Pit & Quarry ushers 2024 inductees into Hall of Fame

From left: Neil Hise, Susan Moorhead, Tom Hill and Charlie Luck pose for a photo at the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Hise, Hill and Luck are members of the 2024 class and Moorhead attended in place of her late father, Louis Johnson, the final member of this year’s class. Photo: P&Q Staff

Four new members were inducted to the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame Sunday night during a black-tie ceremony and dinner at the Omni Nashville Hotel.

Tom Hill (Summit Materials), Neil Hise (Cemco), Louis Johnson (El-Jay Manufacturing) and Charlie Luck IV (Luck Stone) are this year’s honorees, joining 36 others who’ve been enshrined in the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame since 2013.

More than 180 guests attended the ceremony – the ninth in Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame history. The ceremony took place in conjunction with the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association’s (NSSGA) Annual Convention and AGG1 Aggregates Academy & Expo.

“Each of these men has transformed the industry in some manner to make it better,” says Rob Fulop, the publisher of Pit & Quarry who served as an emcee of the induction ceremony. “We are thrilled to have a platform that enables us to recognize four true legends of our industry.”

Hill

Thomas W. Hill

Hill founded Summit Materials in 2009 and, over the course of his 12 years leading the company, grew it from a small private enterprise to one of the largest public producers in the U.S.

His career in aggregates began well before Summit, though.

In 1980, while pursuing his MBA, Hill took a job with CRH and spent 12 years working in Ogden, Utah, with Amcor – the first company acquired by CRH. Later, Hill took over as head of the materials division at Oldcastle, CRH’s North American arm. From 1992 to 2006, Hill helped to increase sales at Oldcastle from $100 million to $7 billion.

Hill then spent two years (2006-2008) as CEO of Oldcastle before embarking on what he called the most stressful thing he’s ever done: starting Summit.

Mergers and acquisitions were a focal point of Hill’s time at Summit. Beginning with just seven employees – including former Oldcastle co-workers of Hill’s – he helped to grow Summit’s annual net revenues to $2 billion.

Hill stepped away from Summit in 2020 and currently serves in an advisory role for Foley Concrete Products, a pipe and precast business based in Georgia. Hill says it is a matter of when – not if – he gets involved in aggregates again.

“I grew up in suburban New York, and I don’t think I would have believed it if someone would have told me I’d spend 40 years crushing rock,” Hill says. “All I can say is thank God it happened. It’s been an absolutely fantastic experience.”

Hise

Neil R. Hise

While Hill got his start in aggregates somewhat by chance, Hise has been around construction for nearly his entire life.

The second-generation owner and longtime president of Cemco grew up in construction camps alongside highway projects after emigrating to America in 1947. His father worked on the two- and four-lane highways the Hise family lived near.

In 1962, Hise’s father purchased Crusher Service Co., the company that ultimately became Cemco. Hise worked for his father repairing roll crushers. Due to the coarse material in the Southwest, repairs were frequently needed.

Hise’s solution: the vertical shaft impactor (VSI). As Hise puts it, the concept of a VSI already existed at the time, but it didn’t work well due to the quality of the castings. After working with West Coast Alloy on wear cast parts, Hise’s first VSI was completed in 1967.

Cemco’s first Turbo VSI was sold two years later in 1969 and is still in use. Fifty-four years after the revolutionary crusher was first sold, Cemco was purchased by Superior Industries in 2023.

While the company is now under the Superior name, the Cemco name lives on with Superior’s VSIs. This was critical to Hise, as he credits those who worked at Cemco for getting the company to where it is today.

“This industry is special and the people in it are special,” Hise says. “I am honored and humbled to be an inductee into the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame.”

Johnson

Louis W. Johnson

Like Hise, Johnson is best known for his development of aggregate processing equipment. Specifically, his contributions centered around crushing and screening.

Born in 1916, Johnson joined his father in purchasing a gravel plant in 1937. Together, they built a machine shop that later became El-Jay Manufacturing, which was officially founded in 1947 in Oregon.

Johnson developed the Rollercone roller bearing cone crusher and invented the triple-shaft horizontal screen. During his time at El-Jay, Johnson earned more than 50 patents and built the company into a world leader in rock processing equipment.

