Who

Joe Phipps said he made $10 to $12 a week “if I was lucky” when he began working for his family’s business as a boy.
Jerry Larson / Waco Tribune-Herald

Joe Phipps, 71, owner and monument maker at Phipps Memorial. The business was opened in 1938 by his father Jim Phipps.

The monument company is one of the few in the region that builds monuments from scratch.

Fidelis Masonic Lodge 1127 of Waco presented Phipps with the Community Builder award for 2011.

First summer job

Phipps first worked in his family’s monument business doing various chores, like trimming grass and other necessary jobs.

He was expected to work because it was a family business and there were things that needed to be done, Phipps said. He later got to do work on monuments.

Age

Phipps started helping out his family at a very young age — long before his teen years.

“I’ve worked in the monument business forever,” Phipps said.

Pay

“I got paid $10-12 a week if I was lucky,” Phipps said. “When you work in a family business you get token money.”

Phipps described himself as a bit of a “miser” and saved most of the money he earned.

Loved

“I’ve enjoyed the monument business,” said Phipps. “We are one of the (few) who do a lot of personalizations.”

He said it is the personalizations that sets the business apart from others, especially in a time when most monument companies are struggling or disappearing.

Hated

“It got hot, especially working around granite, which gets hot in the heat,” Phipps said.

But, for the most part Phipps said he liked the work.

Lessons learned

“You have to work hard for a dollar, especially when working in a family business,” Phipps said. “When you’re used to working hard, you generally bring it through life. You learn to provide the best product.”

The hard work paid off when the business won the 1994 Monument Builders of the Southwest Design contest, which he says is the only one ever awarded to a memorial company in Waco.

Advice on summer jobs

“It’s hard at first,” Phipps said. “But if you keep doing it, keep your nose to the grindstone, it pays off.”

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