Green-blue waves crashed against the rocks on a partly cloudy day last August. The white sails of a passing boat flapped in the wind. The wrecked Hetty Taylor schooner remained sunken beneath these Lake Michigan waters. 

And at the base of the Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse, Robert Devroy III cast his line. 

Fishing and hunting are two of Devroy’s favorite things about Wisconsin, where there’s “never a dull moment,” he said. He and his family highly value the outdoor recreation Wisconsin has to offer, whether dirt bike races or long days by the lake. 

Born and raised in Green Bay, Devroy, a Marine Corps veteran, works days as a maintenance technician at Salm Partners, a sausage and hot dog manufacturer in Denmark, Wis. He works occasional nights as a stagehand at Green Bay’s Epic Event Center, where he enjoys attending concerts. That explained the Eric Church T-shirt he sported while waiting for a gullible walleye or muskie to take his bait.

His other job is at home, parenting two daughters and two sons. He’s also attending a technical college. But Devroy’s life hasn’t always been so balanced.

As the Edgewater Generating Station’s smokestacks reflected in his blue sunglasses, he spoke about how “some really hard times” shaped who he is today. That included spending five years in prison for “something stupid.”

“I knew I needed to change, to not continue to go down that path and continue to hurt the people that were around me and that I loved,” Devroy said. “My wife is a big key in where I’m at today, to drive me to be the man that I want to be.” 

She was always there when he left prison, and he realized he needed to do more to take care of his young family.

“If I would’ve continued going down that path that I was living in, that would have never happened,” Devroy said. “I would have been in and out of prison and not going anywhere, not being a successful person in our society.”

But now? “The sky’s the limit,” Devroy said.

Devroy said he’s proud of his career — working on with electrical and mechanical issues, which he entered after embarking on a non-traditional journey. 

He didn’t initially graduate from high school but ultimately gained his high school equivalency degree. Devroy is now in his third year of a maintenance technician program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, which includes apprenticeship opportunities. After working on industrial equipment much of his life, he said the program helped him grow into his current position as maintenance supervisor at Salm, where he has worked for a decade. 

“There’s a new challenge every day,” he said. “This path I’ve chosen, it’s endless.” 

Balancing school with two jobs and family duties isn’t always easy, but he’s excited to contemplate his future. Perhaps he’ll even pursue a master’s degree as a journeyman maintenance technician, he said. But for the moment, he was focused on hooking “anything that wants to eat a worm.” 

“When I find time to myself, this is what I do right here,” Devroy said, gazing out at the lake. “Listen to music and enjoy Mother Nature.”

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Robert Devroy III discovers fulfillment in work and family is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.