HAPI Hall of Fame

Jack’s experience in the asphalt industry and his way with people made him an ideal person for HAPI’s first executive director.

Jack attended Loyola University, Los Angeles, California. While a student at Loyola University, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and following a stint at the Virginia Military Institute, he served overseas in World War II earning two Purple Hearts. In 1947, he graduated from the University of Idaho with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (B.S.C.E).

Upon graduating Jack entered the work world at the Idaho Department of Highways starting as a Planning and Traffic Engineer. From 1947 to 1966, he held various positions as Inspector, District Materials Engineer, Testing Engineer, Resident Engineer, Senior Resident Engineer, District Maintenance Engineer, and District Engineer. In 1956, he took an 18-month break from the Department of Highways and worked for the Asphalt Institute as District Engineer in their Denver, Colorado, office.

In 1966, after his time with the Idaho Department of Highway, Jack went back to work for the Asphalt Institute in Sacramento, California. He served several positions including District Engineer, Regional Engineer, and Division Managing Engineer.

In his personal life, while attending the University of Idaho, Jack met and married Louise M. Cosgriff at St. Mary’s Church on June 6, 1947. Working as a civil engineer employed by the State of Idaho and later by the Asphalt Institute, provided Jack, with his wife Louise and family, the opportunity to live in numerous communities in Idaho, Colorado, and California. They finally settled in Sacramento in August 1975. In each community, they were active in their local Catholic Church and other organizations, including the Elks Lodge.

In 1985, Jack started his own business, Big Island Asphalt Co., Inc., in Hilo, Hawaii so that Louise could improve her health there. Until her death in 2000, they divided the year between the two cities.

When HAPI incorporated in 1989, Jack was our first executive director, serving for 11 years from 1989 until 2000. His time and efforts were a major contribution in HAPI’s formation and getting membership to sustain the organization. Because of his charm and wit, the membership loved him and would do anything for him. They respected his knowledge in the industry and knew that if Jack was involved it was a worthwhile thing to do. His legacy in the asphalt industry is profound as he helped shape many transformations in product development.

Jack believed we should always leave a place better off than the way we found it. That is how he left HAPI.

Randy has HAPI in his blood. He was involved in HAPI since our inception in 1989 until his retirement from Grace Pacific, LLC in 2019. During those 30 years, Randy played a pivotal role in the success of HAPI. He served as president, many years as treasurer, and generously gave his time and efforts to making HAPI the success it is today.

Being involved with HAPI from its inception provided Randy with the opportunity to learn all about asphalt paving industry issues throughout the years. He saw HAPI as a great source of knowledge and that was immensely powerful. Staying involved allowed him to be in the forefront of specification changes and staying in tune with both local and national issues. In his own words “It’s been a long journey, but I’m glad to have been part of this rather small, ‘niche’ market, so important to the State of Hawaii’s quality of life”

His journey started with his education. He is a product of our public school system attending Manoa Elementary, Stevenson Intermediate, and Roosevelt High School. In 1975, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Purdue University and later completed the University of Hawaii’s Business Administration Management program.

While at Purdue University, he began his work journey as a summer hire at the State Department of Transportation, Highways Division. After graduating, his first job was with Hawaiian Dredging & Construction Company, as a cost engineer and ending as a project superintendent/project manager. Hawaiian Bitumuls & Paving Company was his next stop as their vice-president of operations, later serving as their vice-president of engineering. His last and longest (19 years) employer was Grace Pacific. He was the manager of estimating and a mentor to all. In 2019, he retired after an illustrious 44-year career.

Randy is also a dedicated family man. Since 1983, he has been married to Taryn. Together they have three boys. Daniel and Sean work in the asphalt industry and Alex is a dentist. Sean and his wife Misa have given Randy and Taryn four grandchildren: Maia, Sage, Mika and Myli, and a new job – being supportive grandparents.

One of Randy’s rules of life is “there are 3 kinds of people: those that make it happen; those that watch it happen and those that wonder ‘what happened?”. He is one of those that makes things happen!

Garret’s contributions to the asphalt industry make him an ideal inductee into the HAPI Hall of Fame.

He has spent almost his entire life in Hawaii. He graduated from Aiea High School and continued his education at Chaminade College and the University of Hawaii. In 1969, he graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.

His career started in the County of Los Angeles, but he soon made his way back to the islands to work for the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT). His journey with the HDOT started in 1971 with the Highways Division. In 1980, he transferred to the Airports Division for a couple of years. He then returned to the Highways Division where he spent the last 22 years of his career as the Bituminous Materials Engineer.

