In a community as active as Sun City, charter clubs thrive on the dedication of volunteers who quietly work behind the scenes to keep everything functioning properly. For the Sun City Woodchucks, the credit goes to the Jim & Jim team. Jim Vitte holds the wrenches, and Jim Jiran provides the logistics.
Vitte said, “When parts and supplies are needed, I tell Jim Jiran. He provides the backup with the goods. We are the finely balanced team that keeps the shop running smoothly.”
Whether they are tuning up heavy machinery, mentoring fellow artisans, sharing camaraderie, or lending their skills to neighboring clubs, both embody the true spirit of volunteerism.
While Jim Jiran manages the planning, Jim Vitte provides the master-level mechanical aptitude — a skill that didn’t happen by accident, but rather from a long-term passion.
“I’ve always been taking things apart just to see how they worked,” Vitte said. “I took apart a lawnmower when I was five years old. I guess it’s just in my DNA.”
That passion led to a 39-year career as an aircraft mechanic with United Airlines. After graduating from the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics in 1963, Vitte began his aviation career on January 21, 1964. While operating primarily out of the Chicago area, his expertise took him across the globe. Vitte’s work included foreign and partner carriers. He traveled worldwide as a top-tier technician performing complex maintenance. Later, he brought that wealth of knowledge back home to train and instruct fellow mechanics.
Despite his extensive mechanical background, Vitte didn’t initially have much experience in woodworking.
“The only experience I had working with wood was cut, split, and burn. That was my specialty,” Vitte joked. “But I worked with metal for decades, and it’s easy to convert the core basics from that process over to working with wood.”
When Vitte first joined the Woodchucks, he started out building a few projects of his own. Along the way, he discovered some familiar corporate kinship: “I found out that there were a few guys in the club who worked for United also.”
Before long, however, his instinct to fix things took over. Minor equipment issues caught his eye, and soon, the care and repair of the shop’s heavy machinery consumed all of his time. “It is self-gratifying to be able to fix these machines,” he said.
Vitte treats the workshop with a mechanic’s discipline. He arrives at the shop every day at 9:00 a.m., ready to inspect and address whatever needs attention. When a machine goes down, he approaches it like an investigator. “I need to find out who used it and what they were doing before it failed.”
Today, that lifetime of precision maintenance directly benefits the Woodchucks. A fellow Woodchuck, Donna Bordsen, notes, “His technical expertise is an important asset to the club. [Vitte] does all of the maintenance on all machinery in the woodshop, saving us a lot of money.”
Rich Escalier, another member of the club, said, “As one of the more experienced Woodchucks, I value what Jim Vitte brings to the shop. Whenever there is a problem or a question about hand tools, technique, or machinery, he is our first, and usually last, stop because he always has an answer. Woodchucks universally consider him our most valuable asset.”
Escalier added that Vitte is “our favorite member of a subgroup that we ‘lovingly’ call ‘The Sunshine Boys.'”
Fellow Woodchuck John Belue echoed that affectionate sentiment, stating, “We pick on him, but we appreciate him.”
Beyond maintaining the shop, Vitte also leads community projects, making important contributions across Sun City. Last summer, he teamed up with fellow Woodchuck Bob Duke to build a bridge for the outdoor display of the G-scale railroad. That project is immortalized by a photo hanging in the woodshop, affectionately dubbed “The troll under the bridge.” That troll is Vitte.
In a community founded on bonds and shared passions, residents like Vitte remind everyone what it means to build a better community, one project at a time. Thinking about his tireless devotion to the shop and his fellow members, Vitte keeps it simple, “It gives me a sense of worth.”
