Davey Tree Flipbooks

25 24 Growth Rings But Haupt was determined to turn the struggling California company into a wild success for Davey Tree. He immediately consolidated offices to reduce expenses. He trimmed employee counts, so the majority of personnel were working in the field. But he didn't, and couldn't, replace everyone. To a certain degree, he benefitted by retain- ing some of the better surgery company employees, including Paul Daniel. Daniel started with the surgery company as a trainee in 1944, and in 1969 he transferred to the Livermore office. By 1972 he would become chief supervisor, then vice president of field operations, followed by a promotion to senior vice president in 1984. en in 1987 Daniel would be elected executive vice president and general manager of the Davey Tree Surgery Company, reporting directly to Haupt. Daniel recalled in a September 2000 interview that some of the account supervisors who had been retained by Haupt worked hard to turn around the western subsidiary. "A lot of us that had been here kept in touch with the utility representatives that we had been friends with for years," Daniel said. "And as we came back in and started bidding, a lot of these people wanted to see us back on their accounts. We had some help from them, and it just started working out. It wasn't easy. It was a lot of hard, old work." But it wasn't just the local surgery staff who played an important cultural role in its resurgence, Daniel noted. "After the parent company bought out Davey Tree Surgery, […] you had a good feeling about it. […] Some of the management that were there in Kent then were some of the finest people I have ever met in my life. I felt that anything that you needed and asked for, if it was within their power, they would help with it." In a matter of months, Haupt and his team managed to resurrect the surgery company. Howard Bowles, who retired as senior vice president and general manag- er of Davey Tree Surgery Company in 2012, was a supervisor at the time of the acquisition. "e surgery company became a tremendous success under [Haupt's] leadership," Bowles recalled in a 2017 interview. e surgery company succeeded in winning back several large utility contracts that had been lost just prior to the buyout. Admittedly, Haupt had never bid utility work on such a scale before in his career. So, the surgery company started to bid for work much as the eastern utility operations did. Besides, the surgery company fared much better on its contracts than the eastern utility operations due in part to its lessened overhead expenses and having equipment with a longer lifespan, thanks to warmer, milder weather. Chapter 1 Davey's Charlotte facility opened in 1969. Success in the Western states would mean more growth for the company at a time when Davey was experiencing modest personnel shortages due to the military draft. e Bulletin's regular "Military Mailbag" features included military mailing addresses for employees with photos of Davey workers in Vietnam. It was a testament to Davey's continued willingness to support American military involvement abroad. With the uncertainty of the international situation, even D.I.T.S. classes were suspended for a while. Fortunately, classes could resume in 1970. With the conclusion of the war, the acquisition of the surgery company, and reinstatement of D.I.T.S., the future looked bright for Davey. "e demand for our services continues with few signs of slackening," executive management noted in the 1969 annual report. "e manpower situation seems to be easing in some areas. 1970 looks like another fine year." From left are foreman Cecil W. McKinney, Terry Bratcher and William Young in the bucket in this photo from the October 1969 Davey Bulletin highlighting the Idaho Power Company account. As the editors pointed out then, Young was not in a "danger zone," as the overhead power lines were in the background and not near the bucket. McKinney was a member of the original Davey crew under Wally Emerson and Bill Frederick that started the Idaho Power Company operation in March 1939. Following that, McKinney had worked in the western division of Idaho Power in western Idaho and eastern Oregon. e Davey Tree Surgery Company moved its headquarters from the Russ Building in San Francisco to this location at 2616 S. Vasco Rd. in Livermore, California, in the 1970s. e Davey Company bought the surgery company from Keith L. Davey, grandson of John Davey, in 1969. A young Gene Haupt. He would eventually become one of the Davey Company's longest-tenured employees. He guided the Davey Tree Surgery Company to unprecedented profits after taking over its management from Keith Davey in 1969.

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