Past President

Mark Etrheim, Mastercraft Homes, La Crosse, WI

Mark graduated from college in 1978 with a degree in political science, and intended to continue onto Law school. Since he was paying his own way through school, he decided to take a couple of years off to save enough money. He had a job offer from a company he had built a home with in Coon Valley and decided he would sell new homes for a couple of years. That was 29 years ago and he is still selling and building new homes to this day. He purchased the company from his employer in 1982, and changed the company from building a panelized home package to a stick built custom home in 1985. He met his wife Dorie on a blind date while she was living in California, proposed to her 30 days after they met, and married 30 days after that. It was a challenging time building a blended family with his two children, her son, and adding two more for houseful of five kids.

He and Dorie worked together at Mastercraft Homes, Inc. for 25 years building 25 to 30 new homes per year. She has now largely left the business and is happy teaching and volunteering. They have a number of other business interests including a rental business, commercial office space, land development, a corporate retreat facility and a couple of others. They are now in the stage of trying to wind down the business, but as is common, as soon as Mark get things under control, another major project beckons him right back. Mark is an admittedly mediocre golfer, plays basketball twice a week and loves to travel and see the world. He participates in two investment clubs and has always had an interest in finance. He is involved in the La Crosse Area Builders Association and served as WI State Builders Association President in 2007. Mark says he would change very little about his life other than he would have worked less and goofed off more!