To recognize the men and women whose exceptional dedication and leadership have furthered the automotive lift industry in North America, we created the ALI Hall of Honor in our Cortland, New York, headquarters. It was unveiled with an induction ceremony for the inaugural class of eight honorees on Oct. 24, 2023.
In addition to the nine lift manufacturers that formed ALI in 1945, our first group of inductees features inventors, engineers, and business leaders, including three past ALI board chairmen and its first president. They are: E.K. “Chic” and Anne Fox of The Parker Organization, F.G. “Rick” Heath of Heath and Associates, Curtis Joseph “Joe” Matthews Sr. of Rotary Lift, Jim “J.R.” Williams of ETL Testing Labs, Gary Kennon of Vehicle Service Group, Jerome “Jerry” Lentz of Challenger Lifts, and Joseph L. “Joe” Gray of Gray Manufacturing Company.
“For more than 75 years, ALI and its members have watched over the automotive lift industry to help ensure operator safety,” ALI President R.W. “Bob” O’Gorman said at the ceremony. “The men and women we’re honoring here today played crucial roles in the evolution of ALI, their companies, lift technology, and the industry. On behalf of all lift operators, we thank them for their service and dedication.”
Many of the honorees, their families, and colleagues traveled from around the country to attend the ceremony.
“I’m flattered and proud to be honored by the industry that has relied on me for raising the safety bar over all these years,” said Heath. “It’s wonderful to be here with people I’ve known forever who have done so much to improve lift design, manufacturing, testing, inspection, and training.”
One of Joe Matthews’ daughters, Brittney Baird, and his son, Curtis Joseph “Curt” Matthews Jr., were on hand to see their father be honored.
“Dad’s legacy is his work at Rotary Lift and ALI,” said Baird. “He was very forward-thinking and always focused on how to improve anything he was working on. It’s awesome to have this tangible evidence that he did make a difference. Maybe his grandchildren and great-grandchildren can come to ALI to see this someday.”
Matthews’ work for ALI was so meaningful to him that his family mentioned it in his obituary and dedicated a memory board to it at his funeral.
“Dad wasn’t one to broadcast his accomplishments,” Curt Matthews said. “But now we’re really seeing the fruit of his life’s work that he performed selflessly.”
Doug Brown, vice president of engineering and product management at Vehicle Service Group, Rotary Lift’s parent company, also serves as chairman of the ALI Board of Directors. He said he was honored to participate in the ceremony.
“Joe Matthews was finishing his storied career when I was a young engineer hired by Gary Kennon,” he reflected. “Gary was a role model and mentor to me and so many others at Rotary. Their impact on Rotary’s long history was immense and everlasting. To see both of their names placed into the ALI Hall of Honor and Rotary acknowledged as a founding member of the Automotive Lift Institute reminds me of our long-held commitment to improve the lives of automotive technicians through the important work we do at ALI.”
Stet Schanze, president of Gray Manufacturing and former ALI chairman, said ALI’s focus on safety was the reason his mentor, honoree Joe Gray, advocated for his namesake company to join the organization. Gray died just shy of his 101st birthday earlier this year.
“We were probably one of the last holdouts to join,” he told the crowd. “Gray is a fiercely independent company. Gary Kennon came to St. Joseph when we worked on a project together, and he advocated strongly that we join ALI back then. Later, both Bob and Rick provided strong reasons to join when we met. Joe was always in the background of the board room saying ‘We’re about safety. ALI’s mission is safety. It makes sense to join.’”
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