John Hemmerly lives with his wife Pam in Pickerington, Ohio.  He has two grown children: Brad, a collegiate rowing coach, and Sarah, a math and science teacher.  John graduated from The Ohio State University (BS ’74, MA’84 in Industrial Technology Education) and recently retired after 35-years of teaching industrial technology, construction, and manufacturing.  He remains self-employed with 40-years experience in fabrication, building construction, automotive, and construction equipment repair.  After completing a mission trip to Haiti in 2003, John was invited by a co-worker to participate with the first group to travel to Luperon, Dominican Republic in 2004 and has made numerous additional trips since.  He has written and continues to revise the Construction Guide to blend American and Dominican building methods.