Andrews Receives ACPA Lifetime Achievement Award

Dennis Andrews of Andrews Concrete Pumping, Jessup, Maryland, received the coveted ACPA Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s ACPA Annual Membership Meeting held on January 24, 2012 at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The award was first presented in 1988 and is awarded to those individuals or companies who have fostered and advanced the use of concrete pumping, have improved the conditions under which concrete pumping is performed, shared their knowledge and experiences with others in the industry, and promoted and practiced safe concrete pumping.

Dennis Andrews was born in 1949 in Dearborn, Michigan. His father was a graduate of Henry Ford Trade School where he passed along his passion for cars and design to Dennis.

At the young age of 5, Dennis began racing quarter midget cars with his sister, Lynn. His father made it clear to him that if he was going to race, he had to learn how to fix his own car— hence, Dennis’s passion for cars and auto mechanics began.

Always a “gear-head”, you could find Dennis working in his dad’s garage on race cars— he even painted his neighbor’s car for “payment of $25.00” at the early age of 10.

Dennis attended Edsel Ford High School where his favorite class was shop. Once in high school, he was often excused from academic classes to work on his teachers’ cars. In his senior year of high school, he won the coveted Plymouth Automotive Troubleshooting contest for the state of Michigan and went onto become first runner-up in the National Automotive Troubleshooting contest held in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he had the privilege of driving on the Indy 500 Track.

After high school, Dennis attended Henry Ford Community College and then the Lawrence Institute of Technology. During the summer months of college, Dennis worked for a landscaping company. One summer they were building a concrete fish pond and needed a concrete pump to complete the job. And who do you rent a concrete pump from in Michigan? The Cross Brothers, of course! After the completion of that project, Dennis later went on to start his own sandblasting company where he was reunited with the Cross brothers when they hired him to sandblast and paint their fleet of concrete pumps.

In 1973, Cross Concrete Pumping hired Dennis as manager of their Nashville, Tennessee operation. From there, he was asked to return back to Detroit to assist in the monumental pumping project of the Detroit Renaissance Center. He attended his first World of Concrete in Las Vegas in 1976 where had the privilege of learning from many of the icons in the industry—and the rest as they say, is history.

While selling Schwing concrete pumps throughout the country, it was the sale of a pump in Las Vegas that inspired Dennis to bring the concrete pumping industry to a modern day level in Vegas. So, with the support of his parents, and with the collateral from their home, he packed his bags and moved to Vegas in 1979 to start his own pumping company.

As with all good times, there also come bad times, and with the collapse of the economy in Las Vegas in 1984, Dennis moved his business to Baltimore and joined forces with Tom Hollerbach, where he again faced the challenge of developing the Baltimore/D.C. market into a modern, efficient and respected pumping region.

Twenty-eight years later, Dennis continues to operate his companies in Maryland with help from his sister, Lynn, two sons, Danny and Steven, and with the support of his wife of 27 years, Diane. Their youngest son, Alex, also hopes to join the family business after completing college.

Dennis has served on the ACPA Board of Directors since 2001 and was president from 2008 through 2010. He currently serves as past president. He was instrumental in the development of the first ACPA Safety Seminar Video Series and in 2004, was recognized with an ACPA Pioneer Award for his advancement and fostering of the concrete pumping industry.

Dennis’s undying devotion is an inspiration to all as he continues to be an active supporter and influential voice in the concrete pumping industry. Dennis and his wife, Diane, have three children: Danny, Steve and Alex.