school districts, made sure the Makdads were all involved in camp activities and family get-togethers. “The Sparks have been in my life forever and they
continue to be part of our family as friends, surrogate grandparents to our kids, and as an influence on my life,” Jack says. When it came time to pick a college, Jack knew of Juniata mainly through his experience attending campus basketball camps held by Pennsylvania coaching legend Press Maravich. Luckily Jack’s older sister Bonita ’77 and the Sparks’ son, Scott, had gone to the College, so the fledgling college student had a built-in familiarity awaiting his arrival in Huntingdon. “I wasn’t a great student at first,” Jack says. “If it wasn’t for Jim Lakso, Ron Cherry, and Sue Esch ’68 mentoring me, I don’t know what would have happened. I left Juniata with a lot more confidence.” In addition to a group of dedicated mentors, Jack also found his wife, Marie ’84. By the time Jack graduated in 1985, the couple had bonded with six other couples on campus, all of whom remain friends to this day. This mini-community of ’80s-era Juniatians often visit each other and vacation together. With his personal life falling into place, the business POE had to find a career. Unfortunately, his grades were not eye-opening for corporate recruiters. He had an interview on campus for a sales position at RalstonPurina and couldn’t visualize himself in sales. He made a
2016 Fall-Winter |
PHOTOS (LEFT): GORDON DIMMIG ’17; (RIGHT) J.D. CAVRICH
Altoona executive Jack Makdad ’85 says Ju niata focused him on his studies in a way that give him purpose and resolv e to pursue what intere sted him. After graduati on, the business POE de cided to enter the U.S. Na vy as an officer, where he was a helicopter pil ot for almost a decade. At lef t, he returned to his alm a mater last year as a Glaese r Executive in Residen ce, where he interacte d with business students.
63