Davey Tree Flipbooks

Growth Rings: A History of The Davey Tree Expert Company and Companion to Green Leaves

The Davey Tree Expert Company provides residential and commercial tree service and landscape service throughout North America. Read our Flipbooks for helpful tips and information on proper tree and lawn care.

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47 46 Growth Rings working for Davey – dragging brush for a utility line clearance crew – he reported to a gas station in Lakewood, Ohio, to meet his foreman, Paul Degan. at morning several other men named John had reported to work, so Degan decided to call him "Jack." e nickname would stick throughout Joy's entire Davey career. Joy attended the Davey Institute of Tree Sciences in 1949 and later held numerous positions within the field. He started working in the corporate office in 1958. Management welcomed him as the new president because he was one of them – a tree man who started in the field. Farm-raised, Joy proved an excellent salesman. He could also skillfully maneuver the corporate world that kept Davey running smoothly and on the leading edge of tree care development. Retired Davey chairman and CEO Doug Cowan, who retired in 2007, recalled the announcement ultimately prompted affectionate humor from Joy's colleagues. "We accused Jack forever after that, that their second decision was because of the first decision," Cowan said in a 2016 interview. "In fact, we were all pleased that Jack was put in charge." Joy seemed like a natural fit to lead Davey. By 1977, when he was elected president, Joy was keenly aware of how to run a tree care business thanks to his 31 years spent in various positions with the company, both in the field and in executive manage- ment. On accepting the presidency, Joy proffered the kind of foundational ideas of an employee-owned company to the workers of what, for the time being, was still a family owned firm. "I welcome the challenge and opportunity to serve the best interests of our employees, customers and shareholders," Joy wrote in a December 1977 letter to employees. "I hope everyone will understand that there must be a common unity of interest among these three groups because it is logical and true that as any company grows in business, there must be a mutual relationship of benefits to everyone. Otherwise, a company will not be successful." Outwardly, Joy committed to the success of the company. Privately, he wondered whether he was being used as a pawn merely to oversee the company's sale, so he hedged his bets accordingly. If the company were sold outright, Joy had an offer to take over as president of a competing tree care company. He also briefly considered the idea of leaving and starting his own company. Initially, the idea of selling the company seemed like a less than ideal solution Chapter 3 A Davey employee at work in the 1970s. During the recession of the early 1970s Davey sold many of its older trucks and chippers to pay down debt. Rising sales in the late 1970s forced the company to finance the purchase of new equipment, like this Ford F750 lift truck, to keep up with the demand for work. "We were all called in, the management group, on a Friday, and it was announced without any preliminary discussion that I was going to be appointed president among all my peers," Jack Joy recalled in a 1987 interview. "And, of course, immediately thereafter the second announcement came that the company would be sold, which is interesting. But at any rate I think that began a period that was certainly a challenge. It was rather awesome to me at the time." Joy seemed a natural fit to lead the company that had given him the name "Jack." A tree man through and through, Joy started a long and prosperous career with Davey in 1946 after returning home from WWII. He traded his seat in a B17 bomber for one in a Davey truck doghouse – similarly cramped conditions. Barrel-chested with arms like tree limbs, Joy had an imposing presence that acclimated him immediately to the kind of physically demanding work Davey crews performed. On his first day

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