"Born to Build" with Ellie Kasparie

Ellie Kasparie’s father was not the type to tell his kids to stay away from his tools.

He’d bring Ellie and her four siblings to his family-owned construction company on many Saturdays while they were growing up and let them explore.

“We would play around with all the stuff, and I was especially drawn to one particular wall that had screw containers hanging on it. We would take trips in the dump truck, and we thought that was so fun,” she says.

Ellie’s dad and his brothers currently run Kasparie Construction based in Quincy. Her great-grandfather was the one who set those wheels in motion, working as a painter and wallpaperer.

Then Ellie’s grandfather started a construction firm called Kasparie & Sullivan in the late 1940s. He ended up buying out his business partner, changing the business to Kasparie & Sons in the 1970s before it evolved to its current name in the 80s.

Growing up deeply rooted in construction, Ellie not only developed a personal interest in fixing things, but also now works in construction herself – as O’Shea’s marketing coordinator.

Ellie attended Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and received her bachelor’s degree in marketing. Employment in the construction industry post-graduation was actually a happy accident.

While in college, Ellie was a resident assistant alongside the daughter of O’Shea marketing director Bridget Ingebrigtsen. Through that friendship, Ellie learned that O’Shea was hiring for a marketing internship.

“She told me her mom was looking for an intern, and she didn’t even know I had a background in construction,” Ellie says.

Now full-time, Ellie enjoys planning corporate events, coming up with fresh ideas for O’Shea marketing initiatives and working closely with clients to help promote their projects. 

“I couldn’t ask for a better company to work for,” she says. “You learn a lot in college but don’t always know how to apply it, and O’Shea has been helpful in how to apply that in the real world. Everyone is willing to help each other, and we have a good time together.”

Ellie remembers always being curious about what her dad was working on as a kid, and even today, she still enjoys helping him around the house. Most recently, she assisted him in replacing a part for her sink. Still, she thinks he was surprised she ended up in a construction-related career.

“Out of all my siblings, my dad wouldn’t have expected me to be the one to get into construction, but I couldn’t be happier at O’Shea,” she says.