February 2018 marked 61 years for Frank Squires in the aggregate industry.
Through it all, Squires has proven to be an innovator and a world-renowned expert in the field of washing and classifying technologies, earning five patents as a co-inventor of next-level control systems for single and multiple classifying tank systems.
Squires became a leading figure in the aggregate industry over a long, storied career. After graduating from Des Moines Technical High School in 1957, Squires started as a draftsman at Eagle Iron Works. He drew up washing equipment during his 16 years at the company before transitioning into more technical work.
Eventually, Squires moved into more of a sales role.
“I was very fortunate and lucky that I was a very young man in 1960,” Squires says. “It was an exciting time in road building and a lot of construction was going on.”
Squires took on a position fully dedicated to sales in 1971. He had the opportunity to engage with customers like Martin Marietta and Luck Stone. Squires traveled throughout the northeastern United States and Canada for several years before becoming sales manager at GreyStone in the early 1990s.
In 2014, Superior Industries acquired GreyStone. Squires currently serves as Superior’s aggregate specialist for its Washing & Classifying Division.
Throughout his career, Squires developed a reputation as a “go-to-guy” in an industry he describes as “full of incredible people.”
“These customers in the aggregate industry are some of the most loyal people,” Squires says. “The aggregate industry must be one of the best industries to be in. Our customers are fantastic to work with.”
When Squires works with his many customers, he brings experience and an innovative touch to every visit.
The early days
After graduating from Des Moines Technical High School, Squires started as a draftsman at Eagle Iron Works where he designed washing equipment during his 16 years at the company. Photo courtesy of Frank Squires
In the early 1960s, Squires and a colleague developed an automated system for classifying tanks for sand and gravel washing.
“Computers were coming around slowly into their use, so we came up with automation for classifying tanks for controlling sands,” Squires says.
The project is something Squires is still working on today.
The patents Squires earned were some of the first in washing technologies, as changes were being introduced into the aggregate field that required tighter specifications in highway, building and bridge construction.
Additionally, Squires helped to develop a dewatering screen. This was an addition to the dewatering screw and represented a solution to reduce water that reaches stockpiles.
“The dewatering screw was always in use for years,” Squires says. “With Superior, we were able to incorporate what was called a dewatering screen to the industry that was added to the dewatering screw itself.”
The advancement helped users reduce water levels at stockpiles from about 20 percent on average to about 10 percent moisture content.
These advancements were among the developments that led to Squires’ five patents. Earning a patent is quite the achievement, but it was never anything Squires set out to accomplish.
“You saw a problem and you wanted to make a piece of equipment that can fix that,” Squires says. “If you receive a patent on equipment, it is like receiving an honorary award. It was an honor to receive [a] patent, but mostly you’ve accomplished something for our customers – to provide them a better product.”
Overall, customer service is the component Squires enjoys most about the aggregate industry. Helping others and solving problems is the reputation the 61-year veteran has earned.
“When the customer tells us what’s going on and we find the answer and the customer calls back to tell us it worked wonderfully and says ‘thank you’ – that’s the thing I like most about the industry,” Squires says. “It is the customer thanking you for solving their problems.”
The customer level is not the only area Squires has impacted greatly. John Bennington, a colleague at Superior Industries, considers Squires to be a mentor.
“I learned the technical details from him and my experience,” Bennington says. “He pointed me in the right direction. He put me in the right situation so I could learn from other people in the industry who also knew a lot.”
Bennington also spoke about the invaluable lessons Squires taught him about problem solving and troubleshooting equipment in the field.
“He taught me who to ask the right questions to and what to be quiet about and observe,” Bennington says.
As his career winds down, Squires is proud of the time he’s spent in the aggregate industry.
“We have had our slow years and our great years in the aggregate industry, but each year has been exciting,” he says. “It has really been an enjoyable time for me in the industry, and it continues to be. Every day I learn something different.”
The leader of one of the largest aggregate-producing companies in North America, C. Howard “Ward” Nye has served in important roles in the industry, including his work with the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA).
Nye has been chairman of the board of Martin Marietta Materials Inc., the second-largest producer in the United States, since 2014. He has served as president since 2006 and as CEO and a director since 2010. He also worked as COO from 2006 to 2009.
Nye was appointed CEO of the company in January 2010 in the midst of the global economic downturn. Since that time, he has led Martin Marietta as the company carefully executed its strategic plan and delivered a strong performance for investors.
Of the company’s future, Nye says, “We remain confident in Martin Marietta’s long-term outlook, with the fundamental drivers for broad-based construction activity supporting a steady and extended, yet somewhat slower than anticipated, cyclical recovery across our geographic footprint.
Nye adds, “The United States is experiencing the third-longest construction recovery since the Great Depression, and we see this recovery continuing for the next several years. The building blocks to address the undeniable need for significant investment exist; however, we have yet to see meaningful growth in heavy construction activity, particularly in the public arena.”
Yet, Nye remains upbeat: “Looking ahead, our leading positions in many of the nation’s most attractive and otherwise vibrant markets should allow Martin Marietta to capitalize on the durable, multi-year construction recovery.”
Life before Martin Marietta
Ward Nye has been chairman of the board of Martin Marietta since 2014, and he has served as company president since 2006 and as CEO and a director since 2010. Photo courtesy of Martin Marietta Materials
Prior to joining Martin Marietta in 2006, Nye served as executive vice president at Hanson Aggregates North America. He worked as president of Hanson Aggregates East from 2000 to 2003 with operating responsibility for more than 150 facilities in 12 states, and with annual revenue of more than $500 million.
