From jail to Navy Reserve: A mentor changed his life

MEREDITH — Zach Ellis was living a life adrift after he graduated – barely – from Newfound High School in 2011. He worked in a string of local restaurants, and didn’t set his sights any farther than the next party.

Now 25, Ellis is a different man. He graduated cum laude from Maine Maritime Academy last year, has a position as an assistant engineer with a worldwide shipping company, and last week was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He owes this change to Dave Kutcher, who owns a financial services firm in Meredith and saw a potential in Ellis, if he could just be put on the right course.

Ellis’ youth was rocky. His parents split up when he was too young to remember, and he lived with his mother until he was 15, then moved in with his father. When he was in high school, his father got sick and had to stop working, so the family relied on disability benefits to survive.

“My dad was pretty relaxed. He had two rules: don’t get arrested and don’t get anyone pregnant,” Elllis said. He only observed the latter of those two rules.

High school was pretty much just a distraction for Ellis, and his extracurricular activities frequently brought him in contact with local police. “Stupid teenage stuff,” he said. He collected a few misdemeanor charges, lost his license, but it wasn’t until he was convicted of a marijuana-related charge that he realized where he might be heading.

Prosecutors were going to charge him with a felony, but Ellis agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor if he spent time in the Carroll County Jail. That time had an effect on him, living with “crackheads” and men awaiting trial on violent crimes.

“All I did when I was in there was work out and read books,” he said. He told himself, “I should figure out what I wanted to do.”

He had always had a knack for math and science – he aced his SATs in high school, even though he was still affected from the prior night’s partying – and so he thought he could be a good engineer. But how could someone who graduated with a 2.2 grade average get into an engineering school? Ellis didn’t have an answer.

After he was released from jail, Ellis moved back in with his father and started working at a Bristol pizza shop. Then he got a call from Kutcher.

Ellis and Kutcher had known each other for a few years. Kutcher had married the mother of Ellis’ best friend, Dylan Sullivan, who enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school. When Dave and Lorraine were planning a vacation, he asked Ellis to look after the house while they were away.

When Kutcher got back, he had a proposal for Ellis. Cut out the dope and the partying and he would help him get into Maine Maritime Academy, where Kutcher had a connection in the admissions office.

“He laid out the deal. I had to live with him and get my (act) together,” Ellis said. He took the deal. “This is my shot to not work in restaurants anymore,” he said.

With Kutcher’s help, Ellis got a conditional acceptance into Maine Maritime, which meant that he had to take a few courses at Lakes Region Community College and pass with good grades. Then, with financial support from the Kutchers, he was able to enroll in the Castine, Maine, campus.

A derelict in high school, Ellis devoted himself to his studies at Maine Maritime, earning a scholarship by his junior year and graduating with honors. He also enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps while he was in the academy, and on Friday of last week, Kutcher, a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps (retired), swore Ellis in as an ensign.

“I recognized him as a good kid,” Kutcher said of Ellis. He also recognized something else in him.

“My life was a lot like that. There was a fellow in my life, Tom Maloney, who was the manager at the Hyannis Heritage House (Hotel). He looked out for me, made sure I was on the right track. He paid it forward to me, I’m paying it forward. And I told (Zach) to pay it forward to someone else,” Kutcher said. “That’s the beauty of being an American, you can help other people get ahead.”

Ellis currently works as an assistant engineer, maintaining the engine room for a boat owned by Edison Chouest Offshore, which runs supplies out to offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. “It’s the 18-wheeler of the Gulf,” Ellis said.

The work is taxing. He works 12-hour days, 28 days straight, then gets two weeks off. But it’s rewarding, as he is on pace to pay off his student loans in months rather than years. And, as a Navy reservist, he can take a break from his job by applying for active duty. Ellis plans to alternatively develop both his military and maritime careers.

It’s a far cry from where he said he would be were it not for Kutcher’s intervention: “Probably in Bristol, still at Pat’s Pizza.”