Jack Hooper has been many things in his life: pilot, cowboy, international economist, a college professor who holds a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, farmer--at one time handling fifteen percent of the total processing tomatoes in California. He was also an inventor, entrepreneur, public servant, restorer of antique cars, husband and father. Although retired from his many agricultural pursuits, he remains involved in the operation of the Hooper House Bear Creek Inn, the historic, Central California home Jack and his late wife--the love his life, Mona Briand Hooper, saved from demolition and restored to its current beauty. A self-made man who was born into the Great Depression, Jack spent much of his childhood straddling two worlds--agriculture and business--and found a way to incorporate both into the future businesses he founded and ran. He came of age to shoulder the weighty responsibility of caring for his younger brother after losing his parents within a year of each other. His unique life story mirrors the title of this biography because Jack truly built every aspect of his success...from the ground up.