Hard works translates into successful business and happiness for Clyncke

Hard work is in Chris Clyncke’s blood.

The third generation of the Clyncke family to head up Clyncke Concrete, Chris grew up on a Boulder farm, where working hard wasn't just a part of life – it was his life.

While his friends were getting in shape at a gym to prepare for the fall football season, Chris spent his summers bailing hay and doing other farm-related work that made him as big and strong as his peers.

"You did that all the time because you had to; it wasn’t like you played all day," he says. "I kind of liked it. I was big (200 pounds in the 10th grade)."

Chris followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps in the concrete business, but he once dreamt of riding the professional rodeo circuit, even though he broke his wrist in 11 places when a bull threw him when he was just 11 years old. That experience didn’t deter him from the rodeo – which he continued to participate in on the weekends during the summer – anymore than more recent injuries have deterred him from working in concrete.

Except for a two-year stint at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, during which he realized college wasn’t for him, Chris’ career in concrete was cemented from the time he started working with his father at age 14.

"I thought I wanted to do other things, but I liked doing the concrete work," Chris says, adding he enjoys the physical labor and making life better for others. "I just had fun doing it, and I still do."

And, like bull riding, a career in concrete has presented its own share of threats to Chris’ health: he’s had four surgeries on one knee, broken three lumbar in his back and had his torso punctured by a rebar, which just missed his heart. This last spring, Chris had surgery to repair a shoulder he seriously injured when he slipped on ice and put his hands back to catch his fall while working a job.

But none of these incidents or health-care providers’ warning that he would never again do the things he loved – from concrete labor to waterskiing, snow skiing and bicycling – have deterred him from the life he’s chosen. He calls his injuries the "good, ol' fun stuff" that are just part of the path he’s following.

"It’s been a long, hard life but I’ve enjoyed it," Chris says.

It's a life that is not much different than what the previous Clyncke generations lived. Chris' family emigrated from Belgium to the United States around 1860, homesteading in Boulder in 1861.

"They were farmers from over there, and (my great-great-grandfather) actually brought over some Belgium horses from there and those were the first set of registered Belgium horses brought into the United States," Chris says.

Chris' grandfather, Poliete Clyncke began doing concrete work in the late 1920s, and he and his father built ditches as part of the first Boulder watershed project. Chris’ dad, Marvin Clyncke, took over the business from his father and remains a majority owner. However, Chris is president and makes all the decisions for the business as well as does labor, serves as secretary and performs any other tasks required of running the company.

While Clyncke Concrete provides the full range of concrete work, including simple overlays, rip out and replace, residential foundations, windows and stairwells, curb and gutter, sidewalks, patios and driveways, it specializes in decorative concrete and overlays.

"That’s where the fun is at," Chris says, noting he recently paved a driveway in a sunset rose concrete, but he also does decorative stamp work on decks, patios and front entryways.

Chris, married 23 years to another Boulder native, Debbie, relishes the hard labor involved with his choice of careers. But he has successfully discouraged his 22-year-old son, Jeremiah, from going into the physically demanding concrete business. Jeremiah will soon start his fifth year at the University of Northern Colorado, where he is pursuing a bachelor's degree in forensic anthropology investigation with a minor in sociology.

In December 2001, Clyncke received national press for a Christmas display that featured, among other things, the Twin Towers and the American flag in lights in his front yard to show that his nation was not defeated. It was only three months following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

But it’s not the patriotic statement he made that keeps Clyncke busier than his competitors these days, but the repeat and referred business from satisfied customers.

"Word of mouth is everything," he says. "If I’m going to do a job, I do it right. I do it not because I want to be rich; I just want to do a perfect job."

For more information about Clyncke Concrete, call (303) 901-9914 or see some of their work at here.