William James Baumbach II

need to add

Recent pictures

http://old.baumbach.com/History/RecentPictures.htm

Add story about private school, and being bord on the boat ride

Marriages

• Donna Lynn Winters two children William "Willie" James Baumbach III and Lisa Marie Baumbach, we married 11/02/1979

• Bridget Dian Gray DOD 02/14/2022. No children. we married 03/13/2006.

• Jessica "Jessie" Rene'e Camron. abt: 1991. we never married, had child Courtney Jean Clay

• Ana Milena Olivero-Marquez a.k.a.  Anny Olivero Baumbach married 01/24/2021.

I failed my Journeyman’s plumbers exam

I was raised in the plumbing business. While in the 3rd & 4th grades of elementary school I used to ride my bicycle after school down to my father’s plumbing business and go on service calls with some of the best plumbers in the nation.  

Starting at a very young age I learned from plumbing professionals that had been doing plumbing service work for 10, 20 or more years. One of the best was Nick Nicholson, he was the highest paid plumber in the nation at the time. So many of our repeat customers requested Nick when they called for service again, we got tired of handwriting his name, so we had a rubber stamp made with his name on it to stamp the service tickets. Nick went off on his own and started R R Nicholson Plumbing, Inc.

I learned from the best on how to act, what to do, and say for full customer satisfaction. I learned to service, troubleshoot and repair all types of plumbing.

By the age of 16 I had what it took to be an expert in customer satisfaction, service and repair of plumbing. One of my first plumbing jobs was to follow behind older more experienced plumbers troubleshooting and fixing their mistakes.

Some of the customers were surprised when they opened the door of their house and saw a young 16-year-old boy standing there. It was a little difficult to convince them I knew what I was doing. It would help if I told them that I was the owner’s son! But I do not remember ever having any issues or being asked to leave.

By the age of 18 I thought it was time for me to get what the better, smarter, expert, and more experienced plumbers had, and that was to take a Journeyman’s plumbers exam so that I had a piece of paper that said I was good and knew what I was doing. Being in the plumbing service & repair profession with many hundreds of satisfied repeat customers for many years, getting a lot of information from my father a Master plumber since 1928 and my sister world famous for being the first women Master plumber. I was doing better than most other plumbers that had been doing it for 10, 20 or more years. I was very confident the Journeyman’s plumbing exam would be a breeze for me! At my age one could not have had more of a proven experience or knowledge of the plumbing trade!

I decided to take the Journeyman’s exam in Manassas, VA. I walked into the room where most everyone there was twice my age. I was handed my exam and with complete confidence because I had the wisdom and knowledge of all the years of learning from the best of the best, opened it and started to answer the questions. I finished my exam much quicker than most, I turned the completed exam in.

The instructor said it would take a few weeks to get the exam results back but if I would like to pay an extra cost, he would grade the exam now. I paid the extra money; I stood there while he graded my exam.

The instructor exam looked at me and to my surprise told me sorry, YOU DID NOT PASS. I FAILED my journeymen’s exam! I did not believe him and asked him go over it with me right then and there. And sure enough, according to his answer paper I got a lot of the answers WRONG! I was in SHOCK to say the least!

As far as I am concerned, the moral of this story is that holding a journeymen’s card license might mean you are book-smart but does not mean that you any better at performing plumbing service and repair then the next guy.

From what I remember, the questions on the exam had nothing to do with what I was an expert at. It was more about new plumbing construction, which I knew little about.

p.s.

My first job my father had me do in his plumbing business was to service his large fleet of plumbing trucks, started with oils changes, but quickly moved on to replacing the brakes, transmission clutches, and even replacing engines. When I was not working on the trucks, I would ride with the plumbers, and HVAC guys, not too many of them wanted their boss’s son riding with them. So in no time at all, I had learned hands-on the Heating and Air Conditioning service trade too.

It was just a few years later, I took the more difficult State exams for both the Master Plumbers, and HVAC Class A contractor’s license. I passed both the first time!

I paid a retired Chief Fairfax County plumbing inspector who lived in Annandale Virginia to help me pass these exams, and guess what, several years earlier he worked for my father as a plumber, before he became an inspector. I was hoping he was just going to give me the answers, but he did not, he simply handed me a paper with questions, and a plumbing code book, and told me to return to his house next week with the answers, he was teaching me were to find the answer in the code book. It worked!

Some of the requirements to even take a Class A contractor’s license exam were that you have held a journeymen’s card for one year and have worked in the trade for ten (10) years, I had only been working in the trade a few years, and never held a journeymen’s card. A trip to Arlington County’s permit off, and the inspectors quickly signed off on the State application for me, even though I never had a journeymen’s card, or worked the required number of years, they did it because I was the son of W.J. Baumbach.   

I did not need it at this point, but a then took the much easier Class B Master Plumbers contractor’s license just so I could say I did it, because I filed the darn journeymen’s plumber’s exam. I also passed this exam the first time.

I started switching from automotive repairs, plumbing & HVAC, to the IT computer technology back in 1989. 

Created February 07, 1998. Edited September 16, 2023