Davey Tree Flipbooks

101 100 Growth Rings should work," Bowles said. "I learned a lot in D.I.T.S., and I wanted to take advantage of all that newfound knowledge. It wasn't a week later Gene [Haupt] responded and said, 'Come on up to Santa Cruz. I have a general foreman job for you.'" e move to Santa Cruz, California, cemented two important, long-term relationships with Davey Tree for Bowles. First, it was the start of his rise up the ranks as a leader and manager at Davey. Second, Bowles managed to renew the relationship with PG&E, which remains a valued client of the Davey Company. Meanwhile, Rick Ramsey, retired corporate vice president of Canadian operations, served as temporary co-manager of the surgery company along with Howard Bowles. Ramsey's primary responsibility was overseeing the residential services segment of the surgery company's operations. Ramsey had been assisted by Jim Stief, who had moved to California in 1988 when he was promoted to operations manager, western residential operations. Ramsey followed in the footsteps of one of his previous managers, A.B. "Mac" McKinstry, who had moved to California in the early 1980s to oversee the surgery company's residential operations. Ramsey had assumed that mantle when McKinstry, a longtime Davey man, retired in 1987. e Davey Surgery Company had also started to strengthen ties with its parent company in Kent. Executive management had worked to make sure managers in the surgery company took frequent trips to the corporate headquarters in Kent, whether for department meetings or training seminars, to familiarize themselves with executive personnel there and the overall company culture. is effort at building camaraderie included the surgery company's annual management meetings, during which executives from the corporate office in Kent joined surgery company managers in Livermore to review the previous year and plan for the next. ese efforts were also intended to knock down walls and eliminate any perceptions of mistrust or doubt that might have grown between the operations on the two coasts over the years. Prior to such reintegration efforts, the surgery company had operated largely as a separate entity merely reporting to the Kent company. As of 1989, the surgery company operations consisted of 24 utility divisions and 12 residential territories, which were staffed by 1,200 employees with 95 percent of their clients and assets located in California. e surgery company also conducted limited business in Oregon and Washington at the time. ese operations accounted for nearly 30 percent of the Davey Company's total sales – far too large to operate independently of the parent company. "at was a big move for us," Bowles said of increased communication and face- to-face visits with the corporate personnel. "But it was a good experience, and we benefitted from it. We knew if we made a phone call to the corporate office in Kent and asked to talk to somebody, they'd answer. […] ey were all eager to help." Warnke said company leadership encouraged managers in the east and west oper- ations to work together. is helped build bridges between the different operations and strengthen the larger Davey Company. Best practices were shared between the surgery company and the parent company, with the surgery company taking the lead in areas of production monitoring, cost control, and safety. At the same time, it was imperative that the surgery company maintained a strong sense of independence and entrepreneurship, Warnke said. "Employees of both the surgery company and Kent corporate staff were all good people dedicated to the same thing," he recalled in a 2017 interview. "ey just need that intermediary to bring things together. at's the thing that management and executives get paid for, and you don't teach that stuff. ere isn't a lesson in how you get one manager to like another. It's done with intuition, gut feel, and a lot of personal time spent under- standing the other's point of view." Davey Tree may have lost two key generals to start the 1990s, but the company gained a future leader in 1991 when a young CPA named Patrick M. Covey joined Davey's corporate office in Kent via a seemingly random route. Covey's wife had taken a position in the corporate office of Goodyear, one of the world's largest and oldest automotive tire manufacturers. at meant a move from Wisconsin, where Covey was born and raised, and had spent the previous four years working at the accounting firm Grant ornton. Covey, holding degrees in Accounting and Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, moved to the Akron area looking for a change from the public accounting profession, and a role with a company that valued teamwork and culture. Covey had spent his whole life in the greater Madison, Wisconsin, area before making the move. e son of blue-collar parents, Covey learned the value of hard work early on through mowing lawns, bailing hay, and delivering papers on his morning paper route. When he was a teenager, his Saturdays were spent selling Cokes and hotdogs at Wisconsin Badgers football games and summers were spent work- ing construction for Newcomb Construction. He spent his first summer in Ohio Chapter 6 Utility operations in Idaho, Utah and Colorado reported to the Kent Utility management during the 1990s. Davey's utility operations enjoyed working on and near picturesque locations in the West during the 1990s, including within sight of the famous Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. Davey continued aggressive expansion of its Residential/Commercial services in the early 1990s. For nearly 500 years the Wye Oak was a towering landmark in Talbot County on Maryland's eastern shore. When it toppled in a storm in June 2002, it had a circumference of 31 feet, 8 inches and was 96 feet tall, and was the national champion white oak. In February 2009, Davey's Chesapeake office helped to install the remains of the giant in Wye Oak State Park, where it was to become the centerpiece of a pavilion-style visitor's center (inset). e tree was among the first to be recognized by American Forests' National Register of Big Trees program when it was initiated in 1940, and for years it served as the honorary state tree of Maryland. It had a crown spread of 119 feet and was featured in the 1997 National Register of Big Trees calendar.

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