He served as the vice president of business development for Hanson Building Materials America from 1997 to 2000. He began his career in the aggregate industry as general counsel for Hanson Aggregates East, with additional responsibility for environmental, safety and health.
From 1987 to 1993, Nye worked for the Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, firm Nye & Wolf P.A., a boutique construction and commercial litigation law firm with a practice primarily involving representation of owners, contractors, subcontractors, architects, engineers and suppliers in all aspects of the construction and construction materials process, including sophisticated land-use and development matters.
In 2006, global parent company Hanson was the world’s largest producer of aggregate. Nye’s role was in the North American segment of Hanson’s business, which was number three at the time in the United States, behind Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta.
Association work
Nye is a past chairman and current executive committee member of NSSGA.
At the time of Nye’s chairmanship, then NSSGA President and CEO Gus Edwards had this to say: “Ward Nye’s chairmanship comes at a critical time for the association and the aggregates industry. This year will be fraught with challenges, but if anyone has the wherewithal to convert them to opportunities, it’s Ward. His leadership will continue to advance the interests of NSSGA as the single, strong voice of the aggregates industry from coast to coast.”
In his address to the NSSGA board of directors, Nye said, “We must build new bridges to our constituencies in order to carry out the mission of the association to advance the interests of the aggregates industry before the federal government, to achieve a safer and more healthful workplace, and to support sustainable communities.”
He emphasized “building bridges” on policy issues with like-minded groups, coalitions, state associations and state governors in pressing for a new long-term highway bill and dismissing short-term extensions.
In addition to his educational, professional and executive roles, Nye has been a gubernatorial appointee to the North Carolina Mining Commission.
He also currently serves as vice chairman at-large of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association and as a director of the United States Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business organization representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses.
Nye has further served on numerous other state, community and charitable organizations, including the Duke University Alumni Association Board, Wake Forest University School of Law Alumni Board, and as vice chairman of UNC Rex Healthcare’s board of trustees.
Nye also is an independent director of CREE Inc., a multinational manufacturer of semiconductor light-emitting diode materials and devices, where he is chair of the Governance and Nominations Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee.
Nye completed his undergraduate studies with honors at Duke University in 1984, and he received his law degree from Wake Forest University in 1987.
Nye and his wife Laura reside in Raleigh, North Carolina, and they have three children.
Is it how much money he earned? How great his business grew? How many possessions he accumulated?
Charlie Luck IV, president and CEO of Luck Companies, explores this age-old question while reflecting on his father, Charles Luck III. To Luck IV, the makeup of a man’s success in life comes down to something far more meaningful.
“The things that really matter are the relationships and the impacts you have on others,” he says. “That’s what’s going to outlive you. That’s what your legacy is really going to be about. How did you engage people?”
Luck Stone, one of the largest producers of crushed stone in the nation, was founded on the philosophy that “if you do right by your people, they will do right by you.” Luck III carried on that tradition from his father and reinterpreted the company’s values during his tenure as president and CEO.
In an era of command and control leadership, Luck III adopted the phrase “we care” and lived it at his organization.
“We’ve always had a mindset of treating people right,” says Luck III, whose company’s headquarters is based outside of Richmond, Virginia. “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.”
A leadership precedent set forth by his father, Charles Luck Jr., people are Luck III’s priority. For more than 60 years, he’s instituted visionary methods to develop people and open doors for people in the communities he serves.
“You leave it better than you found it,” says Cynthia L. Haw, daughter of Charles Luck III. “I think that’s something he’s really worked on doing with Luck Stone. They’re trying to leave the world, our environment, a better place than what it is. I feel like that is something that can go across the board, not just in business but it can be in your personal life, at the office or wherever you are.”
Luck’s career
Charles S. Luck III, left, joins his father, Charles Luck Jr., in the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame. Luck Jr. was enshrined in the Hall’s inaugural class in 2013. Photo courtesy of Luck Companies
Before joining his father in the family business, Luck III graduated in 1955 from Virginia Military Institute and served in the United States Air Force for two years following graduation. He resigned as a first lieutenant.
Luck III began his career with the company nearly 30 years after his father established Luck Stone.
“My dad was my mentor, a person I had an extremely close relationship with,” he says. “At an early age he gave me a lot of insights on how to live a good life [and] leadership. He was a people person. He loved people, cared about people. He was a very giving person.”
When Luck III started at Luck Stone, he worked in a number of capacities. He was named president and CEO in 1965, leading the company through three decades of expansion and innovation during his tenure.
In the early 1970s, Luck Stone demonstrated its leadership as a technological pioneer with the implementation of computerized ticketing at sales offices. Later that decade, the company developed fully automated, unattended crushing plants.
Today, Luck III continues to serve Luck Companies as chairman of the board while his son leads the company as president and CEO. The company operates 24 facilities, employs 680 people and will celebrate its centennial in another five years.
“I hope that if I reach his point in life that I have the same open-mindedness, supportiveness [and] progressive mindset that Dad has, particularly around people. At the end of the day that’s what our company is all about,” Luck IV says.
Luck III has been an industry leader beyond just his company. He has held leadership positions in many of the industry’s associations. He was a past chairman of the National Stone Association, as well as a past president of the Virginia Aggregates Association.
Always giving back
In addition to being highly dedicated to the aggregate industry, Luck III is one who has poured himself into the community.
He’s volunteered his time to a number of organizations, including the capital campaign for the Children’s Museum of Richmond, which he served as co-chairman. Luck III also served Mary Baldwin College as chairman of the board of trustees.
