The oldest of the three Pitts brothers, Geoff was born a long time ago, attended local public schools and then entered the University of Virginia in the fall of 1967. He married Judi in 1971 and was a Team Coordinator at Arlington House Psychiatric Hospital when they opened their doors in 1972. He remained there for four years and then started a one-man contracting business in July, 1976 working under the name “Ace Contracting.” The rest is history.
After many years in the field he gradually began spending more and more time in the office doing most of the estimating, billing, PR, fire extinguishing and related administrative tasks. He & Judi live in northern Albemarle County in a home they designed featuring heart pine cabinetry, exposed posts & beams and lots of stone. They have 3 children and 3 truly remarkable grandsons. (Geoff and Judi’s son, Josh, works for Ace part time in the Office.)
JohnJohn was born in 1952 and unfortunately looks more like Geoff every day. At Albemarle High he was a standout in track and basketball. He then attended East Carolina University where he earned a degree in Psychology and set the school high jump record. During his summers there he worked as a carpenter, eventually starting his own business as a framing sub contractor. He returned to Charlottesville in 1980 where he joined forces with his brothers and they changed Ace from a sole proprietorship to a corporation. His wife, Myriam, and their two daughters have a beautiful home dramatically perched on Piney Mountain just north of the Airport.
Jim (sometimes known as “the milkman’s son”) was born in 1956. He met Pat, his future wife, in grade school and remained her most faithful suitor until she relented and married him some years later. Jim was Ace’s first employee even while pursuing his academic career at Virginia Tech. Under Geoff’s mentorship, he became one of Ace’s most capable carpenters and anglers. Like John, he is a field supervisor who is given prime responsibility for one or more projects which he oversees including lining up sub contractors, scheduling, meeting with Owner and/or Architect, etc. He and Pat have two sons who will hopefully become surgeons and not take over the family business.
We hired Tim Painter in the spring of 1989 and it was a lucky day for us. Over the years his skills, his attention to detail, his drive to “get it right” and his conscientiousness made him the natural person for us to give more and more responsibility and authority. His deeply felt moral sense dovetailed with our personal and business ethos and in January of 2010 (after only two decades of preparation) we welcomed him as a full partner in Ace Contracting, Inc. He and his wife, Karen, live way up on the side of Naked Mountain in Lovingston where they and their dogs coexist with an apparently endless supply of rattlesnakes.
While perhaps not technically a brother, no mention of the Ace bureaucracy would be complete without including Judi. Sometimes known as “the power behind the throne”, she has been Ace’s bookkeeper/office manager since long before there was an office to manage. Every day she has to put up with a “boss” who is an obtuse tyrant and who, among many other serious crimes, always has the office thermostat set either too high or too low. She tries to keep Ace on an even keel despite her husband and brothers-in-law.
