Geneva Rock Products, the company that builds Utah, is built of great workers with strong minds and equally strong backs.
It is made up of hundreds of projects around the state, each one completed through the efforts of a team of men and women that, working together, do amazing things.
To celebrate the success of Geneva Rock Products through the last 60 years, the company brought in 10 retired — and close-to-retirement — workers who enjoyed the chance to reminisce with management as much as they enjoyed the pulled pork.
Here we celebrate the individuals that helped turn Geneva Rock Products into the construction leader it is today.
AL SHELLENBERG
Schellenberg started with Geneva Rock Products in 1972 and retired in 2009 as president of the company. What those attending the lunch learned, however, was that he got fired once along the way.
Early in his career, he was asked to pick up five turkeys from a tire vendor that was offering free turkeys to everyone that buys tires. He went down to pick up the turkeys and was told when he arrived, he had another thing waiting for him.
It was a message from Schellenberg’s boss.
“The manager said, ‘I have a message for you from Dave Thomas,’” Schellenberg says.
“I said, ‘okay,’ and the manager said, ‘You’re fired.’”
When Schellenberg returned to talk with his boss, Thomas made sure Schellenberg knew Geneva Rock Products didn’t shake down vendors that way.
“He rethought my firing and rehired me — on probation,” Schellenberg said with a laugh.
Schellenberg oversaw tremendous growth at Geneva Rock Products and was instrumental in hiring and mentoring current president Jim Golding.
“I thought I would work at Geneva Rock Products for a few years to get some experience,” he says. “Forty years later, I retired after working with my best friends.”
GARY BRADFORD
In 1970, Bradford was hired and began work on his first Geneva Rock Products job — BYU’s Marriott Center. Before his career was done, he would work on a number of jobs at BYU including the football stadium expansion, the J. Reuben Clark Law School building, the Wilkin- son Center, the LDS Church’s Missionary Training Center and the Monte L. Bean Museum.
He started driving a truck for Geneva Rock Products and eventually became a sales manager and helped get work for the company around the state. In fact, his sales truck was No. 10 in the fleet— an indication of how early he joined the team and how valuable he was to the company’s growth. When he started, the company had four ready-mix trucks. Now it has more than 300.
Bradford finished his career as the plant manager in Orem.
JOHN YOUNG
Perhaps no one in the state of Utah knows more about ready-mix concrete than Young. He started with Geneva Rock Products’ concrete division in 1965 and worked tirelessly until he retired in 2009.
Over the years, he developed relationships with key players in Utah construction. The reputation he helped solidify for Geneva Rock Products made the company a player in high-profile projects like the LDS Church Office Build- ing, the ZCMI Center and numer- ous hotels that are all landmarks in downtown Salt Lake City.
“It’s interesting how rela- tionships have helped Clyde Companies [parent company of Geneva Rock Products],” Young says. “We had a good relationship with Christiansen Brothers Construction, which led us to a lot of those really good projects.”
The most difficult job Young can recall was at Snowbird, building four towers on the tram. Each tower had a 50-yard pour. Complicating matters was getting to the site with the concrete trucks.
“We finally had to cut switch- backs into the mountain,” he says. “If you got off that road, you lost a truck and the driver. That meant we sent the best trucks and the best drivers to make sure that didn’t happen.”
It’s a testament to the skill and bravery Young brought out in his people and the work the company can do for clients.
REX HARDMAN
Hardman is one of Young’s people.
“John Young is my hero,” Hardman says. “He made this
a great place to work. They say someone who is happy in his job never works a day in his life. That’s me.”
Hardman started as a mixer driver in the Murray plant on June 2, 1975. He made some mistakes that first day and feared a scolding when he was brought in to meet with management to discuss the day’s events.
“I thought I was in major trouble,” he says. “When they brought me in, they asked me if I’d learned anything from what happened. I said I had learned a lot and they said that was good. They gave me the chance to learn in the job and I’ve always appreciated that.”
He reciprocated this loyalty to the company.
“I know (the Clyde family) owns this company, but I would fight to say I do, too,” he says. “I’m a part of this company and everything I have in my life I attribute to this great job I’ve had for almost 40 years.”
Hardman is seen as a jack-of- all-trades of sorts and even spent time as a van driver/chauffeur for Geneva’s guests during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
DICK ALLEN
Allen started his career by driving a mixer in Salt Lake City. He worked hard and enjoyed being part of the excitement construction brings to a community.
“I helped with the pour at Kennecott (Copper Mine) and that was really exciting,” he says. “I enjoyed that.”
Allen enjoys looking back at some of the projects he’s worked on and seeing how they raise the standard of living throughout Utah. He also appreciates the Geneva Rock Products manage- ment team’s devotion to employees and their families.
KAY CHRISTOFFERSON
For years, Geneva Rock Products has developed talent from college interns. Christofferson is one such intern-turned-management-superstar. As a sophomore engineering student at BYU, Christofferson saw an ad posting an internship at Geneva Rock Products in the company’s safety program.
After gaining experience in sand and gravel testing and graduating from BYU, he was hired full time as an estimator working with Schellenberg. As Schellenberg was promoted, Christofferson filled his shoes.
Eventually, Christofferson worked closely in Geneva’s design-build work, which was started in 2000. He oversaw projects like the $11 million Park-and-Ride for UTA and light rail from Main Street to the University of Utah.
In 2010, Christofferson took an early retirement option, leaving the heavy lifting of Geneva Rock Products to others.
“The company survives without me,” he says with a smile.
And it thrives because of pioneers like the men eating lunch together on an early spring day.