Matt Hudgpeth

Mechanical skills run in Matt Hudgpeth’s family. “My dad was a mechanic, my grandfather was one, his dad was one, and my great grandfather owned a Ford dealership in Kermit, Texas,” he said. “That job is in my blood. I grew up around it.”

Hudgpeth’s father owned the shop next to the Brookshire Brothers in Dublin, and Hudgpeth started working alongside his father when he was just nine years old. So it came as no surprise to anyone in the Hudgpeth family when Matt graduated from Dublin High School in 2001, and immediately found a job as a diesel technician for a company in Stephenville that owned garbage trucks.

Hudgpeth stayed at the company for three years, mostly working nights, and then switched to another similar job at a company in Itasca. “After that I just kept following jobs,” he said. “Ultimately, I knew I didn’t want to work on garbage trucks my entire career.”

In 2005, he found a job he really enjoyed: doing mechanic work on semi trucks at a Texas-based company called Tutle & Tutle Trucking. The company transports lime, cement, frac sand, water and rock and other general commodities, and has five locations around the state. Hudgepeth started as a general technician, then took over the maintenance duties for the shop in Cleburne when the current manager retired.

A little over two years later, Hudgpeth took on responsibility for the entire maintenance program statewide, a position he still holds today. He is responsible for managing the maintenance of the company’s 380 trucks. “I’ve got five shops that I’m in control over now, and probably 10 to 15 technicians,” he said. “It’s a lot of work in the office over the phone, where when I started, it was a lot more physical labor.”

Hudgpeth enjoys that aspect of his job, and the management experience is helping him work toward his next business enterprise. “I watch Tutle & Tutle, how they’ve been successful at owning their own trucks and maintaining them,” he said. “Sometime down the road, I want to own a small fleet of my own.”

He’s well on the way to this goal already; Hudgpeth currently owns a few trucks which transport heavy equipment, following pipelines in the Dakotas. “Ideally I’d like to have 10-15 trucks, no more,” he said.

When he’s not working, Hudgpeth can often be found working on vehicles of his own. “I’m a total gearhead,” he said. “I’ve got an old car and a 1998 Trans-Am that I’m restoring right now. Either I’m working on [cars and trucks] to make money or I work on them for pleasure.”

Hudgepeth currently lives in Burleson with his daughter, Kearsy, 16, who attends Centennial High School. “Her mother and I divorced when she was one, so we just adjusted,” he said. He is currently working on building his own house out near Joshua, which should be done in February.

Hudgpeth’s greatest source of inspiration in his life has been his father, Eddie Ray Hudgpeth, who passed away in 2007. “My father was a very good person,” Hudgpeth said. “He worked hard for everything he had. He taught me that nothing comes for free and that you don’t use people. And if you’re going to be successful, it’s on you.”

Growing up in Dublin was an important formative experience for Hudgpeth. “Dublin is a great town,” he said. “It teaches how important being close knit with your family and friends is in life. Once you get outside their bubble, it can be difficult to find what you once had with all your friends in Dublin. That feeling is just something that’s always hovered over the town.”

His advice to Dublin graduates is to be thankful for Dublin while they’re still there. “Every time I go back and visit, it’s very humbling to see all of my old friends who still live there,” he said. “Enjoy it while you can -- if you get out, you’re going to miss it.”

Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other graduates, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.