How do you sum up a career that spans 45 years and get a true picture of the individual amongst the events?  The events, the decisions that were made, the paths that were chosen, and the history that was made, are all interlaced with the character and charisma that make up the individual, Russ Upah.  On January 31, 2005, Russ will pass along the responsibility of managing the Tama Concrete, Sand and Gravel operations to his son, Jeff- a Manatt’s 20 year veteran  We wish to express our gratitude by revealing a glimpse of the legacy of his journey.  Thank You Russ, for your tremendous service and years of expertise and insight!      Russ’s professional life with Manatts began back in 1959 when he paid a visit to the Belle Plaine plant looking for work.  Claire Manatt gave him the opportunity to show what he could do starting at 7 a.m. the following Monday morning as a truck driver.  After two short years, he had earned the opportunity to manage and eventually managed both the Belle Plaine and Tama Ready Mix plants. Under the guidance of Merlin Manatt, he took over the Tama Sand operation and then eventually let go of the management of the Belle Plaine plant.

Above - Russ Upah "handing over the keys" to son Jeff. Below - Russ Upah at his desk

Top:  Russ Upah      Front from left:  Ron Clark, Omar Martinez, Tom Donovan, Rob Kucera, Dave Sokol, Jeff Upah

The community, his customers, and his colleagues know Russ as an outstanding individual.  As stated in his own words of wisdom, he “treats people like you’d like to be treated.” Although he has high expectations and is known for running a tight ship, he leads by example and instills a strong work ethic in those around him.  He sets the bar high, then digs in and works side by side to get the job done.  Not one to toot his own horn, Russ truly feels that he is but one member of the team.  He trusts his employees and builds confidence in their skills to get the job done safely, done right, and on time.  He thoroughly enjoys connecting

with people and has a knack for making everyone feel comfortable and important.  He has always taken the time to visit with employee family members and friends that have come by the shop.  Russ confesses, “I will miss the people and the public contact the most.  I used to know everybody in town and all the local farmers.”      He has been President of the Indian Hills Development Project in Tama/Toledo for the past 8 or 9 years, however he has represented Manatts for the last 15 years.  The project’s goal was to improve housing in Tama/Toledo and give the city availability for 125 lots.  Currently, all are improved lots and only 15 remain that lack structures.  Overall the project improved the tax base and economic outlook for the community.  Russ summarized, “Its good for the town.”      Russ has witnessed overwhelming change in the industry in comparison to his first day.  The first changes to come about were in the scales.  They used to be the old beam scales where you had to manually set them and weigh the trucks.  Now they are all computerized.  All they have to do is drive up and it flashes the weight.  Then it automatically prints a ticket.  Gone are the days of having to hand write scale tickets.

     The bigger concrete mixer trucks have made a huge impact.  Russ recalls, “When I drove a mixer it was a 5 yard.  No power steering.  Just a fight!  You went home at night just exhausted.  Now they haul double that.”  In addition to load size, the current mixers have a lot more power.  “It used to be that when you came to a hill, you’d go down into lower gear and just crawl over the top.  I remember one time being passed by a bicycle!  Now days they just breeze right over!” Russ exclaims.

The cement came in on rail cars.  It was augered off into dump trucks and then hauled around to the plants.  Once at the plant, it was dumped into the hopper that elevated it into the bin. Some of the plants utilized bags of cement instead of bulk.  The bags were put on a two wheel cart and wheeled over to the auger.    Russ thought back, “ We broke the bags into the auger and augered it up  into a

Above-Original Scale office. Scale positioned between office and sand pile.  Moved to other side at a later day.  Sand moved by Bulldozer only-no conveyors. Right-Classifying Tank.  Person unknown. Circa 1960

mixer.  It took about 20 minutes to load a 6 yard load.  It now takes about 3 minutes to load a 10 yard load in the current plant.  Now it comes in a pneumatic tanker and you blow it off with air.  You never touch it.  You blow it up to

   Present day plants are all computerized.  They make the sand according to the specifications that you key into it.  The old Classifying Tank  used hydraulics to sort the sand particles by size.  To change the out put size, you adjusted a gate that had a lever on it.  Current plants simply key in the % of a particle size that is needed.

