RICK RASMUSSEN, OWNER/PRESIDENT
My earliest hero was New Zealand race car driving great, Bruce McLaren. I will never forget the first time I saw him racing around that track, in his bright orange #4 M8A, dominating the CanAm race, like he proceeded to do most of his career. My father shared my enthusiasm for cars, and was also very mechanical. He allowed me to buy my first car when I was only 14-years old. That 1930 Chevy was my first of many cars, providing me a venue, early in life, to learn how to take things apart and reassemble them better and stronger.
After I graduated from high school, I went to work as an iron-worker, welding, fabricating and building large filtration tanks for industrial applications, exhausters and blowers, used to protect workers from exposure to toxic chemicals and fumes.
With five years of mechanical and industrial experience behind me, and a growing passion for automobiles and motorcycles, I started my first business when I was 19-years-old. I made custom interiors for cars and motorcycles, and within a short time had built a solid reputation for myself in the automobile industry, and was invited to join a local race team. For the next six years, I traveled all over the world, and had the amazing and unique opportunity to build some of the top performing race cars for the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). During my career, I built between 20 and 30 cars of various makes and models, including many different race cars. I had the privilege of working with racing greats like Al Unser Sr., Paul Newman and Elliott Forbes-Robinson.
In 1976, IMSA racing went through many changes and the company I worked with changed directions also, moving back into industrial production. Once again I was led to branch out on my own, with the same burning desire to design and build prototypes, not only for the automobile industry, but all industries including technology, aerospace, medical, hydraulics and electronics, anyone that needed quality precision-made metal parts and equipment in the United States. I started Dynamic Precision Products, Inc. along with my brother, Mark, in 1978, and although I must admit the job shop became a hungry animal that required almost all of my time and energy, demanding to be fed 24-hours-a-day, by 7-days-a-week, I am also pleasantly surprised at all we have accomplished during these past 34 years.
After surviving this last recession, I have begun to revisit my dreams, and am once again designing new prototypes, exploring new product lines, and working diligently to find solutions for the many unsolved problems in our country. Like my childhood hero and favorite race car driver, Bruce McLaren, once said, “To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better, cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone.”
MARK RASMUSSEN, OWNER/VICE PRESIDENT
At 18 years of age, I got my first job as a crane operator, and from that moment forward, I knew I was home in that operator seat. Like my father and older brother, Rick, I have always been mechanically inclined, but what I didn’t know until I stepped into my first crane cab was that I was born a leader. Instinctively I could gage weight tolerance, distance, absolute safety and success for building the tallest buildings and safest structures, faster and more efficient than even those who had been in heavy equipment operation and the construction industry for many years. It’s quite something to find your passion right out of the gates, operating cranes, moving loads beyond the normal capacity of a human being. Simply put, it is what I was born to do.
I have been a crane operator for 40 years, and have loved every single second of my job. I’m the guy that ran the biggest piece of equipment on the job, and loved that responsibility, knowing the other tradesmen on the job trusted me with their lives. I’ve operated every crane from truck-mounted, side-lift, rough-terrain, self-erecting, telescopic, level-luffing, loader, jib, gantry, bulk-handling, overhead, to, my personal favorite, the magnanimous tower crane. I set the steel and helped build Soldier Field Stadium, and many high-rise buildings in downtown Chicago.
I moved to Colorado for three years, and continued to master my trade, erecting buildings and structures, and of course, racing down black diamond trails on my free time. When I moved back to IL in 1978, my brother, Rick, had just left the racing arena, and proposed we partner together and start our own business. I knew Rick was incredibly talented, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t build and build better than the average Joe, so I invested in him and Dynamic Precision Products, Inc.
Throughout the last 42 years, as Rick and I have built our business, I have continued my crane operation in the field, spending time in our business when and where I am needed. While CNC machine operation pales in comparison to tower crane operation, I often jump in on large production jobs, and being incredibly versed in mechanical operations, I handle the maintenance and repairs on all our equipment, allowing us to get the best return on our investment, so our prices stay affordable for our customers.
I’ve been married 25 years, with one beautiful daughter, a black lab named Shadow, and my baby, a Heritage Harley. While we have certainly been through tough times in our business, surviving almost four decades through some of the toughest economic terrain, I never once considered walking away, because I believe in my brother, myself, our team, and the solutions we provide.