In this staff file photo, J. Don Brock, right, and his son, Ben, stand near a piece of machinery manufactured by their company, Astec Industries, in Chattanooga.J. Don Brock, who died Tuesday at 76, was a quiet genius who built a billion-dollar business in the Scenic City.
He founded Astec Industries on a $120,000 bet with a friend over who could engineer a faster way to dry carpet. Brock won the bet, inventing what was then the fastest carpet-drying machine in existence.
He graduated from carpet to the giant machines that make modern life possible. If there are rocks being smashed, holes being drilled or energy being generated somewhere in the world, chances are that Brock had a hand in it. Brock’s legacy is impossible to miss. Just slow down the next time there’s a road construction project.
By the time he passed away on Tuesday at Memorial Hospital from mesothelioma cancer, Brock had laid claim to 100 patents and created a business that employs 4,000 workers across the globe. Friends called him an engineer’s engineer, an inventor’s inventor, an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur.
Analysts from New York dialed into Astec’s quarterly earnings calls just to listen to Brock describe the world economy.