Tanner Walters: The Road to Walters Repair

Tanner Walters was supposed to be a PE teacher. It was in his blood. After high school, he went to Kentucky Wesleyan College on a football scholarship with a teaching degree in mind, following a family tradition.

It wasn't Walters’ passion, he admits. He already knew what he loved, and it wasn't lesson plans.

"I enjoyed working on vehicles," he said. "It's the feeling that you get when something's done right."

Walters came back home to ECTC in 2016 and enrolled in Automotive Technology.

"I knew they had one of the best programs," he said. "I think it was one of the top in the nation."

He admitted that the general education courses were a chore.

"I struggled more with the basics, like English," he laughed. "And then you go out to the shop, do the hands-on part, and it's like - go crazy. Because that's what I love, man."

The shop floor wasn't the only thing that gave Walters a passion for the work. He learned a process: where to start a diagnostic, how to work an issue in order, how to read a service manual and trace a wiring fault to its origin. He was excited to see the engine trainers waiting to be disassembled and puzzled back together.

"You've got to have the knack," Walters said. "If you don't have the knack, you'll probably find that stuff boring, but I loved it - it didn't feel like I was at school."

Ask Walters what or who made the difference, and he'll give you a name: Jerry Clemons. Clemons led the ECTC automotive program for years before retiring in Spring 2026, and had a reputation for not letting a question die. If he didn't know the answer, he'd find someone who did. John Chism and Doug Poteet were other instructors who left a lasting impact.

"Jerry was always extremely helpful. Everybody was," Walters said. "I've had a lot of teachers and that bunch down there wanted you to succeed."

That support followed him to graduation, when Walters walked out with a job.

"As soon as I graduated, I had that job waiting for me," he said. "That was one of the biggest selling points of the program."

Walters’ first job had too much overhead, too much computer usage, was too big, and so wasn’t for him, he said.

"Some people like that atmosphere. I did not," Walters said. "But I wouldn't have known that had I not gone there."

That experience set him on the path to independent shops and eventually to working for himself. Walters opened Walters Repair, a two-bay shop on Sonora Road in Hodgenville, where he has built up his business piece by piece - evenings and weekends at first - before going full-time this spring. His shop works on brakes, suspensions, engine replacements, heavy engine work, mowers and chainsaws and some diesel.

At 28, with about 15 years of experience wrenching, some of Walters’ customers still think he is too young for what he’s doing.  It doesn't bother him, though. He has spent his career working beside those who knew more than he did, a habit that started with ECTC.

Walters’ words of advice to students have nothing to do with torque specs.

"You just can't be scared," he said. "Anything life-changing is always scary. But it works out."

Learn the tools before touching the car, he said. Tools and vehicles change but use the manual and pick someone’s brain. And when a job fights you all day, and you finally beat it?

"That's the feeling you get - like, I did it," Walters said.