ACPA Pioneer Awards

The ACPA Pioneer Award is given each year to those outstanding individuals whose contributions have helped foster and advance the concrete pumping industry and whose willingness to share their knowledge has greatly enhanced the quality of our industry. This year the ACPA was pleased to honor three individuals with the award.

Hank de Carbonel

Although Hank de Carbonel was born in Oakland, California, he was raised in Berkeley because at that time, a hospital was thought to be very classy for “birthing.” He is the younger of two sons. His parents were just plain working folk. Hank’s father came to America as a child from Shanghai after his own father passed away. Boat fare was cheaper to the U.S. rather than a trip back to France which, according to Hank, was a very fortunate circumstance since he prefers hamburgers over foie gras.

After trying his luck at owning a wholesale motorcycle business supplying lubricants and tires to shops in northern California, Hank was in need of gainful employment. One of his best friends was working as a mechanic for Frank Barradas, the local Thomsen dealer for northern California, and they needed a “go-fer.” Hank was just the guy. After one week, Hank became the parts manager and pretty soon, the service manager. This concrete pumping business was quite exhilarating! Thomsen had just come out with the 845 and Frank had sold a fair bunch of 600s, 700s and Tommy guns, as well as A 4 point 5s and A 7s In the early 1970s, there was a lot to learn and quite a lot of adventures in pumping. That has never stopped.

Eventually, Thomsen located to a crane dealer and Hank became the pump salesman as well, selling cranes, excavators and most anything with a boom. Thomsen became the Schwing dealer for concrete pumps until Schwing decided to open a company store. The head office in White Bear asked Hank to head up their northern California operation, so he quickly had to learn about real estate as well as how to deal with the government and all the permits and licenses, which were needed to operate a business in California.

When Hank first went to work for Schwing, there were less than 50 employees and one model—a 28-meter roll and fold, three-section boom, with an 801 pump kit. When he left, there were over 500 employees and the model range had expanded so drastically that a 52-meter concrete pump was a common model. During his tenure at Schwing, Hank had the opportunity to see a lot of the world, including going to his father’s native home of Shanghai. And throughout the years, Hank had the good fortune to experience many more adventures and experiences.

Hank currently serves on the CalTrans advisory committee for oversize loads and permit policy. He has been a member of the American Concrete Institute, serving on the committees associated with concrete pumping as well as a number of other boards and concrete pumping groups. He has been an active member of the ACPA pretty much since it began back in 1974 at its first inception in Long Beach, California and even before that, if you count the pumpers association in northern California.

Hank moved from Berkeley to Sacramento, California in the late 70s where he still resides today. He enjoys vintage motorcycles and owns a BMW sidecar that he bought in 1989. Hank’s latest adventure is serving as the director of the California Concrete Pumpers Alliance, working for the benefit of pumpers and others in the construction industry that face the many challenges of doing business in a poor economy coupled with a difficult government. Hank says that before his position with the CCPA, he used to enjoy reading non-fiction, but now he just doesn’t have the time because he’s too busy reading fiction from the government!

Jim Goff

FCU, Florida Concrete Unlimited, Inc., was started in 1974 by a man who didn’t have a vision, didn’t have the goal of becoming a large concrete contractor, and certainly didn’t have the intent of becoming a leader in the concrete industry.

FCU was started by a man with the sole intent to feed himself and his family at the end of the day. Only a year prior to 1974, this man sold the baseball cap off his head for a bowl of chili worth 20 cents.

In January of 1973, James T. Goff found himself at the beginning of a recession. He was working on a large, 7,000- square foot pour at Miami-Dade Junior College when his boss at the time, Luther Brown, informed him he wasn’t going to be paid for his overtime work. He told Jim he should just consider himself lucky to even have a job! Needless to say, this hard worker who wanted his earned overtime was shunned and moved to the bottom of the crew list. Day after day, he was turned away when calling for work. Enough was enough for this ambitious worker! That month he told Luther he was going into business for himself. Luther laughed and exclaimed, “Boy, you don’t know what you’re talking about! Don’t you know we are in a recession?”

