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M. J. Neeley
Mentor, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Leader (1898 - 1996)
In 1929, young M. J. Neeley took a job with Hobbs Manufacturing, then a
small trailer manufacturer located in Fort Worth, Texas. He started his
career as a bookkeeper. By the time he was in his early 30's, he owned the
company free and clear. Today, Hobbs is part of Terex, one of the leading
U.S. trucking manufacturers, ranking 369th on the Fortune 500 list.
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In 1930, William E. Grace joined the Hobbs Manufacturing Company in Fort
Worth, which built pole trailers. It was about to fold during the
Depression, and Grace took it over and turned it around. After being bought
out by Fruehauf, he also turned that company around, from a net loss in 1958
of $11 million to earnings of more than $30 million the next year. When he
retired from Fruehauf in the ’70s, sales were more than $13 billion.
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Chester A. Byers was one of the first famous cowboys to endorse a product,
in the 1930’s he was pictured in advertising for the Hobbs Manufacturing
Company horse trailers.
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Hobbs manufactures truck bodies and trailers. Specialized in pole-trailers
early on, later ventured into horse and livestock trailers, oil-field bodies
as well as all-aluminum van bodies, self-loading floats and flatbed
trailers.
ad in 1953 Chevrolet Silver Book pp166-167.
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