Retirement, Reinvented
Former student-athlete serves his community in unconventional ways.
Retirement hasn’t slowed Joel Rovang, ’..87.
Five years after selling the utility pole inspection company he built from the ground up, his alarm is still set for 5:10 every morning. He’s usually awake before it rings.
“I live on a farm, and there’s always something to do," he said. “I’m just as busy as I’ve ever been. It’s different, though. I don’t have the stress. I don’t lay awake at night thinking about what could go wrong.”
Joel enrolled at UND to study aerospace sciences. Instead of aviation, however, he built a utility pole inspection business serving utilities across Minnesota and North Dakota. At its peak, the business employed 25 people.
“Sometimes things aren’t in a straight line,” Joel said.
Joel's daughter, Hope Rovang, his niece, Tuyet Vy Bui — a UND nursing student — and nephew, Ben Bui, all keep busy on the Rovang farm.
Relationships Matter
As a member of UND’s cross-country and track teams, Joel was surrounded by teammates and classmates who challenged him to become better.
“You get funneled into tight-knit groups, and those friends have made a difference in my life,” he said. “I realized how important relationships were. It was OK to ask for help and bounce things off other people.”
After graduation, Joel said it took a while to “get my act together,” but he kept measuring himself against those friends. “They were the bar I needed to raise up to.”
A Purposeful Retirement
When an opportunity to sell his company came along, Joel didn’t hesitate. Today, he has redirected his energy toward projects that benefit his hometown of Ashby, Minnesota.
He created a World War II memorial overlooking the Central Lakes Trail that honors local veterans and welcomes passing cyclists with a watering station.
He built The Rock, a recreation center with a fitness area and space for neighbors to gather over coffee or a game of pool.
On the farm, Rovang taps box elder trees for what he calls “low-grade maple-type syrup” and has planted apple, pear, and peach trees. His daughter, Hope, sells their Honeycrisp apples, while his wife, Tuyet, prepares and sells batches of more than 1,000 egg rolls at a time.
His latest project brings him back to work he knows well. He and his nephew are mapping area cemeteries and documenting gravestones using the same technology he used to map utility poles.
Though Joel hasn’t slowed down, his work now comes with the reward of giving back to the community he loves.
