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Harold Neal, Neal Mfg., dies at 63

Harold Neal, president of Neal Equipment Manufacturing, Villa Rica, GA, died April 1. He was 63.

Despite the fact that he did not have an engineering background, Mr. Neal was an innovator in the pavement maintenance industry, pushing development of equipment in an effort to improve efficiency and sealer application speed. He founded Neal Manufacturing Company in 1978 and began manufacturing a 175-gal. ride-on squeegee machine. Since then he was instrumental in numerous developments and innovations that have helped grow the pavement maintenance industry.

"At that time people were doing sealcoating as a business, but it definitely became more efficient and more profitable once that machine was introduced," said Brett Neal, one of Mr. Neal's sons and marketing manager of Neal Mfg. "From that point on it was always his goal with the equipment he built, including the piston pump, to increase profit for the contractor."

Mr. Neal followed his first model four years later with a 210-gal. model, the largest in the industry at that time.

"Harold was an industry icon. He was a visionary with equipment," said Mark McLeod, vice president of Maintenance Inc., and a close friend and business associate of Mr. Neal's. "He was more than a pioneer in the equipment business for pavement maintenance contractors, he was there for the guys who were just starting out, teaching them how to do the work and extending them credit when they really didn't have anything to back it up."