“He’s continued to be the great leader that he has been, whether it’s at Luck Stone, in the community or within our family,” says Terrell L. Harrigan, daughter of Luck III. “His patience, integrity, care and also his honesty… he tries to live [those] values. That is shown when he is able to support causes that he believes in.”
The members of the 2017 class join 20 other industry leaders who were previously enshrined in the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame.
Representing Bartlett at the ceremony were his son, Wes Bartlett, daughter-in-law Tricia Bartlett and grandson Jonathan Bartlett. Wes and Jonathan delivered acceptance remarks on behalf of the beloved former president of the National Stone Association (NSA), who died early last year. Bartlett served NSA from 1986 to 1997.
“I’m honored on behalf of my dad,” Wes says. “[Robert Bartlett] was very passionate about this industry. He would love to see all of you take it to the next level and continue on with his legacy.”
Detwiler joined his son, Paul Detwiler III, in the Hall of Fame, making the two the first father-and-son duo represented within it. Considered the ultimate quarry operator by his peers, Paul Jr. was instrumental in expanding his company into one of the top aggregate producers in the United States.
Snyder, who spent several years at New Enterprise following New Enterprise’s acquisition of Eastern Industries, enters the Hall of Fame following a 40-year career in the aggregate industry. Appreciated for a management style that created well-grounded and highly committed teams, Snyder was vital to the efforts that led to the successful merger of NSA and the National Aggregates Association (NAA) in 2000.
Towe, who also played a role in bringing NSA and NAA together, enters the Hall of Fame nearly two decades after he helped bring to life The Rocks Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The gallery features an interactive exhibit that illustrates how rocks are vital to the everyday lives of the general public, emerging at a time when the public knew very little about the aggregate industry.
The grandparents were schoolteachers. So were the parents and a sister.
But Mark Towe did not follow in the family footsteps. At least not in the occupational sense.
Towe, who currently serves CRH Americas as chairman, took an interest in the aggregate industry 46 years ago after spending a summer as a scale operator at a Vulcan Materials Co. quarry. At the time, Towe had no idea those few months in Manassas, Virginia, would someday steer him into the operational ranks at Vulcan and later the executive ranks at Meridian Aggregates Co. and Oldcastle Inc.
At the outset of his career, Towe also couldn’t have realized the impact he would eventually have on the aggregate industry in capacities he would fill outside of the companies he served. Over the years, Towe’s influence not only guided those who reported to him, but the leaders of other aggregate-producing companies as well.
In instances with industry leaders, Towe’s influence was felt largely through national association work that was geared toward the greater good of the industry, including the development in 1998 of the Rocks Build America Foundation.
The foundation project, which Towe spearheaded from an industry standpoint, brought to life The Rocks Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The gallery features an interactive exhibit that illustrates how rocks are vital to the everyday lives of the general public, emerging at a time when the public knew very little about the aggregate industry.
“Mark strengthened the integrity of our industry and established credibility through the Smithsonian Institution,” says Rick Feltes, a Pit & Quarry Hall of Famer who built a career for himself at family-owned Feltes Sand & Gravel. “That spoke volumes to the United States and the world that we were an industry people needed to know.”
Setting a foundation
Mark Towe’s career has taken him to Vulcan Materials Co., Meridian Aggregates Co. and Oldcastle Inc.
Consider, too, that Towe tackled such projects while helping to build Oldcastle into one of the top aggregate companies in the nation. But the work Towe did and the successes he ultimately achieved came after years of experiences. He started from the ground up at that Vulcan scale house and even learned some life lessons in the U.S. Army along the way.
In fact, after first serving Vulcan during the summer of 1971, the Vietnam War draft lottery pulled Towe away from the company and into the Army for nearly two years. While Towe was not deployed, he met a number of people in the military who proved influential to him.
“It really helped my career,” Towe says. “I worked alongside people with diverse backgrounds, and we worked as a team. That experience taught me an invaluable skill.”
Upon his discharge, Towe returned to Vulcan and ran a company office. Later, he participated in an 18-month Vulcan training program that laid the foundation for his work to come. The program exposed Towe to areas ranging from accounting to blasting.
The company provided other opportunities for Towe to learn and grow as well.
“They had great operational people,” says Towe, who often turned to longtime Vulcan executive Bill Grayson for advice. “If you had the skillset to listen, you would learn from some great people.”
From Grayson, Towe took away the value of molding good employees.
“He (Grayson) had a vision for good people,” Towe says. “He could see talent. He was very patient, but he was stern too. If you went in the wrong direction, he’d call you out in a positive way. He also made it clear that you couldn’t do certain things if you want to be successful.”
The next phase
By 1987, having dedicated 15 years to Vulcan, Towe departed on a new journey at Meridian Aggregates Co. The decision to leave Vulcan was a difficult one, but the job at Meridian, a startup company, was a unique one.
“I was 37 years old,” Towe says. “The executive who came to me said, ‘I don’t know much about the aggregate business, but you have a great reputation and I’ll provide you what you need to do to build this company.’”
So, Towe moved to Denver and helped to launch the company, which was a subsidiary of Burlington Northern. Perhaps Towe’s biggest takeaway at Meridian, which he served as CEO, was the value of the customer.
“Our largest customer was the railroad, and they were demanding but fair,” Towe says. “I used to take the concept for granted because I was an operational guy, but the customer really makes your business successful.”
At Meridian, Towe also learned the value of a board of directors. He learned to take their advice related to developing a strategic vision.
“Sometimes, you get so close to the business that you don’t even see it,” he says. “But most outside directors don’t know the details of the business. I always try to tap into their ideas and suggestions.”
Towe’s tenure at Meridian extended into the mid-1990s, when Oldcastle engaged his company in discussions about purchasing Meridian.
