Q: Tell us what you do?
A: “I own my own company, DeTar Construction Incorporated. We build Sedona’s finest premier homes and have been for over 42 years. I started my building career in Cottonwood predominantly, but after just a few years I realized that Cottonwood’s market is all about price and not about quality. I’m not that person.  I’m all about quality. So, I gravitated to the Sedona market and we’ve made ourselves a pretty good footprint here over the years.

Q: In Sedona, is there any specific area where you tend to build more homes, or is it just who knocks on the door?
A: It’s pretty much who knocks on the door. A lot of our homes are not in Sedona proper. They’re in the surrounding areas, Seven Canyons, Enchantment, North Slopes, Lower Loop Road — where there are larger estate-size properties available, and within the city limits. That’s where most of our homes are. We do work in the city a little bit, but not a great deal. We’ve done some in the Palisades and some in Jordan Park.

Q: What brought you to Sedona?
A: I live in Cottonwood. I moved to Cornville from Detroit in 1973. I’ve been here for almost 50 years now. 49 plus graduated from high school in Cottonwood, in 1975. Took me a long time to get my two-year degree from Yavapai College, but I finally did that by going to night classes while I was being a contractor. My mom divorced my father in 1972 and brought all four of us kids out here, and I’ve been here ever since. I’ve married and been lucky to marry three Arizona native ladies, all of which I’m wonderful friends with still. My current wife of 25 years is finally the right one. I have a wonderful son from each of my first two marriages, so I have no complaints whatsoever.

Q: Who’s the most interesting person you’ve met in the Verde Valley?
A: “Just left her house a few minutes ago. It has to be Terry Frankel. She is such a sweet-hearted person. If she is your friend, she is your biggest fan. She is just absolutely a wonderful person. I love her to death. The second would have to be Pat Schweiss. He is such a dynamic ball of fire that you can’t say “no” to the man, even though he asked for an impossible feat. You just can’t tell him, No. The building we just built for him, the new theater. I told him that I couldn’t get it done in that timeframe, Pat said “Oh, you will.” Well, you know what we did. He’s a cheerleader and every sense of the imagination.

Q: Who is one person you’d like to have lunch with?
A: Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt had a vision for not only the Southwest but all of the United States for the national parks that he established. “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” I love that quote. He’s just a tremendous figure. I actually have a bronze of him in my house.

Q: What one piece of advice changed your life?
A:  I was just talking to my son about this. It was a piece of advice that my father gave me when he pinned my Eagle Scout award on my chest. He told me that whether it’s a campsite or someone’s life, or just a place that you’re at, make it better. Make it better for you being there for the fact that you were a part of it. Make it better. And if you can’t do that, then you have no reason to be. I’ve lived my life that way. I’ve coached hundreds of children in youth sports and high school sports, and I’ve always tried to touch their life in a positive way and give them something to take away other than just skills. Something that improves them from inside. I’m wholly vested in this community.

Q: When you have friends visit you from out of town, where do you take them?
A: “Mostly to Jerome. Sedona’s a beautiful town, but it’s just entirely too many tourists. People can wander through it at their own leisure, on their own but I think Jerome is so historical. I played there when I was a kid. We used to run around in all the old abandoned buildings when I moved here before anybody got worried about that kind of thing. We always like to take people up to Jerome, show them the history of the old mine, take them to the old Douglas mansion and the Mine Museum.

Q: How would your closest friend describe you?
A: Ambitious! I prefer to call myself confident and I’m a take-charge person. They all know that. Anything I get involved in, I rise near the top because I don’t take direction very well.

Q: What’s something interesting about you that most people don’t know?
A: “My favorite pastime, aside from seeing new places with my wife, hand-in-hand, I love to scuba dive. I started diving about 12 years ago. It’s another world that people don’t even realize exists.

Q: Any interesting places you’ve gone to?
A: I went to Cayman Brac, which is part of the Cayman Island chain early this year to dive. I’m going to the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Caribbean islands. I haven’t been to any of them twice, but I’ve been to a lot of them on diving trips. I think it’s just magical. The beaches and the ocean and the reefs, and even the shipwrecks.

Q: Three words that come to mind when you think of the word home.
A: “Peaceful, security and love. My wife, she’s a special person. I was a single man when I met her with no intention of ever getting married again. It wasn’t two months after I met her that I proposed. I looked back and I realized that the first time she looked at me with her beautiful blue eyes, I was done. It took me two months to realize it, but it happened a lot quicker than that. My first wife still lives in Clarkdale, her husband works with me every now and then. My second wife still lives in the Village of Oak Creek. She’s a property manager.  My current wife was here for many years before I met her, but she’s mine now.

Q: Anything I haven’t asked you that you’d like somebody to know about you?
A: “I’m a philanthropist at heart. I think it’s part of what my dad told me about making things better. I’ve served in a number of different capacities here. I was a president of Sedona 30 for a year, and a member for three. A member of the Sedona Community Foundation for four years as their head of fundraising. I’ve been on the library board for seven years. I was the president of the board for four. Now I’m doing Pro Bono work, for the library as a project manager for some of their projects that they’re doing — the courtyard, the new renovation of the building that we’re in the middle of designing right now. Built the 9-11 memorial at $5,000 under cost and less than half the price of the nearest competitor. I believe in giving back to a community. That has made my life what it is.