East mourns death of CEO, co-owner Booher

East on Wednesday announced that Howard Booher, chief executive, co-founder and co-owner died on March 14. Booher co-founded East in 1968 with Mark Tate and Robert Bruce, where he was CEO for 54 years. He co-owned the company alongside Bruce, who recently became CEO.

Howard Booher (Photo: East)

"Words cannot express the loss of our friend and colleague," said Bruce. "Howard made an impact in the lives of not only his family but his employees, vendors and customers.

We will miss his leadership and technical and engineering expertise. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family." In 1968, Booher went from dairy farm to trailer manufacturer, when he began East.

Booher designed its first sludge pusher trailer in 1978 and refuse transfer pusher trailer in 1980. East brought the first aluminum flatbed, the BST, to market in 1982. The next year, Booher built one of the first Walking Floor Refuse Transfer trailers.

By 1990, the first drop deck came on the scene followed by the MMX flatbed trailer in 2002. In 2001, Booher invented the smooth-sided East Genesis design for the dump and construction industry. Booher saw East through 20 expansions from its initial 7,200-sq-ft headquarters, built in 1968, to over 127 acres with 450,000-sq-ft of manufacturing and building space today.

From its original 10 employees in 1968, East now employs more than 500 employees.