Gary Vermeer 1919-2009
Gary Vermeer was an American entrepreneur who founded Vermeer Manufacturing in Pella, Iowa, in 1948. His innovations in agricultural machinery helped transform modern farming equipment and built a global manufacturing company.
- Gary Vermeer
Gary Vermeer – Wikipedia
Industrial/Commercial Leader
Gary Vermeer of Pella, Iowa founded Vermeer Manufacturing in Pella, Iowa in 1948. He came from a farming background, was a farmer himself, and was mechanically inclined. Prior to founding Vermeer Manufacturing, he saw the need on the farm for a farm wagon that could unload itself by tilting the load box to an incline and so letting the load slide off, similarly as was then common with bulk load trucks used for sand, gravel or farm produce such as corn or grain. Vermeer then developed and built a simple mechanical wagon hoist to make the labor-intensive job of unloading grain wagons easier for his own farming operation. Since the redesigned farm wagon made so much sense, and since none were then available from farm equipment manufacturers, Vermeer, at the insistence of his farm neighbors, decided to go in the business of manufacturing the redesigned farm wagons. And that was the beginning of Vermeer Manufacturing.
Since 1948, Vermeer Manufacturing has grown to a large equipment manufacturing firm with seven manufacturing facilities, now manufacturing agricultural equipment, compacting equipment, environmental equipment, terrain leveler and surface excavation equipment, trenching equipment, hay balers, stump cutters and numerous other types of equipment for farming and related applications. In 2007, Vermeer manufactured 125 different product models and employed about 2000 employees. It had a worldwide independent industrial dealer network consisting of 112 North American and 70 international dealer locations.
Gary Vermeer, the founder of Vermeer Manufacturing retired in 1989, and turned the management of the business over to his son, Bob Vermeer, and his daughter, Mary Vermeer Andringa. The two siblings serve as co-CEO’s of the company. Vermeer Manufacturing was begun and has kept its headquarters in Pella, Iowa, a community originally founded by Dutch immigrants in the mid nineteenth century. Pella is located in central Iowa, about 30 miles south east of Des Moines. To this day Pella remains a community proud of its Dutch roots.
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