Simmons, Rudy Raymond: - The youngest of ten children, Rudy Simmons was born in 1957 in Deer Lake, Newfoundland. After a troubled childhood stamped by poverty and neglect, he attended vocational school for heavy equipment repair, after which he founded R&J Excavation Ltd. Feeling the call to full-time ministry a few years later, he pastored two churches, then became a street chaplain in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After experiencing burnout and hospitalization, in 1990 he started over by building Simmons Tractor Limited (www.simmonstractors.com) into the successful business he still owns today. Now retired, Rudy and his wife, Glad, of twenty-nine years, splits their time between Grand Lake Wellington, Nova Scotia, and Florida. Through life's twists and turns, Rudy transformed stumbling blocks into stepping stones, a story he now shares to inspire others!