Owner
Johnny Trueblood
Owner, Grade-A Tree Care
Johnny Trueblood became owner of Grade-A Tree Care in December 2023. Before that he coached college basketball at the University of South Dakota and the University of Hawaiʻi. Tree work was not the plan. Running a crew that shows up on time, prices the job honestly, and leaves a yard cleaner than they found it was.
He works out of Grade-A Tree Care’s shop at 3400 Robinson Pike Road in Grandview. The company Phil Giordano built after the 1996 ice storm is still the same shop. Johnny’s job is to keep the name worth something in Johnson County, Jackson County, and Wyandotte County, not to turn it into a franchise logo.
“I didn’t buy this company to water down what people already trusted. If a job leaves our yard, it has to look like Grade A did it.”
From the sideline to Robinson Pike
Coaching and tree work do not look alike until you watch a crew on a tight lot. Somebody has to set the standard, keep the schedule, and take the call when a storm drops a pin oak on a garage at 11 p.m. Johnny came in as a new Kansas City resident, which is useful in one way: he still hears the company the way a homeowner hears it.
He spends most weeks between estimates, crew check-ins, and the unglamorous stuff that keeps a 30-year shop from getting sloppy — insurance, equipment, and who we hire for climbing work. The climbers still work to ANSI Z133 and A300. Jobs are still run by a foreman. That did not change when the ownership paperwork did.
What he actually watches on a job
Johnny is not the person who diagnoses oak wilt in a Prairie Village front yard. That sits with the field crew and with Phil, who has been cutting and reading Kansas City trees since 1980. What Johnny owns is whether the customer got a straight answer, whether the price matched the work, and whether we sent the right size crew.
If you call the shop, you will usually get Kim Curtis first. If the job is large or political — a homeowners association, a commercial lot, a tree hanging over a neighbor’s line — it often lands on Johnny’s desk before we roll a chipper.
- Customer relations and written estimates
- Crew culture and winter training time
- Quality of finished work, not just speed
- Keeping the Grandview shop staffed for storm nights
Outside the shop
On his own time he golfs, lifts, and follows whatever Kansas City team is in season. He will also drive across town for a concert. None of that is a credential. It is just how a new owner spends a Sunday when the phones are quiet.
Affiliations we can actually name
- Grade-A Tree Care