FIND A CONTRACTOR BUYER'S GUIDE
BECOME AN INDUSTRY PARTNER
MCAA Logo
MEMBER LOGIN JOIN
NEWS
The 2026 MCAA Annual Online Auction ↗

Where Are They Now: James Lux

Words: Jason Aderholt
/Public/News/20100408081700-1.jpg" width="530" height="298" border="0" alt="James Lux credits his technical training for his current success.">
James Lux credits his technical training for his current success.

James Lux could easily be the “poster boy” for the value of technical training.

“James Lux will go down in the history of my class as the best, most motivated and determined student I have ever taught,” says Gary Siler, Lux’s masonry instructor at Harford Tech. “James gave me an excitement about teaching that has never left me. He was the type of student that you could show one time how to do something, then he practiced it and quickly mastered it.”

Lux has an equal respect for his teacher. “I learned 99 percent of what I needed to know for my first five years on-the-job from my masonry instructor at Harford Tech,” he says. “He has his graduates well prepared. If it weren’t for my technical training, I wouldn’t be where I am.”

Lux advanced to a regional contest at the end of his junior year. As a high school senior in 1995, Lux was the first of Siler’s students to advance to the national competition, at that time held in conjunction with the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA) National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City, where he placed fifth.

By the time he was competing in the regional contest during his senior year, Lux received three job offers from judges adjudicating the contest. He sought his instructor’s advice and signed-on with Whitehall Masonry, where he spent five years laying block and brick.

Working early, staying late, Lux was discovered on the job by Florida Rock Companies. FRC hired as a general contractor.

“I feel really lucky,” says Lux. “Most general contractors come from the carpentry trade. As carpenters, they work with more different trades than most. I was lucky, too, that FRC was willing to train me for that position.”

After another five years working for FRC, he was hired as a superintendent for Manekin Construction Co., a general contractor out of Columbia, Md.

The VP of construction at Manekin, Dan Sharpe, thinks highly of Lux. “James is a great employee,” he says. “He’s a knowledgeable and a hard worker. He gets along great with our subs and provides good customer service. We can always count on him.”

Lux says the future of construction is getting more technical. “When I started, it was still a lot of hammerin’, sawin’, runnin’ wire and slingin’ mud,” he says. “It’s much more than that now.”

Lux seems a long way from his masonry roots, but that is not so. “I lay block and brick whenever I can,” he says. “It must be in my blood.”

Lux currently serves as a craft committee member at his alma mater, Harford Technical School in Bel Air, Md.
 0
Helical Beaming: Your Top 6 Questions on Installation, Cost, and Limitations
March 2026

Although helical masonry beaming is still an underutilized and relatively unknown method in masonry repair and restoration, the number of questions and requests I get on this topic increases every week, which I view as promising. Helical masonry beaming i

Technical Talks
Read More
Wired for Safety: Electrical Maintenance for Fire Prevention
March 2026

Could your company survive if an electrical failure sparked a fire at your business? Electrical malfunctions cause thousands of non-residential building fires annually.1 Proactive maintenance and action are essential to help safeguard your operations.

Patrick Cunningham
MAP Partner
Read More
The Behind-the-Wall Secrets Every Mason Already Knows (But Some Ignore)
March 2026

You’ve been around long enough to know this already: stone doesn’t fail on the face; it fails behind the wall. You can lay the prettiest veneer in the county, but if the prep is junk, that wall’s gonna start telling on you after a couple of winters. Manu

Rob McKay
Technical Talks
Read More
From the Mound to the Mortar: Jon Rauch’s Tall Order in the Masonry Industry
March 2026

In the record books of Major League Baseball, Jon Rauch is a literal giant. At 6 feet, 11 inches, he remains the tallest player to ever step onto a Big League mound. But today, the Olympic Gold Medalist and 11-season MLB veteran isn’t looking for a strike

Robert Melgaard
Industry News
Read More