“I used to compete against Oldcastle at Meridian and had a good experience with them,” Towe says. “We used to compete against Oldcastle in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. They were a small company at the time headquartered in Los Angeles.”
Ultimately, Meridian bought the Oldcastle assets in those states. But Towe saw how honest and professional Oldcastle’s representatives were as negotiators.
“I remember thinking this is a company that is going to go somewhere, which they did,” Towe says.
A company’s growth
By 1997, Towe had joined Oldcastle, the North American arm of CRH, as COO of the Oldcastle Materials Group. He arrived a year after CRH’s $323 million purchase of Tilcon, which, at the time, represented the company’s largest acquisition. The transaction provided Towe the opportunity to dive right into a major transition of an acquired company.
“The largest challenge was the transition from a big acquisition and how the company blends into the system,” he says.
Oldcastle’s interest in local autonomy – allowing acquired companies to retain their name and brand – has always been a little bit of a different approach. But the more Towe thought about that approach in his early years at Oldcastle, the more he embraced the concept.
“Aggregate companies are local businesses,” he says. “They have good reputations, and if they didn’t have a good reputation or good people then we wouldn’t buy them to start with. But that name means something.”
Names represent heritages, some of which stretch back a century or more. And heritage, Towe says, is something to appreciate.
Still, the integration of a smaller company into a larger one requires two companies to really understand one another. Developing that understanding is essential to integration, Towe says.
“You have to be very sensitive to what an acquired company thinks,” he says, “but they also reap the benefits of having a big, powerful, financially backed company that can help an acquired company be better at what they’re doing. From day one, we tell the ownership we acquired that safety is the No. 1 priority for us. Also, as part of a public company, they will have to adhere to our accounting and IT systems.”
At the same time, the acquisition of a new aggregate-producing company by Oldcastle means the acquisition of best practices that can benefit others. Towe helped to share best approaches across Oldcastle companies through five best practices committees, including those dedicated to aggregate, asphalt, equipment, ready-mix and safety.
The committees distributed key information across the company in an effective, organized fashion.
“You find out that some of the other companies may be more efficient than you were,” says Towe, who became president of the Oldcastle Materials Group in 2000 and CEO in 2006. “The idea is to sit down at the table and discuss what’s working and what doesn’t. The [committees] afforded the chance to meet new people and tour operations you wouldn’t otherwise have had the opportunity to see.”
Leading the Oldcastle Materials Group to new heights in the mid-2000s, Towe was promoted as chief executive of Oldcastle Inc. and appointed to the CRH plc board of directors in 2008. He was named chairman of CRH Americas in 2016.
“It was a great opportunity for me to get involved in the international side of CRH which now has businesses in 31 countries and employs over 89,000 people worldwide,” says Towe, referring to his appointment to the CRH board.
Lasting legacy
The years in which Towe served the Oldcastle Materials Group were also some of the years in which he made his greatest impact on the aggregate industry at large. However, Towe’s efforts to improve the overall industry through involvement in the National Stone Association (NSA) go back as far as his days at Vulcan and Meridian.
Bob Bartlett, the former NSA president who joins Towe as a member of the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame this year, first encouraged Towe to join the association board, which Towe ultimately did.
Towe was involved in a number of NSA (and later National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association) projects over the years, including the International Center of Aggregates Research, based in Texas. Industry peers say Towe was also instrumental in the discussions about merging NSA with the National Aggregates Association.
Towe even served as NSA chairman in 1998, after the transition at the association from Bartlett to Joy (Wilson) Pinniger.
“That was a good year to be chairman in the sense that we had just gotten a six-year highway bill that gave the industry stability,” Towe says. “We had a good future, and a good transition with Joy. I thought it was great to bring somebody in away from the industry.”
Towe’s voice was particularly valuable during association transition periods.
“In terms of the NSA-NAA merger, personalities sometimes clashed,” says Kim Snyder, the former president of Eastern Industries. “Mark was key in helping ease any clashes between people. If it wasn’t for him, God knows where that merger would have gone.
But perhaps even more valuable to the greater aggregate industry was Towe’s commitment to the Rocks Build America Foundation in 1998.
“He was the guy behind all of that,” says Paul Mellott Jr., chairman at Mellott Company. “One of his legacies is the Smithsonian, and he still raises money to continue to tweak it.”
Feltes agrees Towe’s efforts on the Rocks Build America Foundation have served the industry well.
“Our industry was lacking a message, and Mark, through the Smithsonian Institute, was a broadcaster of an image that we didn’t have before his efforts,” Feltes says.
Astoundingly, Towe led the effort in 1998 to raise $5 million for the project – and he raised the funds in only two or three weeks.
“I was really proud that the industry supported the efforts of this project,” Towe says. “We had to get it done – everybody understood that.”
These are two characteristics Kim Snyder has continuously embodied throughout his career in the aggregate industry.
Snyder, the former president of Eastern Industries who today serves on the board of directors at three companies, was the National Stone Association’s (NSA) chairman in 2000 when the association was deciding whether to merge with the National Aggregates Association (NAA). Although merging the two organizations seemed difficult, Snyder maintained his vision of the two becoming one strong, singular voice for the aggregate industry.
“He did a very good job of sticking to the core values and also looking at the big picture of where the industry needed to go in order to have the ability to move it forward,” says Greg Bush, president and CEO at McCarthy Bush Corp. who was one of the co-chairs of NSA at the time of the merger. “We needed more representation at a national level, and he kept people moving toward that vision rather than falling back.”
