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"The Rock Cracker"

The man was 6 feet 2 inches tall, never weighed less than 220 pounds, and stuttered all his life. He was headstrong, stubborn as a mule and had a temper to match. He loved to dance, ate steak three times a day, and usually ended dinner with ice cream or pie. The man was Ralph Rogers, founder of Ralph Rogers & Company, Inc., now known as Rogers Group, Inc.

Ralph first entered the construction industry in the early 1900's. He left school in the eighth grade to support his widowed mother and sister, and began working with an uncle on a road job near Osgood, Indiana. Before he started, he promised his mother that he wouldn't smoke or drink and then be began learning as much about the construction industry as he could. "When Uncle John looked at a rock, I would look at a rock," Ralph recalled. "I didn't always know what I was looking for."

At the age of 19, Ralph had earned and saved enough to open his own business -- a roadside crushing operation. He provided the team of mules and a steam engine, while his partner, a man named McCormick, added a crusher and other equipment. That modest beginning led to the formation of a company that now includes operations in five states.

Ralph took pride in getting a job done -- whatever the odds against it may have been. You just didn't tell Ralph he couldn't do something, because he'd prove you wrong every time. His favorite saying was, "People don't give me work because they like me, they know I can get the job done." His reputation led to his being the first subcontractor on the first atom bomb plant in the United States. Ralph had to build a crushing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and have the plant operating in 30 days. He did it in 28.

He was a private man who didn't relish talking about himself. He used to say, "Your business is not everyone's business. If you tell them everything you know, then they'll know what you know and what they know, and they'll beat you.

Ralph was a down-to-earth man who had little patience for pretentiousness. "He always referred to himself as Ralph Rogers, the rock-cracker," says Leonard Jones, a long-time friend. "Every time someone would come in and call him Mr. Rogers, he'd commence to wondering what they wanted."

His sense of responsibility was well-known. He once said his proudest achievement was that his employees never missed a paycheck, even during the Great Depression. His friends say, "He gave the impression of being a tough old taskmaster, but the biggest thing about Ralph Rogers was his heart."

He was the original workaholic, putting in an average of 16 hours a day, seven days a week. "Work was his hobby, his life, his avocation," explains Rick Rechter, Chairman of Rogers Group's Board of Directors and Ralph's grandson. His idea of a vacation was to visit an operation, either his own or the competition. When he got there, he'd talk to the working man, because he said he could learn more that way.

When Ralph turned 40, he decided he might like to retire. So he went to Florida, bought himself some knickers and a golf outfit, and began taking it easy. He lasted three days. He returned to the company, saying, "I'm going to work until I die. If I die." Another 46 years later, Ralph died at the age of 86, but not before he accomplished a great part of what is now Rogers Group, Inc., the seventh largest crushed stone producer in the United States with 1,700 employees and locations in five states.

Quarries producing crushed stone are still the foundation of the company. Other products and services are hot mix asphalt, road construction, sand & gravel, construction materials, block and masonry supplies, specialty calcium carbonate, and recycled asphalt and concrete.

Rogers Group is still privately owned by Ralph Rogers' family.

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