Although the original dredge was sold shortly after the purchase of Flint (currently Tama Sand and Gravel), the Dredge that Russ remembers most looked like a schoolhouse .  “We pushed it out to sea and it was a one man operation.  He had to do everything manually.  He had to pull the levers to run the digger, stop or start the chain. Lower/raise the digger into the deposit, pull your self around on cables,” states Russ.  Although the present day equipment still requires a man out on the dredge, it’s all done with diesel motors and hydraulics. Technology changes have all been labor savers.

Russ smiles when asked about his fondest memories and jokes “There are a lot of funny little stories that I choose to forget.”  I heard quite a few great “fishing” tales and wish that we could include them all here but since our space is limited, will just

Above– upper right of sand pile, Old Shop.  Front part was a tool room and the back was just big enough to get the end loader in.  Heated with wood and coal stove.  It was COLD!  Left-Old  “Schoolhouse” Dredge.  This was the “business” end of the house.  Person unknown. Circa 1960

    Russ indicated that the memories that will stand out the most for him are the floods.  Although, Tama Sand and Gravel usually gets flooded about every 3^rd year, they’ve been on a lucky streak for about the last 5 years and have not been chased out.  “In 96 we got chased out of here twice for 4 days each time for high water.  I checked the plant every day and either drove or boated in.  We could drive through water about axel deep and could still get concrete out.  We sandbagged the plant, put in a sump pump to get rid of any seepage that made it through and just kept on going.” shared Russ.

Left- View of Tama Plant from Highway 63 during the flood of 93 or 96

    For Maxine, Russ’ wife of 48 years, the most prominent memory besides all the long hours, also happened during flood times. Russ explains, “We came to work one Monday morning & Earl Hatfield, the dredge operator came to me all excited & said he couldn’t find the dredge.  It had sank and was sitting on the bottom of the pond.  All we could see was one piece of pipe sticking out of the water.  We got divers from St. Louis to come up. It took two weeks to get an apparatus built to pump the water out.  We had 9 pumps to and an air compressor that was replacing water with air.   It was quite an ordeal because it had to be done systematically so it would come up straight and not roll over.  We got it up one night, it was late and we couldn’t find anything wrong.  We tied it off to our floats and went home because we were all dead tired.  The next morning we came in and the floats were there but the dredge was gone again.  We worked all day long and brought it back up.  When we had gotten enough water out of it, we could see that there were two check valves and the top was gone off of both of them so it was pouring in a 6 in stream of water.  It had all been under water so you

couldn’t hear it and you couldn’t see it.  When we got it real close, you could see the movement of the water going in.  The caps were lying right there just like someone had loosened them.  It had filled up and settled right straight down. We capped it off and all was good.  Had it rolled it over, it would have been much worse.  It was down 30 feet under water.”  Maxine remembers the people in the community coming out to the pond because of all the commotion.  The locals thought someone had drowned and one gal was even crying!     After so many years of so much fun, Russ is going to slow down, but not cold turkey.  In 1995, Wendling Quarries purchased Vulcan of Iowa – all operations and Russ was asked to be in charge of sales and daya to day operations  of the Montour Quarry.  He plans to continue working for Wendling working shorter hours and mainly out of a home office.

Above- Tama Sand & Gravel Circa 1980.  North is lower left corner.  Current day Sand Plant is on the south side in the location of the wind row.  Ready Mix plant shown was replaced in 1994 and was built between plant shown and shop shown.

Perhaps in his home office, he won’t have to worry about any Groundhogs sneaking in!  In his new found leisure time, he and Maxine hope to do some traveling, some fishing with the grandkids and “maybe even sleep in to 6 am!”

     Russ is especially thankful to his wife Maxine, and proud of his 6 children (two of whom work for Manatts; Jeff-taking over for Russ and Brent currently Head Mechanic in Brooklyn) who have been supportive all these years.  He would also like to recognize the various members of his teams past and present; Tama-Judy Ochs, Dave Sokol, Rob Kucera, Omar Martinez, Tom Donovon, Jeff Upah, Mike Naber, Carl Iezek; Montour-Diana Smith, Shad Sisson; Past-Bev Vaverka, Ray Hartgrave (retired), and many many more too numerous to list.

     We wish you well and will miss your leadership.  Thank you for your dedication and hard work!

Right-Russ Upah   Click the link below for additional stories. More Fishin' Tales