Steve Prestipino embodied community

Kent Schoch

June 6, 2025

Event Date:

Thu, 06/05/2025 - 09:15 am

I met Steve Prestipino about 1990. We were both working for B&D Electric. He was clear then that he wanted to start his own business, either a pizza joint or an electrical business. He chose the electrical business and named it Apple Electric so he would be at the top in the yellow pages. It would have been a great name even without the yellow pages.

His company specialized in service work, which was perfect because Steve was always a person one could depend upon, one who would always show up. About five years after Steve started Apple, I started my own electrical business. Steve was one of the first to congratulate me and offer to help in any way he could, which he did numerous times over the years, whether in the form of advice, borrowing employees, borrowing equipment or serving customers we couldn’t get to. He was always there to answer a call and talk through whatever was on my mind.

His billboards up and down the highway became iconic, often tongue in cheek with himself standing earnestly erect staring into the camera, yet clearly aware of its comedic value, with his tool belt on and hard hat under his arm.

He gave joy to countless kids, including my own, with his Christmas light shows and accompanying music, as well as his Toys for Tots drives.

I have been in business in this community for 30 years now, and time continues to go by … Construction is a difficult business with a lot of hard physical labor and ever-increasing costs, not to mention damp, dank crawl spaces, suffocating attics and endless traffic between you and the supply house. Steve lived all of that every day yet still made it joyful for those lucky enough to be around him. He will be missed by many. Our community will miss him. I will miss him.

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