BRTC’s Outstanding Alumni 2022

Mike Rowe, Vaughn Ziolkowski, and Thomas Castelan at Crazy Horse monument for Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe

BRTC is proud to announce that alumnus and Tommy Castelan is BRTC’s Outstanding Alumni member for 2022.  Tommy is a graduate of Walnut Ridge High School and served in the United States in the armed forces.

Tommy earned technical certificates in welding and industrial electricity/electronics in 2015 and a technical certificate in machine tool technology in 2016.

In 2018, Tommy and his family, wife Kim and sons Cody and Seth, moved to South Dakota.  Today, Tommy works as a mountain carver on the Crazy Horse Memorial in Custer, South Dakota.  In his work, he and a partner use precision math and machining skills with laser levelers and massive drills with 6’ bits to drill holes.  Blasting material is inserted in the holes to cleanly blow apart mountain rock sections.  In early Spring 2022, Tommy was featured with his carving partner Vaughn Ziolkowski in the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe.

For more information about BRTC, visit https://blackrivertech.org.