Snyder has aimed to project his vision among employees and colleagues wherever he’s worked. He especially did this at Eastern Industries.
“He always did what a leader’s supposed to do,” says Paul Mellott Jr., chairman of Mellott Company and a close friend to Snyder. “He had a vision for what the company could be, he opened up that vision to his people and his employees took the company and ran with it.
“Kim’s got a positive, upbeat attitude,” Mellott adds. “And to give you an idea of his work ethic, he promises to return every phone call within eight business hours. And he does. That tells you something about Kim Snyder.”
Learning leadership
Kim Snyder, second from right, during an NSSGA board of directors meeting in 2012.
Snyder grew up in a blue-collar household in upstate New York, and he became the first in his family to go to college upon graduating high school. His high school guidance counselor noticed his aptitude for math and science and encouraged him to study engineering in college.
“To be honest, I didn’t know entirely what he meant by engineering at first,” Snyder admits. “However, I’ve always been one open to new opportunities available to me.”
After receiving a degree in engineering, Snyder began work in the aggregate industry as an engineer for companies such as Dravo Corp. and Koppers Co. He went back to school to receive an MBA in 1982 before transitioning to the business side of the industry in 1991, when Genstar appointed him as vice president of aggregate operations.
“He was a really good administrator,” says Bernie Grove, former president at Genstar who hired Snyder. “A personable individual. When I stepped up from operations manager to president, he took operations over and he did a good job.”
Snyder dubs Grove as one of his first mentors, as he helped him navigate the business side of the industry.
“Prior to him, I had always received mentoring on the technical side of things,” Snyder says. “But Bernie raised the bar for me. He was the one who helped me to understand political action and community relations.”
Grove’s prodding prompted Snyder to get involved in the industry on a national level in NSA and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association. Grove also encouraged him to develop relationships with elected officials at both the state and national levels.
Outside of association involvement, Grove entrusted Snyder to help coordinate business for Genstar with Redland Co., the company’s owner in the United Kingdom. Although there were a few conflicts between the two groups, Snyder peacefully handled relations between the two during his time at Genstar.
“He was particularly good with people,” Grove says. “It took somebody who really could roll with the punches to work through the difficulties.”
Mediating a merger
Snyder left Genstar in 1995 to become president of Eastern Industries, but he always kept Grove’s advice about industry involvement and lobbying in mind. He remained heavily involved in NSA, moving up the ladder of association leadership.
Snyder’s mediating skills from his time at Genstar came in handy as he moved his way up the chairs at NSA in the late 1990s, as that was when the association was negotiating a merger with NAA.
“There were two leaders with two philosophies,” Bush says of the merger discussions. “It took a lot of work for the two to come together.”
Snyder notes that NSA tended to be more business-oriented while NAA placed a bigger emphasis on the social aspects of the association. Despite the differences between the two groups, Snyder continuously watched and listened in on the discussions leading up to the merger to determine a formula to make the alliance work. He also maintained a good relationship with Mike Hayes, chairman of NAA in 2000, in order to move things forward.
“They were friends,” Mellott says. “They got beyond the problems we had and pursued merging to one association. Kim was really involved in that, and it was a major step for us to take as an industry.”
The two associations officially merged June 19, 2000, into what is today known as the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA). Snyder described that day as “historic” for the industry in an August 2000 article in Pit & Quarry.
After the merger, Snyder continued to contribute to NSSGA in different capacities. Most notably, he helped to lead discussions on co-hosting AGG1 Aggregates Academy & Expo with the World of Asphalt, as he was also involved in chair positions with the National Asphalt Pavement Association. By 2010, the two groups officially co-hosted their events.
“I was a cheerleader for that,” he says. “It’s been a great success for both groups.”
Lobbying efforts
Since his time at Genstar, Snyder also remained committed to connecting with politicians as Grove taught him.
“[Grove] said to me, ‘Look, your largest customer is the government and you should do customer relations with them like anyone else,’” Snyder says. “He helped me to develop relationships with elected officials both at the state and national level.”
Snyder became a proponent of grassroots efforts, particularly during his time at Eastern Industries. He hosted a number of meet-and-greets with legislators at the company’s locations and involved all of his employees in the events.
“If I get employees involved in a team of six to eight of them talking to legislators, the legislators’ eyes might then be opened to our concerns,” Snyder says.
Snyder has also befriended some legislators, like Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. To this day, he remains a good friend to Toomey, keeping in contact with him and his family.
Many in the industry also know Snyder for his work with ROCKPAC, the association’s political action committee. For the past decade, Snyder has teamed with Mellott to go onstage during the ROCKPAC fundraising event.
“We dress up in costumes each year to portray different characters and just have fun with it,” Mellott says. “We make people laugh, and that’s Kim at his finest.”
The conversations typically lasted only five or 10 minutes, but George Sidney came to expect them from time to time when Paul Detwiler Jr. was in the area.
“He (Detwiler) would be driving around, and he would call me to ask if I was in the office,” says Sidney, president and COO of McLanahan Corp., based in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. “He wanted to stop by.”
When a phone call like this came, a quarry project of some sort was likely on the mind of Detwiler, now chairman of the board at Pennsylvania-based New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co. Inc. Soon after making the call, Detwiler would pull into the parking lot outside of Sidney’s office, and the two would talk.
“He’d say, ‘I’m thinking about doing this,’” Sidney says. “And he’d ask, ‘What do you think about that?’ We’d have a little discussion. He’d never even shut off his car. He’d jump in his car and go.”
On one occasion, Detwiler wanted to pick Sidney’s brain about mobilizing some rather large equipment within a quarry. A number of similar impromptu conversations were had between the two over the years. The conversations largely centered on equipment innovation.
