Davey Tree Flipbooks

113 112 Growth Rings of the company, eventually retiring from the board in 1999. Management succession remained a priority, and in March 1999 the board of directors elected Karl Warnke to the position of president and chief operating officer. is new role made Warnke responsible for all the Davey Company's operations. He reported directly to Cowan, who transitioned to the role of chairman and CEO. Warnke was humbled by the confidence the board placed in him and was honored to fill the vacant seat created by Joy's departure. Strengthening employee ownership also continued to be a focal point for company management. In 1997 the company introduced the 401KSOP as the new primary employee ownership and retirement benefit program. e 401KSOP incorporated the prior ESOP accounts and added an employee-contributory, company-match feature. Initially, Davey would contribute $0.50 for every $1 employees deducted from their income. e company's contribution was primarily in Davey stock. By the end of 1997, there were 2,128 employee participants in the 401KSOP. In February 1998 Martin L. Davey, Jr., died at his home in Kent, Ohio, at the age of 80. After becoming president of the company in 1946 at the age of 28, Brub led Davey Tree through a period of record growth and modernization, and later he supported the employee acquisition. Without his support, the Davey Company might have been broken up and sold in various pieces. Instead, he made sure to put it into the hands of people he viewed as family – the employees. "We've always had the attitude that the biggest and most valuable asset we have doesn't show up on a balance sheet. It's our people," he told the Record-Courier in 1983. Later that year, the Davey Company lost another stalwart believer in the employees when Jim Pohl died in September. Pohl, a retired member of the Davey board of directors, started his career at Davey in 1948 as a computer operator. He would later serve as company auditor, controller, vice president, senior vice president of finance and administration, and executive vice president. He retired in 1985 as vice chairman and corporate secretary. In 1995 he retired from the company board of directors after 43 years. He served under six Davey presidents and played important roles in the employee-acquisition and in building the new corporate center. "He was one of the most principled men I know," Cowan said in a 1998 Davey Bulletin article. "To him character counted. He was a man worthy of emulation." e Davey Company reached a milestone in 1999, when it celebrated the 20th anniversary of the employee acquisition. e company had experienced incredible growth in every aspect in the two decades since the employees took over. "We enjoyed some immediate success in the first few years. It didn't take us long to recognize we were on the right track," Warnke said in the 1999 annual report to shareholders. "As the business grew and prospered, employee ownership built upon itself and gave us the momentum to expand the business more rapidly. Employee ownership gives us a sense of independence – it allows us to have more control over our own future, and it instills enthusiasm, pride and motivation in everyone." Chapter 6 Students in the forestry program at neighboring eodore Roosevelt High School plant trees at the John Davey Arboretum in 2018 with guidance from Davey experts. e arboretum remains a valued resource. Descendants of John Davey gathered in 1996 at the corporate headquarters to commemorate the dedication of the John Davey Arboretum across from Davey Tree's corporate complex in Kent, Ohio. e arboretum stands next to Standing Rock Cemetery, where John first practiced his scientific tree surgery methods in Kent and where he was laid to rest in 1923. e arboretum was made possible through a partnership between Davey, the city of Kent, Kent City Schools and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

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