Jody's Early Life

Jody was born in Bakersfi eld, California, in 1949 and was raised on a cotton farm near Shafter. While in grade school, he learned to work in the fields alongside Mexican farmworkers, hoeing weeds, irrigating, driving tractors, and picking cotton by hand.

Education and Work

During high school, he attended a boarding school named Ozark Academy in Gentry, Arkansas, from 1963 to 1967. While there, he worked twenty hours a week at a cabinet shop, earning enough money to pay his own tuition. At Bakersfi eld Junior College, he earned an AA degree in horticulture (plant science) while working part-time at a cabinet shop.

Family and Business

While raising a family of four children at the age of twenty-four, he started his own cabinet shop in Atascadero, California, building custom cabinets all over San Luis Obispo County. At twenty-five, he got his general contractor's license, sold the cabinet shop, and began building new homes and contracting finish carpentry.

Career in Construction and Public Service

In 1980, he moved back to Bakersfi eld to work for ten years as a Building Inspector and Code Enforcement Officer in Kern County at Bakersfi eld, Taft, and California City. He trained his three sons in construction and helped send his daughter to San Diego State University.

Later Life

After serving a term on the 2010 Madera County Grand Jury, he is now a single retired grandfather of four, living in Oakhurst, California, near Yosemite National Park.