“He’s such an innovator,” Sidney says of Detwiler. “He’s an equipment guy. He goes into a plant and he’s very hands-on. He looks around to see how he can do things better and innovate to do things better. That’s what I’ve always admired about him.”
Conversations like the ones with Sidney are just one way Detwiler seeks solutions. Detwiler is very well-read, says Jim Barley, president of New Enterprise’s West Region. Detwiler, who has served as a director of New Enterprise since 1972, absorbs every morsel of information he can in trade publications and industry books. He is also a regular at trade shows, where he’s shown himself to be on the leading edge of innovation.
“He and his wife Pat regularly attended trade shows worldwide,” Sidney says. “The reason: He was always looking for what was new and innovative. He would be at Bauma every three years. He would be at the quarry show in the U.K. He would come to Coal Prep down in Kentucky looking for innovation.”
As an example of Detwiler’s innovative spirit, New Enterprise had conveyor tail pulleys raised up from the ground on columns years before many other companies did. The approach made cleanup and reliability better.
Detwiler applied his innovative spirit to other areas of operations, as well. How could a process be more efficient? How could a practice be made safer? Where in an operation could improvements be made? These are among the questions Detwiler traditionally raises and for which he’s continuously in the pursuit of answers.
Driven by passion
Paul Detwiler Jr., left, visits with Bernie Grove during a past Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
The innovative solutions Detwiler implements within New Enterprise operations aren’t solely found outside the company, though. By engaging employees within the company’s quarries – everyone from the superintendent to the general laborer – Detwiler is able to glean information that can make the company’s operations better.
“He knows so many of the employees at the plants and at the quarries,” Barley says. “I drive with him through the quarries and the plants, and it’s amazing. He’ll stop and talk to anybody there, any employees. If he’s driving through and you’re close, he’ll pull over and talk to them. That means so much to the employees that he takes the time to do that.”
Sidney agrees.
“He never lost touch with the man on the quarry floor,” Sidney says. “He has always kept his hand in the operations group. He was CEO of the company, chairman of the board, and he was still involved in those day-to-day activities.
“He’s the epitome of a quarry man,” Sidney adds.
Paul Mellott Jr., chairman at Mellott Company and a 2013 Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame inductee, couldn’t agree more.
“”He has great operational skills,” Mellott says. “He understands crushing rock. He loves equipment. He understands it.”
Detwiler also makes time for his employees to this day, at 83 years old, because he is passionate about his work and the people who serve his company. Detwiler still goes to work every day, first to the office and to New Enterprise quarries in the afternoon.
“It’s every day,” Barley says. “He doesn’t miss a day. He comes in on Saturdays, and he does the same thing on Saturdays. He’s in the office in the morning, and he’ll drive around to one of the sites or one of the contract jobs we’re doing, whether it’s bridge construction or a paving project.”
Detwiler’s passion for the aggregate industry is evident, adds Betty O’Neal, an administrative assistant at New Enterprise who has devoted more than 50 years to the company.
“His love is the quarries,” O’Neal says. “He always did like the quarries.”
Highly respected figure
O’Neal’s tenure at New Enterprise stretches back to the days of Detwiler’s father, Paul Detwiler Sr., whom she also served. She has noted similarities between father and son over the years.
“Both of them were very, very nice to work for,” O’Neal says. “They were very dedicated to the company. They both love the quarries and the business. They are definitely quarry people, and both of them went off to the plants.”
The welcoming approach the Detwilers have taken to their employees has only benefited the company, O’Neal adds. Paul Jr. took away some best approaches from his father, and current President and CEO Paul Detwiler III, Paul Jr.’s son, has modeled parts of himself after his father.
“Paul Jr. is an extra special person,” O’Neal says. “If you talk to anybody in the company, they have nothing but respect for him. If he knows your name, he’ll call you by your name. If he doesn’t know your name, he’ll ask who you are. He’s not a boss who wants to be left alone. You can go talk to him if you have something you want to talk over. He’s very interested in what’s going on and what the people have to say.”
The admiration people have for Paul Jr., who helped to grow his company over the years through strategic acquisitions, translates outside of New Enterprise.
“There’s the highest amount of respect from the couple thousand employees we have, the ones who know him that he visits and sees and makes himself available to,” Barley says. “But I see that respect in the industry with people in the same business, albeit in the Pennsylvania Aggregates [and Concrete Association], the National Stone Association or the National [Asphalt] Pavement Association.”
Kim Snyder, the former president at Eastern Industries Inc., which New Enterprise ultimately acquired with the purchase of Stabler Cos. Inc., holds Paul Jr. and the Detwiler family in high regard.
“What a great guy,” Snyder says. “Talk about a family that has been a leader in this industry for decades. Paul [Jr.] carried that on and made sure his son Paul Detwiler III did the same thing. They have been staunch supporters locally and nationally. They’ve always been recognized as some of the great producers.”
Snyder has always appreciated Paul Jr.’s passion for the industry, which he witnessed on more than one occasion.
“The one story I’ll tell you: I was visiting him after the acquisition of Eastern Industries and he showed me his operations,” Snyder says. “We were driving around and around all day. It was 6 or 7 p.m. and Paul says to me, ‘Well, we might need to go back now. It’s my 50th wedding anniversary.’
“I look at him and say, ‘Paul, you’re out in the field on your 50th wedding anniversary?’ He says, ‘Yeah, Pat understands. We’re fine. We’ll celebrate later.’ And his wife did understand. Paul is very passionate about the industry.”
