A La Porte County Life in The Spotlight: Tucker Blank

For his entire life, Tucker Blank has eaten, breathed, and slept construction – and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

It really did start from the beginning, as Blank comes from the family behind Tonn and Blank Construction LLC, based in Michigan City, where he grew up. Although before moving to Michigan City, he was born in Bloomington, Indiana. Despite being the famous home of Indiana University, Blank ultimately ended up attending Purdue University.

While in college, he received his industrial engineering degree and a general Master of Business Administration. Afterwards, he moved back to Michigan City to work on construction jobs in the area and around Mishawaka.

“I’ve always been good at construction. I built my own house. That was about 15 years ago, so I understood all the processes. I understand how to get things, how things fit together, and construction has always been my strong point,” Blank said.

For a while, it was difficult to settle into one community as he was working all around Northwest Indiana. His love for his career made it so that it seldom felt like work. He was happy to work alongside and help so many people.

As his kids grew, he found himself with more free time to fill, and that’s when he decided to work with Habitat for Humanity of LaPorte County.

“They were doing a rebuild of their business model and needed more power to process improvements and get a lot of things done, and I’ve spent most of my education and career doing that,” Blank said. “I thought it would be a good fit for my talents to help them out. I started doing that and never turned back.”

When he joined, they all had a very specific goal in mind: increase the number of houses they built a year from one to five. Given his expertise, he thought it would be a very fulfilling experience, and he was right.

Throughout his five years there, he flip-flopped from vice president to president, using his knowledge as best as he saw fit. On top of that, he became the director of quality and technical support at NRP Jones. While tackling two roles might seem difficult, Blank loves to use his skills however he can.

“For most of my professional career, I’ve been on the management side – trying to make it better, and trying to build a better organization,” Blank said. “I’m just leveraging all the stuff that I’ve learned through my professional career into this venture I’m going on.”

This year, they are on track to finish three houses and hope to soon reach their goal of five.

“The houses that we’re doing now, there’s some great families that are going to benefit from them. With Habitat for Humanity being the mortgage holder, we get to help them through things, and if you miss a payment, we’re there to help them through,” Blank said.

Blank loves to keep busy. Even outside of his professional life, he likes to get involved with personal construction projects. He also loves to boat and golf when he needs to unwind.

All in all, it’s been a very rewarding time for him. He knows how crazy the housing market has been and loves to help the families of his communities.

“I just like to help things, and I want to see this great organization get better and be able to help more people. That’s rewarding in itself. I’ve really kind of sat back to see what I am getting from it. I don’t ask for anything back from it, but I am getting a reward for being able to meet the families and be in their lives because we’re building this house for them,” Blank said.

Despite Habitat for Humanity being a well-known organization, he still wants to spread the word even more.

“We’re trying to reach out to more people within the community. We’re making great strides, and now we’re teaming up with the healthcare foundation. They’re backing us on some of these bigger ventures that we’re going to be bigger and be able to reach more people,” Blank said.

As busy as life may seem, he is beyond grateful for how things have turned out.

“At the end of the day, you just sit down and go, ‘Hey, this was a good day.’ We accomplished a lot. It’s added a lot of value to my life,” Blank said.