On this forum it is easy to see what we see and Carl focused on welding coupons vs building and it was a hobby/vocation at this point but what is missed from here is he was a really smart guy.
I asked him when I figured out he was so much smarter than the rest of us including an engineer or 2,,, I had to wonder, how come someone so smart spend so long at pile drivers? He said "it was so easy to float to the top when the rest of them were so stupid". He managed work that was huge, budget on a footer on some of the bridges in the millions, big millions too. Lot of money pouring in one spot.