Self-motivated Mason Learns Quickly

Words: Dan KamysYoung and ambitious, 19-year-old Bryce Cude of Ogden, Utah, is the Masonry Apprentice of the Month.

When he was just a high school junior and in his first year of masonry instruction at Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College, Cude tied for first place in the state masonry contest. As a senior, he won the contest outright. As a result, Cude represented Utah at the National Masonry Contest held last June in Kansas City, Mo., as part of the SkillsUSA National Championships.

Rick Brown, who has sponsored National Masonry Contest participants five of the past six years, has provided Cude with important, quality instruction in masonry.

These days, Cude is working as a brick and block layer for Wilcox Masonry. When he's not working, he's either fly tying or fly fishing.

Terminations: The Hardest Part of Leadership
May 2026

Throughout my career, I’ve faced a wide variety of challenges, some technical, some interpersonal, and many that forced me to adapt quickly. These days, most of my work is behind a computer in an office, but the lessons I’ve learned apply wherever I go.

The Compliance Shield: Navigating the New Standards of Field Oversight
May 2026

The modern job site is undergoing a quiet but significant transformation. While the physical act of laying a block remains the core of the trade, the environment surrounding that work is becoming increasingly data-driven. We are moving away from the era o

PROSOCO Breaks New Ground With ICC‑ES Listing For Blok‑Guard and Anti‑Graffiti Products
May 2026

After years of pushing to raise the bar on third‑party verification, PROSOCO has reached another industry milestone, this time for anti‑graffiti and surface protection technologies.

Elevating Masonry: Old Habits, Familiar Tools, and the Real Reason Masonry Contractors Aren’t Making the Switch
May 2026

Ask a masonry contractor how they run their jobsite, and the answer probably sounds familiar: paper logs, a flurry of texts, maybe a shared email thread. It works until it doesn’t. And yet, even as purpose-built field management software has become more a