Stern Pinball recently spotlighted the Ottesen family, three generations of industry professionals who work for the company, which itself is celebrating 40 years this year.
Kenny Ottesen Sr. – called Ace by friends and family – joined the Stern team in 2012 and is the company’s model shop manager. He has 60 years of experience creating fixtures, parts and components for coin-op machines.
His son, Kenny Ottesen Jr. joined the team in 2016, is the director of the innovation center and has been in the industry for 32 years.
Now, his son, Nicolas Ottesen, is training in a few different specialties at Stern and will be assisting the team in the tool room and on the CNC machines. “You hear about kids going to work with their father after high school, but how many get to say they also work with their grandfather?” Nicolas said. “I’m hoping to learn what I can from Ace before he retires. I hope I can make them both proud.”