What are your options if you’re in the road construction business and in need of stone? Well, you can find a supplier. Or, if you’re Charles Luck Jr., his father and brother, you can buy a quarry.

That’s exactly what Luck Jr. and his family did in 1923, when the three purchased their first quarry, Sunnyside Granite, in Virginia. Luck Jr. made the quarry all his in 1927, buying the business from his father and brother. From there, Luck Stone was on its way to becoming the company that today has 15 quarries, one sand and gravel plant and about 800 employees.

Luck Jr. purchased a second site in Virginia, the Boscobel Quarry, in 1930, and he bought three others in Charlottesville, Burkville and Fairfax throughout the 1930s.

As Luck’s son, Charles Luck III recalls, one of his father’s greatest strengths was having the foresight and intuition to buy the real estate he did for Luck Stone.

“He had great foresight and intuition,” Luck III says. “He had great timing for buying real estate and finding locations for the company’s future.”

Luck Jr. also believed strongly in maintaining the appearance of his company’s plants, and he was a believer in taking care of his employees. He always reminded Luck III that if the company’s employees are taken care of, they’ll take care of the business.

“He was very passionate about the company and taking care of the people,” says Luck III, who has taken his father’s values and incorporated them into Luck Stone’s modern culture with his son, Charles Luck IV.

“We’ve always had a mindset of treating people right,” Luck III adds. “Our greatest asset is our people. People have asked me over the years why we have been as successful as we have been. I say it’s simple: the people who work for us.”

According to Luck III, his father also helped start the Virginia Aggregates Association back in the 1940s.

“He was the president of it for about five or six years,” Luck III says. “Three or four men started it. He was the leader of it. They all wanted to get people together to discuss the industry’s needs and how to deal with government on regulations.”

Luck III has had a number of people over the years ask him what he thinks his father’s impression of the company would be as it stands today. The answer is a simple one, Luck III says.

“I think he would be extremely proud,” he says. “He was a person who liked to start new operations. He was innovative, creative and very dedicated to the industry.”