Davey Tree Flipbooks

77 76 Growth Rings Chapter 4 of Davey Leadership Award earner, Ober was on his way to become vice president overseeing personnel recruiting and development. Rick Ramsey, who would amass 43 years of service including roles in Davey Surgery and Canadian operations, was working as district manager of the Columbus office in 1983. One year later he would be an assistant vice president in residential operations. In Philadelphia, the future operations manager for Davey's Northeastern operating group, Bruce Semeria, was working as district manager of the West Philadelphia office. Wayne Parker, who started working for Davey Canada in 1976, served as corporate operations manager for Canadian operations in 1983, but a year later he would become utility operations coordinator in the corporate office. Larry Petrasek had just joined Davey in 1983 as assistant equipment manager under Ralph Ferry, who was teaching Petrasek the ropes of fleet operations. Eventually, Petrasek would oversee all equipment as well as the Kent Shop. All the while, working both behind the scenes and out in front of crews to build and maintain Davey's safety culture had been a steady succession of competent managers and directors backed by committed leadership from within the organization. Ron Cole, who joined Davey in 1983 as a supervisor, was taking over the reins of the safety department from Bob Holt, who had served as safety director for much of the prior decade. Cole started as a safety supervisor but was promoted to manager of the safety department in 1984. Ten years later, Joseph Tommasi joined Davey as a safety manager. He would eventually rise to vice president of corporate safety in 2018. ese employees were just some of those representing a multi-generational cohort of managers who would soon play important roles in the history of Davey Tree, in accordance with the changes Joy had announced. ey came from various back- grounds and represented different generations. Some were long-time Davey employees, and others were recent hires. Some, such as Ramsey, Johnson, Davis, and Bowles, were among the original 114 employee-owners. Others were eager, or already started, to become employee-owners themselves. Davey enjoyed double-digit percentage increases in annual revenue from 1978 through 1984, and by 1984, the company employed 3,800 people across the U.S. and Canada. Aside from exceptional revenue growth during the early years of employee ownership, stock values rose as well. To ensure the long-term health of employee- ownership, the company's board of directors voted to adopt a stock repurchase policy in 1983. is gave the company the ability to buy shares from any shareholder who needed or wanted to sell shares and was willing to offer them to the company. "is policy affords redemption for all shareholders and, at the same time, minimizes the possibility that the company's ownership might otherwise pass into the hands of non-employees," Joy explained in the company's 1983 annual report. During the first five years of employee ownership shares of stock increased from the $22.50 acquisition price to more than $29.60 per share at the end of 1983. In the meantime, the ranks of employee owners had continued to grow. "e company stock being purchased […] is strong evidence that our employees have an interest and confidence in the future of the company and that employee ownership will be perpetuated," Joy noted in his 1983 report to shareholders. Gordon Ober started with Davey in 1975. He would ultimately retire in 2014 as vice presi- dent of personnel recruiting and development. Larry Petrasek started at Davey in 1983. He ultimately would retire in 2014 as fleet administrator manager for the Davey Company. Bruce Semeria started in 1965 as a groundperson. He retired as district manager of the West Philadelphia office in 1998. Wayne Parker started with Davey in 1976 and retired in 1997 as a vice president in Utility services. Jed Day started in utility operations in 1982 but moved into residential operations and rose to vice president and general manager, Western operations. Gene Efird started at Davey in 1944. He would eventually rise to vice president, Utility services.

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