Paul Mellott Jr. stood in awe as Bob Bartlett, National Stone Association (NSA) president, walked the line and greeted NSA committee members as they arrived for a summer meeting at a hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
The line to check in for this meeting sometime in the mid 1990s probably grew to 30, giving Bartlett the opportunity to spend a few moments with committee members as they waited. As Mellott stood by, he realized Bartlett not only knew each member by name, but he knew the names of members’ spouses and children.
“Only he could do this, and you would marvel at how much this guy knew about all of us and how engaging he was to make you feel that he knew all about you and that he was looking out for you,” says Mellott, chairman at Mellott Company and a 2013 Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame inductee.
Not only did Bartlett look out for NSA members during his 11-year tenure at the association, but he inspired a number of aggregate stakeholders to work together for the betterment of the industry. Bartlett, who died in 2016, taught the industry to be proactive with the Mine Safety & Health Administration, as well as with departments of transportation at the state and national levels. He also brought more producers into NSA, elevating the collective voice crushed-stone producers projected on Capitol Hill.
“He made a big impact with how we learned to get involved in the community and how we learned to make our operations cleaner, safer and more respected,” Mellott says.
In addition, Bartlett broadened the association’s base to recruit operations and sales managers, as well as others, into the organization.
“He transformed the association to be more encompassing,” says Kim Snyder, the former president at Eastern Industries who joins Bartlett in the Hall of Fame as a member of the 2017 class. “It was a stroke of genius. It raised the bar for the association and got more depth as far as participation by different people.”
Unique applicant
Bob Bartlett, far right, presents an award during a National Stone Association convention in the 1980s.
The job Bartlett ultimately earned at NSA in 1986 was a highly coveted position, as 200 applications were received for the opening as president. The opening developed following the consolidation in 1985 of the National Crushed Stone Association (NCSA) and the National Limestone Institute (NLI). The combined organization’s co-presidents, Bill Carter and Jim Williams, retired in March 1986, creating a need for a strong voice at the top of the newly formed NSA.
Bartlett, who had previously served Pennsylvania as secretary of highways, emerged as that voice, joining NSA following a stop as a vice president at Smithco Leasing Inc. and Keystone Acceptance Corp.
“[Bartlett] is a natural leader, he knows our industry well and we are indeed fortunate to have him on board,” says Fred C. Moore, former NSA chairman, in the July 1986 edition of Pit & Quarry.
According to Snyder, Bartlett took the industry to new heights in terms of professionalism during his time at NSA.
“Not that the industry was unprofessional,” Snyder says, “but he was all class and polish.”
Bartlett was also the consummate disciplinarian, as George Sidney, the president and COO at McLanahan Corp., recalls.
“He was a West Point grad and he ran NSA like a general,” Sidney says. “He was a good guy. He was so organized. The man knew what was going to take place before it ever took place because he organized it.”
Working for Bartlett wasn’t an easy assignment, though. Bartlett had very high expectations of his staff, Sidney says, but his approach delivered a number of positive results, including a stronger association financially.
“When I joined, the associations (NCSA and NLI) had only merged for two years,” says Tina Richards, an NSA colleague who joined the association in 1987. “One was much stronger financially than the other, and that was a challenge that had to be overcome. [Bartlett] built up our investment reserves to a point where we didn’t have to worry as much about income.”
Praised for doubling the association’s membership, Bartlett also helped to establish a multimillion-dollar endowment through a partnership with the National Aggregates Association (NAA). The Aggregates Foundation for Technology, Research & Education, which NSA and NAA jointly sponsored, established the Center for Aggregates Research. The center offered the industry the opportunity to influence pavement design based on quality aggregate properties.
Around the same time, Bartlett developed Stonepac, the political action committee that evolved into the modern-day ROCKPAC.
“He started Stonepac in 1992,” Mellott says. “We started very small. He was without a doubt instrumental in getting people to get to know their politician.”
Tone setter
Bartlett also laid some of the very early groundwork for the merger of NSA and NAA. The merger came to fruition a few years after Bartlett’s departure from NSA, although a number of meetings took place during the Bartlett era in an attempt to assess the value of bringing the organizations together.
As former Pit & Quarry Editor Don Michard wrote in August 1987: “What the existing national aggregate producer associations face is a leveling-off in numbers of potential members. The recruiting pool, if not actually shrinking, is certainly not increasing. If aggregate producers are to continue to have effective associations ties, a merger at some near-future date may well be inevitable.”
In March 1992, a Pit & Quarry poll found that 84 percent of the magazine’s readers favored an NSA-NAA merger and considered it in the best interest of the industry. But merger talks ended in 1994 despite years of effort on the parts of Bartlett and others.
Although the NSA-NAA merger is not directly credited to Bartlett, the addition and expansion of NSA awards is largely a credit to his efforts. According to Bernie Grove, an aggregate producer who worked alongside Bartlett as NSA chairman and in other capacities, Bartlett saw value in recognizing operations and individuals who excelled in safety, the environment and other areas.
“Bob was very strong on safety in the industry, which, at one time, had a very poor safety record,” says Grove, who was enshrined in the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame in 2014.
Bartlett also steered the industry through the 1990s, a decade Grove reflects on as especially challenging economically for the industry.
“The ‘90s were tough times in recession and the highway industry,” he says, “but Bob was a good spokesperson for us.”
Earlier years
Bartlett’s tenure at NSA was far from his first career stop. Born in 1931, Bartlett attended and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1953 with a bachelor of science in engineering. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an officer in Korea and throughout the United States.