As the Bituminous Materials Engineer, he made significant contributions to the asphalt industry. He authored the following publications:

– Research Report for Superpave Pilot Project on Moanalua Freeway Ramps.
– Materials Quality Assurance Manual for Highways Construction,
Department of Transportation (DOT)
– Laboratory Quality Manual for AASHTO Accreditation Program,
Highways Division (HWY)

He helped raise the bar for the asphalt paving industry by doing pilot projects to introduce new technologies and methods such as a project to evaluate Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA) and Superpave.

However, he is remembered most for his efforts in developing a smoothness specification. His leadership brought agency and industry together to bring about a positive change for the ride quality of the State of Hawaii. The specification introduced the use an MTV (Material Transfer Vehicle). Garret was brave to start this requirement as it was a major capital expenditure for the contractors. Initially, smoothness bonuses gave contractors the incentive to improve. In later years, besides smoothness, the use of the MTV was found to provide a more uniform mat temperature, which lead to more uniform compaction, resulting in longer lasting pavements.

Upon his retirement in 2004, HAPI awarded Garret the title of “Mr. Smooth” in recognition and appreciation of this major accomplishment for our industry.

Since his retirement, Garret spends time with his wife Layne Okada, daughter Lena Toti, and son-in-law, Joshua Toti. He keeps himself busy by doing volunteer work in Bible education as one of Jehovah’s Witness.

Steve grew up in Kailua. He was a nuclear submarine officer based in Pearl Harbor and has been a civil engineering faculty member at the University of Washington (UW) since 2004. He was introduced to HAPI in 2002 and since then he has made several significant contributions to the local industry.

He spent the next decade returning home to give a series of training seminars to over 1,000 attendees:
• June 2002: HMA Pavements (1 seminar on O’ahu. about 100 attendees)

• April 2004: HMA Pavement Overview (3 seminars – O’ahu, Hawai’I, Kauai – about 200 total attendees
• July 2004: HMA Maintenance and Rehabilitation (2 seminars – about 100 total attendees)
• November 2004: HMA Construction (2 seminars – about 150 total attendees)
• June 2005: HMA structural design (2 seminars – about 100 attendees)
• March 2006: Pavement Preservation, LCCA and Mix Design (1 seminar, about 100 attendees)
• June 2008: HMA Pavements and Sustainability (1 seminar, about 100 attendees)
• August 2010: Greenroads for Hawai’i (1 seminar, about 80 attendees)
• April 2012: Asphalt Pavement Basics (1 seminar, about 60 attendees)
• April 2012: The Life and Times of an Asphalt Pavement: Life Cycle Costing (1 seminar, about 40 attendees)

In 2004 Steve produced the first online HAPI Asphalt Pavement Guide, which is an interactive guide to everything about asphalt pavements and pavement treatments including local Hawai’i guidance, procedures, and designs. In 2012, he led an effort to update the guide. In all, HAPI’s combined vision, commitment and effort provided the impetus and support for its development and production.

In 2006 Steve worked with HAPI and the City and County of Honolulu to update its standard pavement design thicknesses for low volume roads leading to higher quality, longer-lasting pavements for the community. The updated pavement section added a layer of asphalt treated base between the aggregate base course and the surface wearing course. Their findings are captured in a report titled “Best Practices for Long-Lasting Low-Volume Pavements.”

In 2007, Steve prepared a report titled “Sustainable Pavement Solutions for O’ahu.” The report was prepared at the request of the Hawai’i Community Foundation and for the purpose of exploring and recommending sustainable solutions for the hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavement industry on O’ahu, including an exploration into the Use of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) and other sustainable strategies. These strategies are still used for guidance.

Steve has also made significant contributions nationally. At the UW, Steve studies sustainability, roadway design, construction, pavements, materials, and online learning.

He is a founding Board Member of Greenroads Rating System®, a sustainability rating system for roadway design and construction both in the United States and internationally. Greenroads is now a part of the Sustainable Transport Council, which is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation which advances sustainability education and initiatives for transportation infrastructure.

He is also a co-founder and board member of Pavia Systems, Inc., a company that creates web-based training solutions for the asphalt industry. Their solutions include Pavement Interactive, which is a free online knowledge base for the paving industry; PaveXpress, a free web-based pavement design tool available for use by local agencies, engineers, and architects who need a reliable way to quickly determine the necessary pavement thickness for a given section of roadway or project; and The PAVEInstruct, a web-based pavement design education system with video instruction by leading industry experts.

Most recently, Steve contributed to developing The Road Forward, serving on National Asphalt Pavement Association’s (NAPA’s) Climate Stewardship Task Force. The Road Forward is a vision for net zero carbon emissions by 2050 for the asphalt pavement industry.

