Four new members were inducted to the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame Monday night during a black-tie ceremony and dinner at the Marriott St. Louis Grand.
Gerry Bauer (EccoFab), Ron DeDiemar, Tom Hill (Vulcan Materials) and Edgar B. Symons (Symons Brothers Co.) are this year’s honorees, joining 40 others who’ve been enshrined in the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame since 2013.
More than 160 guests attended the ceremony – the 10th in Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame history. The ceremony took place in conjunction with the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association’s Annual Convention and AGG1 Aggregates Academy & Expo.
“All four of this year’s inductees have made lasting, positive impacts on the aggregate industry,” says Rob Fulop, the publisher of Pit & Quarry, who served as an emcee of the induction ceremony. “We are thrilled to cement the legacy of these incredible individuals. Congratulations to the class of 2025.”
Gerald F. Bauer
Bauer joined EccoFab in 1978, four years after the company was founded, and took over as president in 1998.
Under Bauer’s leadership, EccoFab, a manufacturer of custom-made wear parts for the aggregate industry, joined the U.S. Hardox Wearparts Network in 2000 as a founding member. From there, Bauer’s use and promotion of Hardox steel exponentially grew.
In 2023, Bauer received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the SSAB North American Hardox Wearparts Network. As Kjell Bäckman, vice president of special steel sales for SSAB, says, Bauer is the “North Star” among members of the U.S. Hardox Wearparts Network.
While Bauer’s impact on the world of wear parts is well-known, it’s Bauer’s personality that sets him apart from his peers.
He’s described by many as a knowledgeable, humble, problem-solving innovator who is always willing to collaborate. No matter how much experience or status someone might have, Bauer treats everyone as a peer.
Even at 81 years old, Bauer shows no signs of slowing down.
“This truly is an honor,” Bauer says. “I’m humbled to be included in such a distinguished class of inductees. Thank you to those who nominated me and to the selection committee.”
Ronald B. DeDiemar
Unlike Bauer, who has spent his entire career with one company, DeDiemar has spent his career working for some of the most prominent crushing and screening equipment manufacturers.
DeDiemar has worked at companies such as Allis-Chalmers, Hewitt-Robins, Smith Engineering Works, Telsmith and W.S. Tyler.
An engineer by trade, DeDiemar also possesses a business acumen not common in today’s mechanical minds. Throughout his career, DeDiemar applied himself to improve equipment design, as well as production gains for aggregate producers.
Perhaps his most notable contribution to aggregates is his work on chamber design. As a member of McLanahan’s board, DeDiemar was influential in design for the company’s Freedom jaw crushers.
DeDiemar holds or coholds 13 U.S. patents covering unique and novel enhancements to industry products. His patented work spans jaw crushers, cone crushers, gravel scrubbers and apron feeders.
DeDiemar’s heart is in being a resource. As he puts it, he wants to be the person to whom anyone can ask any question. He enjoys talking over problems and, if he gets an order, he will do whatever he can to faithfully deliver whatever it is the customer wants and needs.
“The quest for innovation has been the cornerstone of my career, always driving me to explore new technologies and methodologies,” DeDiemar says. “I have been fortunate to have enjoyed the complete cycle of our industry, from basic machine design to business ownership. I was always busy.”
J. Thomas Hill
While DeDiemar’s aggregate industry journey took him to several companies, Hill has spent the majority of his career at one company: Vulcan Materials.
Hill joined Vulcan in 1979 as an operations trainee and spent 11 years with the company. In 1990, he joined Redlands Stone Products in a sales and operations management role.
In 1996, Hill rejoined Vulcan as vice president and general manager of the Southwest division. Over the next 18 years, he served in a number of leadership roles including president of Vulcan’s former Florida Rock division, senior vice president of the company’s South region, and vice president and COO.
In 2014, Hill was named president and CEO of Vulcan. Just a year and a half later, he was elected chairman of the board following the retirement of Don James.
What sets Hill apart from other CEOs is his involvement in the everyday operations at Vulcan. He’s far more comfortable in the quarry than in a corner office and treats every employee with the same level of respect – from the lowest hourly worker to those in the C-suite.
Under Hill’s leadership, Vulcan continues to be one of the top aggregate-producing companies in the U.S. annually.
“You look at the past inductees into this Hall of Fame and the current ones tonight, and it’s a humbling place to be,” Hill says. “The aggregates business is one of the most phenomenal businesses in the U.S. The reason it’s such a great industry is because of all my colleagues in the aggregate business. For all my friends in the audience, thank you for making this industry great. For many of you, thank you for the friendships that I’ve experienced with you over the last 30 to 40 years.”
Edgar B. Symons
Whereas Hill is best known for his contributions to aggregate production, Symons’ legacy lies in a piece of innovative equipment.
Symons was born in 1871 in Sheridan, Indiana, and managed his family company, Symons Brothers Co., with his two brothers. Early inventions of the company included a horizontal disc crusher and a vertical disc crusher.
Symons made a name for himself, though, when he invented the Symons cone crusher in the 1920s. The crusher revolutionized crushing as aggregate producers knew it and a few years after the crusher hit the market, design rights were sold to Nordberg Manufacturing Co.
By 1931, Nordberg said the Symons cone crusher had been installed in 800 applications over a period of three and a half years. At the time, Nordberg said the cone crusher offered “unprecedented overall crushing cost economy” and “maximum reliability.”
For about a half-century, Symons’ technology remained unchanged. Cone crushers underwent further advancements in the decades that followed, but Symons’ model set the stage for the modern crushing industry.
Symons, who died in 1963, secured a patent for the work that defines his industry legacy. Whether he understood the lasting impact of his invention – one that continues to perform at operations worldwide – is unknown.
“I can’t think of a more classic crusher than the Symons,” says Jeremy Polcyn, who currently handles technical sales support for crusher spares at Metso. “When I started at Metso in 2013, the crushing division was on a ’Replace a Symons 7 ft.’ campaign. We had success in replacing these with our high-speed cone crushers but, more often than not, when we would approach an aggregate customer, we were often met with ’Why in the world would I replace that machine?’ It’s a bulletproof design.”
A lasting legacy
Like their Hall of Fame predecessors, the members of the 2025 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.
• Thomas W. Hill, Summit Materials
• Neil R. Hise, Cemco
• Donald M. James, Vulcan Materials Co.
• Louis W. Johnson, El-Jay Manufacturing
• Charles W. Ireland, Vulcan Materials Co.
• Chuck Lien, Pete Lien & Sons
• Charles Luck Jr., Luck Stone
• Charles S. Luck III, Luck Stone
• Charles S. Luck IV, 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.
