Category: 2014

Hall of Fame Inductee Class of 2014 Ralph Rogers laid the groundwork for what is now one of the largest privately owned aggregate companies in the United States. Rogers and his partners were among the first road builders involved in President Dwight Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System, supplying stone and building major interstate sections in Alabama,…

Hall of Fame Inductee Class of 2014 Bruno Nordberg, a Finnish-born immigrant, founded the Nordberg Manufacturing Co. in 1886 and first achieved success and recognition in the field of steam engines. He later expanded into a range of products that included crushing, grinding and screening equipment for the aggregates and mining industries. Nordberg Manufacturing later…

Hall of Fame Inductee Class of 2014 Chuck Lien established Pete Lien & Sons in 1944 with his father, Pete, and brother, Bruce. The company grew from one of three employees and one location to a company with nearly 400 employees across 30 sites in three different states. Lien reinvested the company’s earnings into reserves…

Hall of Fame Inductee Class of 2014 Howard Hall, founder and president of Iowa Manufacturing/Cedarapids Inc., enters the hall of fame posthumously. After serving in France during World War I, Hall started his business career in 1919 by buying Iowa Steel & Iron Works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Four years later, he and associates formed…

Hall of Fame Inductee Class of 2014 Bernie Grove, former chairman of the National Stone Association, grew up in the industry, as his family owned the M.J. Grove Lime Co. in Frederick, Md. As chairman of the National Stone Association, Grove was an advocate for community outreach. He formed the association’s Public Affairs Committee to…

Hall of Fame Inductee Class of 2014 J. Don Brock, chairman and CEO at Astec Industries Inc., founded his company in 1972. Under his leadership, Astec grew into a family of 17 companies – 13 of which are located in the United States. Astec also has companies in Australia, Brazil, Canada and South Africa. Brock presently…

Ralph Rogers laid the groundwork for what is now the largest privately owned aggregate company in the United States. The company that started in 1908 with a single roadside operation in Bloomington, Ind., now operates quarries, asphalt plants and construction units in six states across the Midwest and Southeast. According to grandson Rick Rechter, a…

Bruno Nordberg founded the Nordberg Manufacturing Co. in 1886, and he achieved his first recognition and success in steam engines. Born in Finland, Nordberg emigrated to the United States with little in his pockets around 1880, eventually settling in Milwaukee. He found work at age 22 as a draftsman concentrating on Corliss steam engines, but…

Pete Lien & Sons, which started in 1944 near Rapid City, S.D., with Chuck Lien, his father, Pete, and brother, Bruce, has grown from a company that had $16,000 in gross sales in year one to one whose 2013 gross sales hovered around $110 million. Today, the company employs nearly 400 people at 30 different…

Ninety years have passed since the Iowa Manufacturing Co. got its start and more than 40 have gone by since its founder’s death. But Howard Hall’s legacy is still felt on every jobsite where portable equipment crushes rock today. After serving his country in France during World War I, Hall, an Iowa-born man, and longtime…