Carrying the Torch: Tim Leonhardt Expands the Family Construction Legacy

For Foreman Tim Leonhardt, construction isn't just a job—it's a family tradition. As a third-generation tradesman, he’s followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, dad and uncle, all of whom worked as heavy equipment operators.

But, unlike his relatives, Leonhardt began his construction career as a laborer. "Nobody was hiring apprentice operators in 2012," he recalls, "and Castle told me that if I wanted to become a laborer, they'd put me to work the next day…and they weren't lying."

During his first year on the job, Leonhardt continued to work as a dishwasher at a local restaurant in case a long-term career as a laborer wasn’t in the cards.

As it turned out, it was an ideal vocation for him.

"I'm a very hands-on person," he says, describing his love of sitework. "More than anything else, I like to chew on dirt and watch an entire jobsite change in a massive way from start to finish." 

There’s also a secondary bonus of getting to work alongside his dad, Richard Leonhardt, a long-time Castle operator. "I’ve worked with my dad for my entire 13-year construction career," he explains, estimating that they collaborate as crewmates on about 80% of his projects. 

Leonhardt spent the first few years of his Castle tenure working on a wide range of projects, including a facility expansion at a local electricity provider in Bourbon, Mo., a four-mile trail in Weldon Spring, Mo. and the renovation of Gateway Arch National Park on the downtown St. Louis riverfront. "I was one of the first two laborers who worked on the Gateway Arch grounds project," he says, noting that he also paved the way for his girlfriend at the time—now his wife—to work as a laborer on the project. "I got her signed up through the union hall as an apprentice. I ended up working on the north leg, and she was on the south leg, which was pretty cool." 

Hitting the Road

In 2016, Leonhardt started traveling to other parts of the U.S.—including Tennessee, Virginia and southern California—to work on a series of large-scale solar jobs. "I literally drove from coast to coast for Castle and got to see the whole country," he says.

During that period, he began to step into more of a foreman role in the field. "For the next three or four years, I bounced from job to job running small crews before I started running larger projects." 

His more recent projects have included an expansion of the Friendship Village senior living campus in Chesterfield, Mo., and Audere at Wildhorse Village, a new condominium community in Chesterfield. 

To date, Leonhardt’s most challenging job involved creek restoration and stabilization for the City of Brentwood after flash flooding created erosion problems along the banks of Black Creek, causing two miles of the adjacent Lee Wynn hiking trail to collapse. 

Because it wasn't viable for Castle to use a standard surface-level solution, the team devised an innovative approach that integrated the SCOURLOK engineered bank stabilization system and the Muscle Wall portable barrier system. "There were lots of hurdles to jump through and a big learning curve, but it was a fun project," he says.

Leonhardt and his family live in Robertsville, Mo., about 40 miles west of St. Louis. He and his wife, Chelsea, have two daughters: Sharlotte (8) and Skylar (6).