According to Tyrone Distinguished Alumni award winner Jeff Long, when he was in high school he wasn’t a front runner to be voted “most likely to succeed.”

“If someone told people that knew my high school self that I would win something like this, they would’ve been like ‘Ha ha, yeah…Jeff’,” said Long.

But thanks to a great deal of hard work, determination and some good old-fashioned luck, Long has become one of the most successful builders and developers in Central Pennsylvania.

¨I didn’t like high school all that much. I mean, I was kind of a loner. I really didn’t have any friends and barely graduated high school, to tell you the truth. I actually had to go to summer school a couple of weeks to pass into the next grade. So, you know, I was just glad high school was over. I’m not one to lie, I did not have fun in high school. It was a struggle for me to learn anything, I knew I wasn’t college material when I was in high school.”

After graduating in 1976, Long initially had no idea what he was going to do with his life. He worked on his family´s farm for the next five years and saved every penny.

“I was a lost kid when I graduated. I assumed I was going to farm, but deep down I knew there was no money in it and my dad couldn’t pay me anything. I had six other brothers who the majority wanted to farm but there wasn’t enough money for us all to stay, so I ended up leaving.  I didn’t go to college or trade school and never worked for another contractor. I basically started building on my own.  When you grow up on a farm, you learn how to do a bunch of things,” said Long.

“[I used those pennies] to build my first house, and instead of living in it I rented it out and I got a loan against it to build another house, and that’s how I got started,” Long said.

In 1980, Jeff began constructing residential homes and built five major subdivisions.

Thirty-seven years later, Long has built three homes with personal care called Colonial Courtyard and owns and operates fourteen Graystone Court and Graystone Court Villa 55+ independent living complexes across various counties in Pennsylvania.

“It took a lot of hard work and I had to take a lot of chances. You have to be willing to risk everything that you have to pursue something you believe in,” said Long, “There were many times that I would start a job, and if it went the wrong way it could have derailed my career. You risk everything that you have to do a project, and if it fails it means the end of your business.”

Long is currently transforming the former Bon Secour (commonly known as Mercy) Hospital in Altoona into another Graystone themed as an Italian villa. It will be called Graystone Grande Palazzo.

“The Bon Secour job is coming, it is a project I am risking a lot on.  It’s massive, it’s a three-year construction project.  I believe it is going to be very successful and a pretty amazing style building when it is done.  There are going to be about 110 apartments in the space and we already have 44 of them rented out. I think it will be my most successful project yet,” said Long.

Long inspires students to take the same path that he took. “It’s not impossible to duplicate what I did If you’re willing to work hard and put in the hours,” said Long.

Long and his wife Vicki have two daughters, Emily and Amy. He is on the Tyrone Chamber of Commerce and Tyrone Area School District´s advisory board. Long also supports many local charitable and nonprofit organizations. In the past, he has been a board member serving the Northern Blair Recreational Center and Blair County Builder’s Association. Long has had a hand in the restaurant business, construction of a medical center, Tyrone Public Library, the Tyrone Hotel Park, and renovated the Tyrone Armory.

Today Jeff Long is highly experienced and successful, but looking back to his high school days he would tell himself “[to] hang in there, it’s going to get better.”

Sometimes it’s not the valedictorian or the one voted “most likely to succeed” in high school that ends up doing great things.  As for Long, being named a Distinguished Alumni was a big surprise.

¨I never saw that coming. When my daughter Emily graduated, I looked up at that plaques on the wall and thought that would never be me. I was the most unlikely person to receive this award when you look at all of the people that have graduated from Tyrone,” said Long.