Neil R. Hise of CEMCO was enshrined in the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame during a March 24 induction ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee. Hise reflected on his life and career at Cemco during the black-tie celebration of the aggregate industry.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF HIS FAMILY: I first want to thank God for allowing me to live this long and looking after me my whole life and blessing me with my family. I have my wife Ty Juana, my two sons-in-law – Joseph and Michael – and my two daughters Jennifer and Aneile. My youngest daughter, Aneile, has provided us with what, at one time, I thought [would be] the fourth generation. Another 10 years from now, who knows? These two boys (my grandchildren) are the lift of my wife’s and my life.
Ty’s been putting up with my shenanigans for over 50 years. We are going to be married, in May, about 49 years. I have truly been blessed that she’s put up with me for that long.
ON BEING INDUCTED TO THE PIT & QUARRY HALL OF FAME: I am wowed, honored and humbled to be an inductee in the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame. It’s an exclusive club. [There are only] 40 people. The Senate has 100 and they don’t do anything. We do stuff. We make big rocks small.
ON CREATING THE VERTICAL SHAFT IMPACT (VSI) TURBO CRUSHER WITH CEMCO: It’s true that I developed a crusher because I particularly didn’t like welding all day and all night. My dad and I had conversations about how there had to be a way to make chips and sand better than these roll crushers. In New Mexico, they just wipe [the roll crushers] right out. The rock is so hard that it sparks at night, and it will jump right out of the crusher and jump 30 ft. in the air.
Our very first crusher was hydraulic, because we knew the change in rpm made it work or not work. If you could control the rpm, you could make what the customer wanted. What [does] everyone in this industry do? You make your customer happy by providing them what they want.
ON COMING TO THE U.S. AS A CHILD: We left England on Dec. 26, 1946, and we arrived in America in Farmington, New Mexico – which is in the middle of nowhere – on Jan. 7, 1947. It took 11 days. Travel back in the day was difficult. My dad was trying to meet the airplanes coming to find my mom and me.
I’ve been blessed in my life to grow up in this industry and meet these people.
ON THE AGGREGATE INDUSTRY: Our industry has the most wonderful people you could ever meet in your life. Why is that? Because we’re all trying to make a better life for our families. Every one of us is doing that. I have been to crusher pits all over the world, and this unique human attribute is in every one of them – from the third-largest gold mine in the world in Uzbekistan to desert pits in Mexico, frozen pits in northern Canada and jungle pits in Malaysia. I’m proud to be a part of this industry.
I love this industry. I love the people in this industry, and I’m blessed to have been here. I look forward to poking around [it] still.