In addition, Steve has been the presenter for many national webinars by the National Asphalt Pavement Association and for the Federal Highway Administration’s Sustainable Pavements Program .

Although he and his family live in Seattle, WA he returns often and will always be a local boy at heart.

Dave was a director when HAPI was incorporated in 1989, working for Chevron in California at the time.

He believes that the Hawaii Asphalt Paving Industry (HAPI) was born out of necessity because the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) was not giving their Hawaii members the attention they needed and deserved. The immediate benefit of starting our own industry association was vastly improved communication with all involved parties – government agencies, suppliers, contractors, etc. For Dave personally, it solidified the relationships with his customers and elevated Chevron’s interactions to that of colleagues with a common goal, providing the best product possible to the driving public.

In the early days, Chevron was a major contributor to the success of HAPI. In those days, they had a recognized group of scientists working at Chevron Research to keep abreast of best practices. Dave encouraged HAPI to use them as much as possible to lead seminars and contribute their vast knowledge to solving some of the issues in Hawaii, and HAPI did. He always made a point of showing up every time HAPI put on a seminar because he believed it was vital for the attendees to see at least one HAPI board member in attendance for the sake of credibility, acknowledging the importance of those sessions.

Initially, Chevron was one of just two asphalt supplier members. It was critical to the survival of HAPI financially, that Chevron continued to be a member and pay their dues. Other asphalt suppliers were not as committed and would sometimes drop out of HAPI. At the time, the Hawaii asphalt market was not very big compared to the mainland states, but fortunately Dave believed as the market share leader it was essential that they be members.

As a three-time president, his participation in HAPI was important to demonstrate that Chevron’s involvement was not just to make money in Hawaii but to make things better for the whole industry. Through Chevron Research, they were able to optimize the proper blends of various crude oils to produce high-quality asphalt, and their refinery at Barber’s Point made accommodations to allow that to happen. His position also made it helpful for the various agencies to understand what Chevron was able or unable to do given the supply chain logistics in Hawaii.

A major contribution of his was helping the industry understand the change to the asphalt cement grading system from the AR (Aged Residue) to the current PG (Performance Grade) system. Hawaii DOT really appreciated Chevron’s expert help early on when the Hawaii DOT was considering changing the asphalt cement grading system from the AR to the current PG system. To help the Hawaii DOT better understand the potential impacts of the change, Dave made arrangements, all at Chevron’s expense, to have their asphalt cement ‘guru’ come to Hawaii to give Lab an education on the PG System versus the AR System. The State really appreciated Chevron’s expert help in understanding the potential impacts of the change in grading systems.

Initially, Dave is quite sure that Hawaii’s collective impression of Chevron was looking at them as a giant, uncaring oil company. But thanks to his efforts, he was able to change the perception to that of an interested partner committed to making everyone’s job in the industry a bit easier.

In summary, Dave was an incredibly positive force for all of HAPI’s endeavors as an unwavering supporter for the industry.

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Follows are Dave’s professional and personal accomplishments:

• He began his career by working for Chevron at age 18, pumping gas while attending college (University of California, Berkeley, Class of ’76).
• He rose up through the ranks and eventually worked for Chevron’s Asphalt and Aviation Divisions simultaneously as Sales Manager and Trade Show Manager. (He was active in Hawaii from 1986-2002)
• Retired in 2002 from Chevron after 29 years of service.
• In 2002, he founded MAT Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in fuel procurement for regional airlines and trucking companies.
• In 2006, he was appointed COO/Director of Operations at Proclaim Promotions, a marketing company specializing in on-site marketing and promotions throughout the U.S. and Canada.
• From 2014 to 2018, he was a partner in a friend’s handyman business.
• Starting in 1985, he was actively involved with his wife’s career as a Children’s Pastor for 20 years.
• He participated in the Presbyterian church: moderator of deacons, choir member, active on many committees over the years, etc.
• He coached youth baseball and football for 9 years (1987-1995)
• His Family: He married Sue, his high school sweetheart and have been together for almost 52 years. He is very proud of their two sons, Steven and Kevin, and their families (Tori and Ashley) as well as their 2.75-year-old grandson and 3-year-old granddaughter.
• His Hobbies: He is an enthusiastic fan of the 49ers, Giants and Warriors. He is also an avid collector of sports memorabilia, vintage rock and roll posters/original artworks, and gemstones for custom jewelry.
• Lastly, Dave and his wife Sue actively travel to “bucket list” locales and enjoy seeing fascinating places and experiencing different cultures around the world.