Will Wilkins, executive director of TRIP sent an announcement to the TRIP membership with the opening comment:
TRIP lost one of its early champions on February 4 with the passing of Dick Stander after a short illness at the age of 92. Dick joined the TRIP board in 1976 and was chairman of the board of directors when I was hired in 1984. He served as chairman for three years from 1984 through 1986. Dick remained active in TRIP for many years as chairman emeritus. Memorial Services will be held at the Kirk of the Keys on Sunday, February 20, followed by a service in Ohio at a later date.
Richard Ramsay Stander, Sr., 92, a long-time winter resident of Key Colony Beach passed away February 4th after a short illness. He resided in Mansfield, Ohio with his wife Joyce, and had a special love for the Florida Keys. He first visited Marathon in 1938 and had been spending winters at Key Colony Beach for the last 50 years. His passions included fishing and Ohio State Football (Go Bucks!). Retired from the road building industry, he was an avid reader, loved history and was especially well versed in Keys history. He loved his wife, Joyce, his children, Rick, Bill, Susan and Sally, his stepchildren and his many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Memorial services will be held at the Kirk of the Keys on Sunday, February 20th, followed by a service in Ohio at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Kirk of the Keys Richard Stander Memorial at P.O. Box 501078, Marathon, FL 33050; or OSU Mansfield, Engineering Support Fund, 1760 University Dr., Mansfield, OH 44906.
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) sent the following announcement to the indutry:
It is with great sadness that I share with you the February 4 passing of an industry titan—1978 ARTBA Chairman Dick Stander, Sr., the retired chairman of Mansfield Asphalt Paving Company in Ohio. Dick, a registered engineer and life-long “student” of transportation history, had recently celebrated his 92nd birthday.
Throughout a career that spanned more than half a century, he was an inventor and industry pioneer. He began his first industry job in 1940 as a bituminous test inspector with the Ohio Department of Highways. In World War II, he championed research that led to a new type of floating bridge to accommodate larger and heavier armored vehicles. After the war, Dick built the Mansfield Asphalt Paving into one of Ohio’s leading contractors and was an early adopter of automatic paver screeds, pneumatic and vibratory rollers and state-of-the-art asphalt plant production. He sold the firm in 1988.
“My first recollection of ARTBA was when my father, Carl Stander, went up to the [association’s] Road Show in Cleveland in 1927 or 1928, and bought a concrete mixer,” Dick said in a 100th anniversary ARTBA publication in 2002. “That was used to pour a substantial amount of Ohio concrete pavement during the 30s. In fact, at one time our company did a great deal of the concrete paving in Ohio.”
Dick’s first personal involvement with ARTBA was at the 1948 Road Show in Chicago at Soldier Field. “I took a train up there and met a number of people,” he said. “I followed up by going to an ARTBA annual meeting a few years after that.”
As a result, Dick became a distinguished ARTBA leader for the next 50+ years. In 2004, he was named one of the “America’s Top 100 Private Sector Transportation Design & Construction Professionals of the 20th Century” by the ARTBA Transportation Development Foundation.
In addition to serving as ARTBA chairman, he was a key player on the association’s 100th Anniversary Committee, and helped develop a multi-million dollar program of work that was aimed at educating Congress and the public about the many benefits of American transportation investment. The centennial celebration capstone was a 2002 black-tie dinner for more than 500 industry leaders, Executive Branch officials and members of Congress at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., that was, at the time, the largest one-night fundraising record in ARTBA history.
Dick was actively involved in other industry groups, serving as the fourth president of the National Asphalt Pavement Association, as chairman of The Road Information Program from 1984-86, and as chairman of ARTBA’s state chapter affiliate—the Ohio Contractors Association. He was a life member and fellow at the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a life member of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologies and the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Dick was the 2004 winner of the George S. Bartlett Award, 1995 recipient of the “ARTBA Award,” the association’s highest honor; ARTBA’s “Nello L. Teer Jr., Contractors Division Award; and the 1986 CIT Group/Equipment Finance “Rebuilding America Award.”
From 1950-2002, he attended every annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, save one, when he was nobly called to see his beloved Ohio State Buckeyes play in the Rose Bowl.
In lieu of flowers, the Stander family has requested that donations in Dick’s memory be made to help the engineering program at The Ohio State University, Mansfield Development Office, 1760 University Drive, Mansfield, Ohio, 44906, or at www.giveto.osu.edu, using fund number 313576.
Dick was a great industry leader and major contributor to the growth and development of our transportation infrastructure, it was an honor and pleasure to have known him and to have worked with him on the TRIP board. GS