GIS Technician John Strzempka (silent “z”) may have followed his heart, and his now wife, to northeast Indiana, but it’s his love of mapmaking that secured him his career at Noble REMC.

He sees cartography (the process of mapmaking), and its new use in geographic information systems, as a form of art. It’s his job to be able to convey a message quickly and easily to those who may not know much about the subject matter. And since he can’t draw to save his life — his own words, not ours — he uses his skills with a computer and maps to put ideas on paper.

Let’s learn more about Strzempka:

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT WORKING AT THE CO-OP?

I really like everyone that I work with. That helps a lot and makes it easier getting out of bed every day, knowing that you’re going to work with great people.

WHAT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW OR UNDERSTAND ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?

It’s more than just connecting the dots. A lot of the job is mapping power lines, but there are other parts where we might want to show where we have the most outages on our system. So, you give me a spreadsheet, and I can turn that into a visual representation of where everything’s at on a map and it makes it a lot easier to see where we have issues in our system. Then, we address those issues.

There’s a lot that goes into mapping that people overlook, like color scheme, fonts, the format and how clean it looks. You have to get your point across to someone who doesn’t know what they’re looking at.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO OUTSIDE OF THE CO-OP?

I like to cook outside on a campfire. Ribeyes are usually my go-to for that. It’s nice and peaceful outdoors, especially in the winter when no one is outside. Inside, I would say my favorite is any sort of Italian food. Homemade pizza (making the dough) is something I pride myself on.

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF.

I’m the fifth of seven children in my family. I grew up in Findlay, Ohio, and pretty much lived there my whole life. Then I met Sarah, my wife, in college, and we actually do the same thing but at different co-ops. She got this job (at Steuben County REMC), and I followed her to Indiana. We’ve been here ever since. We have four cats — and three of them are great.

UP TO THIS POINT, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN YOUR LIFE?

Being able to find someone that I love and marrying them.

WHAT MOVIE HAVE YOU WATCHED THE MOST?

I’ve probably watched “Dunkirk” the most.

USUALLY, PEOPLE CHOOSE LIGHTER FARE. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU WATCHED THE MOVIE?

Probably eight to 10 times. I really like World War II stuff. I think a lot of people misinterpreted the movie. They thought it was going to just be a war film, but it’s really artistic. I like the cinematography, and the music goes well with that. You watch it, and it just amazes me how, nowadays, I don’t think anybody would have that mindset to do what they did. To me, it’s a feel-good movie.

WHAT IS ONE THING WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU?

If I wanted a different job, I would become a volcanologist (someone who studies volcanoes). It’s just the beauty of them, I guess — seeing the magnitude of what earth can do. The fact that without volcanoes we probably wouldn’t be having this interview — thanks, plate tectonics! I minored in geology. Volcanology was probably my favorite class.