Kimball Equipment’s Cade Seeley calls the El-Jay Rollercone the forefather of the Terex Cedarapids MVP and Astec Kodiak cone crushers. Additionally, he says many leading equipment manufacturers make updated versions of the El-Jay triple-shaft horizontal screen today.

Although El-Jay was sold in the mid-1970s, Johnson remained involved in the industry with different companies. He started one called JLB alongside his son Bruce, and his final venture (Durable Crushers) involved crushing, as well.

Johnson, who died in 2007 at age 91, was also an avid golfer, turning his love of golf into a custom golf club business called Fore-Ward Gold.

“Your industry is the bedrock of civilization,” says Susan Moorhead, the daughter of Johnson who accepted the Hall of Fame honor on behalf of her late father. “They say food, clothing and shelter are the primary necessities for life. I think that’s wrong. It’s rock. Nothing else could really exist without rock.”

Luck

Charles S. Luck IV

Luck’s involvement and success in aggregates stems from a pair of impressive careers that came before him.

Luck’s father (Charles S. Luck III) and grandfather (Charles Luck Jr.) are also members of the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame – enshrined in the classes of 2018 and 2013, respectively.

Inspired by his father’s and grandfather’s deep love for people, Luck, the president and CEO of Luck Stone, helped to establish the company’s mission to “ignite human potential.” The third-generation leader of his family company has done this through values-based leadership and positively impacting the lives of people around the world.

As Luck Stone describes, this philosophy fueled two decades of significant and meaningful growth for people inside and outside of the company.

Luck formally joined the company in 1980 as a summer trainee while attending Virginia Military Institute. Prior to that, he spent summers as a youth sweeping shop floors, helping to rebuild engines and looking up to the men in the company’s shop facility in Manakin, Virginia.

Under Luck’s leadership, Luck Companies created several five-year strategic planning periods from 2005 to 2025. Luck Companies says the planning windows have been instrumental in the growth and evolution of the company, culminating with expansion into new markets and communities in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

“Today, our values-based leadership is how we do what?” Luck says. “Crush rocks is the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ is the values that determine our behaviors. When you think about what you want to be remembered for, I want you to think about who you are authentically. Who is the real you and what is the difference you can make – whether it’s with your family, your company or your culture? The impact is enormous.”

A lasting legacy

Like their Hall of Fame predecessors, the members of the 2024 class will be represented in the National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum in Leadville, Colorado, where replicas of their plaques will be on display.

Other members of the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame include:

• Ted Baker, Florida Rock Industries
• Bob Bartlett, National Stone Association
• Glen Barton, Caterpillar
• Eli Whitney Blake, Blake Rock Crusher Co.
• J. Don Brock, Astec Industries Inc.
• EJ Burke, Quick Supply Co.
• Emil Deister, Deister Machine Co.
• Paul Detwiler Jr., New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co.
• Paul Detwiler III, New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co.
• Richard J. Feltes, Feltes Sand & Gravel Co.
• Gene Fisher, Fisher Industries
• Manfred Freissle, Polydeck
• Bernie Grove, Genstar
• LeRoy Hagenbuch, Philippi-Hagenbuch
• Howard Hall, Iowa Manufacturing/Cedarapids Inc.
• Donald M. James, Vulcan Materials Co.
• Charles W. Ireland, Vulcan Materials Co.
• Chuck Lien, Pete Lien & Sons
• Charles Luck Jr., Luck Stone
• Charles S. Luck III, Luck Stone
• Samuel Calvin McLanahan, McLanahan Corp.
• Paul C. Mellott Jr., Mellott Company
• Bruno Nordberg, Nordberg Manufacturing Co.
• C. Howard “Ward” Nye, Martin Marietta
• Ralph Rogers, Rogers Group
• William J. Sandbrook, U.S. Concrete
• George Sidney, McLanahan Corp.
• Neil Schmidgall, Superior Industries
• Kim Snyder, Eastern Industries
• Franklin E. Squires, Superior Industries
• Nathan Stedman, Stedman Machine Company
• Arthur Taggart, Columbia and Yale Universities
• Dave Thomey, Maryland Materials
• Mark Towe, Oldcastle
• Washington Samuel Tyler, W.S. Tyler/Haver & Boecker
• Stephen P. Zelnak Jr., Martin Marietta

Learn more about the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame at www.pitandquarryhalloffame.com.

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