Ray Harris Sr. of  Harris concrete pumping,Little Rock Arkansas passed today at his home. He will be missed.RIP

ICE,

I was looking on the internet for some information on your friend, I think that it is important for folks to know about him and others like him.

R. I. P.

Ray Harris Sr.:  Ray was born on June 5^th, 1930 in Palestine, Arkansas and has lived in the Little Rock area for most of his life.

In 1969, he was in the crane business and from time to time would have to place concrete with a bucket.  He just knew there had to be an easier way. He was looking in a magazine and came upon a picture of a concrete pump working on a job in New Orleans so he decided to go down there and watch it pump on a Shell Oil building. Ray liked what he saw and came back knowing that there would be a market for a concrete pump in Little Rock. 

He purchased his first pump in 1969 from a dealer in New Orleans. It was a Challenge Squeeze Crete. He brought it back to the Little Rock area and started working it. Over the next eleven years he owned a  Challenge Squeeze Crete, Thompson Flapper Blade, and an Elba. In 1980, Brad Dunn and Grady Stallings finally convinced him he was ready for a Schwing Pump. He became the Schwing Dealer for the state of Arkansas and kept that status until he sold his business in 2003. 

Over the years Ray has pumped a lot of interesting jobs. One that particularly comes to his mind is the Little Rock Airport runway. The runway was sinking due to a sewer line that had broken underneath the concrete pad.�He had to cut a five inch hole in the concrete and bolt down an adapter plate to the concrete and then pump under the slab until it came back up. He then had to fill the four foot in diameter, fifteen hundred feet long pipe full of concrete. Now that's a lot of concrete pumping! 

The most dangerous job he can recall was at the Nuclear One Plant in Russellville, Arkansas. A cooling tower was leaking and he had to pump walls around the perimeter to contain the leak. Over 300 feet of pipe was contaminated and ultimately ruined, but at least he didn't lose the pump!

Ray believes that a lot of good changes have occurred in the industry over the years; the mixes are better and the concrete pumps are certainly much more dependable, but his hope is that the industry will continue to evolve and that those coming into the business will realize the value of their services. Don't give them away free! His motto was always work less and charge more!

If he could go back and choose any other business, he would still choose concrete pumping. It will always be in his blood.

Ray would like to leave this message for all the new concrete pumpers in the industry today: 

Keep your pump clean, serviced, and ready to roll at all times. Don't go to bed until your pump is ready to go because you never know when someone will call and need a pump right away. And, if you aren't ready, they will call someone else.

Thank you Bob that really means alot to us. I worked for Mr.Harris for 5 years,and my brother worked for him for over 20 years. We used to sit around the table with him on slow days and have heard all of these stories and many more. A very interesting man. Once again thank you for finding this imformation.