“Our blue and gold uniforms were recognizable to all passers-by,” Milo L. Pike said. “And all our equipment was in those colors as well. We all wore them proudly and felt they played a part in our safety initiatives, which were exemplary.” All photos courtesy of John Ball and Milo L. Pike
HOW TO BUILD A PAVING DYNASTY
T
BY SANDY LENDER
The preamble to the 1971 L.M. Pike & Son Inc. employee manual states it is written “to stabilize policies and eliminate confusion in our method of operation.” The family-oriented company had already been in operation for 90 years and this second revision of the manual went on to give a history of the company that begins with asphalt itself. “As early as 3800 B.C., asphalt was being used as mortar for building stones and paving blocks. The streets of ancient Babylon are said to have been paved with asphalt...the same material mentioned in the Bible was used to caulk Noah’s Ark and seal the basket in which the infant Moses was set adrift on the Nile.” From the callback to biblical times, the manual’s author moves to modern day, saying, “The use of asphalt for street paving in the United States began in 1870 with the laying of a stretch of pavement in front of the city hall in Newark, New Jersey. The asphalt used was made of rock asphalt from the Rhone Valley in France. Two years later, Luther M. Pike of New Hampton, New Hampshire, founded Pike’s Improved Concrete Company, specializing in the paving of streets and sidewalks.”
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From that early company of about 30 employees and 12 teams of horses, his son Milo L. Pike (1872-1947) developed L.M. Pike and Son Inc. in 1886. His son, Randolph K. Pike joined in the family business around 1923 and, in 1972, it became Pike Industries Inc. under the leadership of the current Milo L. Pike, great grandson of Luther. “My son Randy worked for us from his high school years throughout college, learning from the ground up the asphalt business,” Milo Pike said. “In 1988 we sold Pike Industries Inc. Randy, who is an MIT graduate in economics, took over as president for the new owners, CRH Holdings. Randy stayed with them around 23 years, later changing careers to do private counseling for various companies mostly in New England.” Other Pike family members could have been candidates for today’s Women of Asphalt. “My daughter Cynthia, Cindy, as she is known, is a college graduate of UNH with a major in business,” Milo Pike said. “She’s a math whiz like her brother. She worked for the company in various capacities and later attained the position of CFO of Pike Industries. A lofty
