Father-daughter ironworker duo plays a big role in restoring Michigan Central Station

Rob Younk didn't necessarily have any ulterior motives when he started taking his daughter to different job sites when she was a toddler.

Tiffany Younk though, dressed in a miniature welding jacket made by her mom and embroidered with her name, loved traveling to different projects with her dad, an ironworker, and wanted to grow up one day and do exactly what he did.

She even got a mini Playmate lunchbox to take to kindergarten, a smaller replica of the exact lunchbox her dad took to work every day.

As Tiffany grew up, though, she considered and pursued other careers. After following a winding path for a few years, she ultimately ended up right back in the career she thought she wanted as a little kid: ironworking.

About a quarter century after she first went to a job site, Tiffany, 29, now works alongside her dad for up to 12 hours a day on an iconic, massive project: the restoration of Michigan Central Station, once a symbol of ruin, that will soon be home to an event space, shops and a hotel when it opens in mid-2024.

Rob, 65, and Tiffany are two of the more than 3,000 workers who have been involved in the renovation of the station, all of whom have worked for a total of 1.7 million hours thus far on renovating the station and the public spaces being built around it.

The work they've done on the building for the last three years is meaningful in several ways, as it's likely the final project Rob and Tiffany will work on together as Rob plans to retire in February.

"It's my turn to turn over what I know," Rob said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press in December.

Journey back to a childhood dream

Rob Younk grew up on a farm in Harrisville, a city in northern Michigan on Lake Huron. One of seven children, Rob worked on the farm, taking a night class in farm equipment repair at a community college while he was in high school — his first experience in welding.

When he was 24, his dad died and Rob traveled the country and drove a truck for a few years, settling outside Seattle, where Tiffany was later born.

Soon after, they moved back to Harrisville and Rob started taking Tiffany to work sites because his schedule wouldn't offer him the chance to see her much otherwise, never once thinking she'd want to be an ironworker.

When Tiffany graduated high school from Alcona Community Schools, she went to Northern Michigan University in Marquette and pursued graphic design, and after realizing that wasn't for her, nursing. She felt, though, that the pay wouldn't be great, and decided to revisit the career she had once wanted as a child.

"I was like, 'Well, I liked doing it when I was little,' " Tiffany said." 'I’ve always kind of wanted to do it. So I’m going to try it and if I don’t like it, I can do something else.' "

When she was 24, she transferred to Alpena Community College, graduating with honors with an associate's degree in general science. She also took classes in welding, at the request of her father, who took a similar course more than 40 years ago.

While Rob said it's not unusual for him to see father and son ironworkers out in the field, it's rare for daughters to follow in their fathers' footsteps in this industry.

Overall, there are few women ironworkers. Fewer than 5% of ironworkers in the U.S. are women, according to recent estimates from the job search website Zippia.

It's a fact that's not lost on her father, having seen firsthand the reluctance of former colleagues to working with female ironworkers.

Dad's lasting legacy

Rob knew Tiffany could do whatever she put her mind to, and after she graduated, he took her under his wing, asking his union to sponsor her so that she could start working immediately before going through an apprenticeship program. He had been contemplating retirement but put those plans aside so he could work with his daughter.

They worked a small job together but when Rob got the call in December 2020 that there was a job for him at Michigan Central Station, he made sure Tiffany came along with him, knowing this was his chance to pass along his knowledge to her, both the knowledge gained from on-the-job learning and to not allow anyone to belittle her or put her aside, Rob said.

Michigan Central Station is iconic, Rob said, and it's unique for an ironworker because it's not something that's constantly worked on, like bridges, for example.

The station, which opened in 1913, sat empty for more than 30 years until Ford Motor Co. bought it in 2018. The renovation of the station is one component of Ford's four-building, 30-acre campus in Corktown to create an "inclusive, vibrant and walkable innovation district."

Rob and Tiffany most recently worked on the carriage house at Michigan Central Station, on the west side of the building.

"The craftsmanship that went into the carriage house, especially, and the pride they all put into it. ... There are only two crews that ever worked on it," Rob said. "The people that put it up and us that remodeled it and saved it."

He said the state of the building was way worse than anyone could have imagined, and deadlines for completion of the work kept getting missed because of how complicated the work was. Nothing could be damaged, for example, and components might need to be replaced that he couldn't even see until the work started.

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But Rob is happy to do it.

He said this kind of work is like art, and, at the same time he's meticulously building and restoring trusses, he's also passing along all his knowledge to his daughter.

As the renovation of the carriage house wraps up, Rob's retirement date is fast approaching. He plans to take some time for himself, travel more, including attending Tiffany's wedding in Colorado in August, and then go back to work. Probably.

"You don't run as hard as I have for 60 years and then stop," he said. "That’s when you die."

Rob and Tiffany Younk won't miss the freezing cold days on the job together, when everyone "gets cross with each other but nobody really says anything," as Rob describes it, but they both said they will miss seeing each other every day.

"Having a daughter work with you, it’s a blessing," he said.

Contact Adrienne Roberts: amroberts@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Father-daughter ironworkers help to transform Michigan Central Station