Jim took $500 and bought two Whiteman Trowel Machines he found advertised in the newspaper by a finisher who was going out of business. Jim searched Miami-Dade County day and night for people who were putting additions onto their homes. When he spotted one, he would knock on the door and short of begging the homeowner, he’d ask if he could pour their slab. If the person said no, he’d be back the next day. He was relentless and offered a guarantee to the customer: “If you’re not 100 percent happy, you don’t owe me a dime!”

A little less than ten years later, Luther Brown came to FCU’s main office and asked Jim Goff for a job.

After a few years of finishing concrete, Jim had thoughts of buying concrete pumps. He saw an ad in the paper for a trailer pump located in Canada and traveled to check it out. Jim had never seen snow before, so after the pump salesman finally got him and his buddy to stop playing in the snow, they began to look over the pump just long enough to take a picture and then ask where they could rent snow skis. Jim never bought that pump, but he later bought a 650 Schwing that he kept in his garage. As the days of humping five-inch hose were getting older by the minute, Jim bought his first 28-meter in 1978 and from there, continued growing, gaining dominance in the pump, place and finish package.

This is only a glimpse back into Jim’s past. The stories to be told are endless. Jim was not always liked, but all respected him. His reputation carries a legacy, and he is often referred to as “a true pioneer” of the concrete industry and one who helped pioneer pump, place and finish.

Jim is an inspiration to the youth and adults of today and gives one hope that if your desire and perseverance are strong enough, you will succeed. He has lived life and managed FCU by an iron fist, but can motivate one to achieve more tomorrow than yesterday. Failure or mediocrity is not an option, and “quitting” has been removed from the dictionary. Sometimes you have to know what it is to starve before you can appreciate what’s on your plate.

Today, Jim remains the president of FCU while he enjoys being semi-retired. He is a private pilot and an avid salt water fisherman who enjoys many months in the Bahamas and Florida Keys each year. He has been married to his wife, Sabrina, for 35 years and has two children, Jason and Kristen, a daughter-in-law Yvette, and a granddaughter, Mia.

In 1973, a hat for a bowl of chili … in 2012, over 60 million square feet of floors pumped, placed, finished and still counting …

Chuck Reed

Chuck Reed is co-owner of Western Concrete Pumping, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, California. He was born in Crossett, Arkansas and raised in Texarkana, Texas. His parents, Charles and Evelyn Reed, were both teachers and his father was also a prominent football and track coach at Liberty-Eylau High School. Chuck graduated from Liberty-Eylau High School and earned a scholarship to Northeast Louisiana University, where he was a pole-vaulter. He went on to obtain a bachelor of science degree in construction management at NLU.

After graduation in 1984, Chuck went to work for one of the industry’s original pioneers, George Brock of Hercules Concrete Pumping in New Orleans, Louisiana. He worked in New Orleans until 1986 and then left to go to work for Tony Tye at Hercules of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas until 1988. Chuck then traveled over to the West Coast, where he went to work for one of the prominent founding fathers of the pumping industry, Duane Perrin of American Standard Concrete Pumping, San Diego Division. His tenure lasted from 1988 to 1992, at which time he joined Western Concrete Pumping, Inc. That same year, Chuck’s personal life took a turn for the best when he married his awesome wife, Judi. Western was a small fledgling pumping company, and under Chuck’s leadership and hard work, combined with strong employee and customer relationships, the company began to flourish and has now expanded in several other states including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Beginning in 1996, San Diego experienced the largest re-development of any municipality in the history of the country. Chuck and the Western team completed numerous high-rise projects during this time period that included many highly-coordinated multi-pump mat pours.

The company continues to grow, with an ever-increasing fleet of both boom pumps and telebelts.

Chuck and Judi went on to build a family and have two fantastic kids, Hannah who is 19 and Tripp who is 16.

Chuck says that his faith and then his family, including his partner, Brett Reid, are the key to the success he has been allowed to experience.