After retiring in 1957 as a captain, Bartlett joined Bethlehem Steel Co. as an engineer and labor relations specialist. His career took a unique turn when he became secretary of highways for Pennsylvania and chairman of the state’s highway commission from 1967 to 1970, steering the development of the Keystone State’s extensive highway network.
Later, Bartlett served L.B. Smith Inc. as an executive vice president, where he remained committed to highway advocacy through the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association (PHIA), which he served as president. Bartlett received PHIA’s Transportation Advocate of the Year Award, the organization’s top honor, in 1986 as he transitioned into the next phase of his career at NSA.
“[Bartlett] was controversial at times, but he spoke up and represented the industry extremely well,” Grove says. “I was proud to have known him and proud to have worked with him.”
Aggregates industry leaders gathered March 20, 2016, for the fourth annual Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony & Dinner in Nashville, Tenn., where Rick Feltes (Feltes Sand & Gravel), Don James (Vulcan Materials) and Steve Zelnak (Martin Marietta) were enshrined as the 2016 class. More than 100 people were in attendance at the black-tie event.
Feltes, James and Zelnak all attended the ceremony at the Omni Nashville Hotel and reflected on their storied careers upon being inducted. The new inductees will be represented in the National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum in Leadville, Colo., along with other Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame members.
Feltes, who grew up in the aggregates industry, was a key figure in the development of the AGG1 Aggregates Academy & Expo, which launched in 2009 alongside World of Asphalt. Well regarded for his dedication to National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) initiatives, Feltes has served the association in various capacities and as a chairman.
Yet, his investment in NSSGA continued at a high level in the years following his chairmanship because of a drive to help others in the industry succeed. Feltes made sure AGG1 incorporated a mix of educational seminars, site visits and equipment exhibits to attract a wide audience of people from the aggregates industry. AGG1 has grown significantly since its inception, achieving records in 2015 for attendance, exhibitors, exhibit space and education tickets sold.
“This industry has been very kind to me over the years, and I’m honored to be associated with it,” Feltes said.
James, who joined Vulcan Materials in 1992, led one of the largest aggregate producers in the United States for 18 years, significantly expanding the company’s operations throughout the country. He guided Vulcan through periods of strong growth and difficult market downturns, positioning the company in recent years to increase operational efficiencies and maintain disciplined growth.
Under James’ leadership, first as president and then as CEO, Vulcan’s enterprise value grew from $2 billion to about $10 billion; its permitted reserves base doubled from 7.5 billion tons to more than 15 billion tons; and the aggregates facilities it operates increased from 122 to more than 325.
James served as Vulcan’s president from 1996 to 1997 and as CEO from 1997 to 2014.
“One of the wonderful things about this industry is the wonderful people,” James said. “Collectively, we have great affection for and commitment to our employees, communities and environments in which we operate.”
Zelnak, whose career in the aggregates industry began in 1974, grew Martin Marietta revenues from $450 million to more than $2.2 billion during his tenure as the company’s CEO. He joined Martin Marietta Corp. in 1981 as vice president of planning and business development for its aggregates company. And he was quickly promoted, taking on a role as president in 1982.
Zelnak was elected an officer of the parent corporation in 1989, and he was promoted to president of the company’s Materials Group in 1991. In 1994, as president and CEO, Zelnak led a transition for Martin Marietta as a publicly traded corporation on the New York Stock Exchange. He was elected chairman of the company’s board of directors in 1997 and was responsible for more than 70 acquisitions, broadening the company’s geographic footprint.
Zelnak also devised and implemented a unique long-haul distribution strategy, making Martin Marietta a leader in rail- and water-distributed aggregates products.
“As I spent more time in the business it became clear this is a very special industry and one I’ve been blessed to be in,” Zelnak said. “It’s an industry of people who are the backbone of America. I couldn’t have crafted a better script for my life and career.”
In addition to Feltes, James and Zelnak, the induction ceremony brought two other members of the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame to Nashville. In attendance were Paul Mellott, Mellott Co.; and Paul Detwiler III, New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co. Mark Deister, grandson of Hall of Famer Emil Deister, also attended the ceremony.
The induction ceremony was supported by a number of sponsor companies. Gold Sponsors of the 2016 Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame are Haver & Boecker, Kleemann/Wirtgen Group, Terex Minerals Processing Systems and Weir Minerals. Silver sponsors are Am Cast, CDE Global and Philippi-Hagenbuch. NSSGA also played a supporting role in the Hall of Fame.
The additions of Feltes, James and Zelnak take the total number of Hall of Fame inductees to 20. Pit & Quarry established its Hall of Fame in 2012 as a way to pay tribute to the pioneers of the past and the present-day industry leaders. Nominations are currently being accepted for future inductees here.
Aggregate producers, manufacturers, suppliers, dealers, association and allied trade representatives are all eligible for induction to the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame. A neutral board comprised of various industry segments reviews all nominations and determines which individuals earn induction.
Aggregates industry leaders and their families gathered for the third annual Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame Ceremony & Dinner Sunday, March 15 in Baltimore. The ceremony followed the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association‘s Chairman’s Reception at the Hilton Baltimore.
Both Detwiler III and Schmidgall attended the event and reflected on their respective inductions in their speeches. Pit & Quarry accepted on behalf of Blake, a 19th century inventor, and Cat’s Mike Hinrichsen accepted on behalf of Barton, who was unable to attend the event.
Bernie Grove, a member of the hall’s 2014 class, also attended this year’s event and was honored during the ceremony. Weather kept him from attending last year’s event prior to ConExpo-Con/Agg in Las Vegas.
The four 2015 inductees were selected by a group of peers from a pool of nominees submitted by industry experts and readers. This group joins the 13 current members in the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame.
