TIA ANNOUNCES 2005 TIRE INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
Bowie, MD – (August 9, 2005) The Tire Industry Association (TIA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2005 Tire Industry Hall of Fame: Eugene Beck, Jr., President of Beck Tire International; and John Sieff, retired President of S&M Tire Company and Mr. Tire Service. Four additional inductees were selected for induction in a new Hall of Fame category which was added this year for "Historical Contributors." This category recognizes those individuals who have made significant industry contributions and have been out of the industry for at least 20 years or more. They may be retired, deceased, or may have begun their career in the tire industry and moved on to a different industry.
The four individuals chosen for induction as “Historical Contributors” are: Fernley Banbury, inventor of the modern internal mixer (the Banbury mixer) for elastomers first patented in 1916; Theodore Smith, Founder, President, Publisher and Editor of the India Rubber Review (now Tire Review); and Marius Mignol and Pierre Bourbon with Michelin, inventors of the radial tire.
Eugene Beck, Jr. is the retired President of Beck Tire International and has been a leader in the tire industry for nearly 50 years. His career started as a young boy spending his summer months patching tubes at his father’s filling station and flat fixing company. A company that evolved into used tires, vulcanizing and subsequently recapping.
Beck graduated in 1956 from the University of Akron, College of Business Administration and took on a leadership role in his father’s business, becoming incorporated in 1966. He began to buy government scrap tires in earnest and accumulated a large stock of discarded aircraft tires with the hope for a future emerging market on a grand scale.
He subsequently developed a 30,000 plus inventory of F-16 tires into a sale to John Deere for their rotary mowers. These tire/wheel assemblies were offered as an option on their new equipment. The durability and superior performance soon made them the tire of choice. The other aircraft tire sizes he accumulated were sold for farm wagons, tractor front tires, grain carts, cranes, skid-steer loaders, large rubber tire loaders and many other specialized applications.
In the 1970’s he expanded the business into Texas, Florida and the Netherlands. The joint venture in the Netherlands allowed him to purchase NATO Forces surplus and export used tires to European nations. He formed a new company, Cost Plus Tires, to sell new tires and later sold that business in 1993 to Community Wholesale Tire of St. Louis, Missouri. In the early 1980’s Beck purchased two more businesses, Florida Tire Terminal and Texas Tire Terminal, which are still operating under those names today. In 1990 he formed a tire recycling company, Tire Energy Corporation which was later sold in 2002 to Alternative Fuel Service in Odessa, Missouri.
Beck received numerous awards throughout his career including the 2000 Pioneer Award for Recycling from the International Tire and Rubber Association and was inducted into the Missouri Tire Dealers Hall of Fame in 2004.
John Sieff is the retired President of S&M Tire Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sieff enjoyed a successful career in the tire industry for 45 years. He began his career as the General Sales Manager for the S&M Tire company which was founded by Sieff’s father, Philip Sieff, who was inducted into the Tire Industry Hall of Fame in 1988.
Throughout Sieff’s career he was always a strong supporter for the independent tire dealer and particularly, private brand tires. The S&M Company founded both the Remington and Star brand tires in the 1930’s and later in the 1970’s Sieff was a key leader in the formation of the Summit Tire and Battery Corporation. He served as the President of Summit Tire from 1979-1992 and oversaw the brands’ development into one of the top private label groups in the country. As President of Summit Tire, Sieff was also instrumental in the development of the business agreements with the private labels and Asian manufacturers. His relationship with the management at Ohtsu was legendary in the private brand circles. This relationship in the early eighties, turned out to be the precursor for the manufacturing trends of today.
Sieff also founded the Mr. Tire Service franchise and later on the Mr. Tire Dealer Affiliate program which was one of the pioneer affiliate programs that so many are modeled after today. At the height of the program, Mr. Tire Service had six company owned stores directed by Sieff and over 85 dealer associates throughout the Upper Midwest under the S&M Tire Company’s umbrella.
Sieff has been involved in numerous charities over the years and strongly believes in his father’s philosophy of “paying back” the community that has been so good to him. Just a few of the charities John Sieff’s Family Foundation has supported and currently support include the Salvation Army, March of Dimes, the Little Sister’s of the Poor, St. Joseph’s Home for Children, the Shriner’s Hospital and hundreds more.
The Hall of Fame Inductions will take place on November 1, 2005 in Las Vegas, Nevada prior to the opening of the SEMA Show/TIA’s Performance Tires & Wheels. The presentation will be held during TIA’s Breakfast with the President, scheduled from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. at the Caesars Palace Hotel Roman Ballroom. Tickets for the event are $35 and are available online at www.tireindustry.org.
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TIA is an international association representing all segments of the tire industry, including those that manufacture, repair, recycle, sell, service or use new or retreaded tires, and also those suppliers or individuals who furnish equipment, material or services to the industry. The Tire Industry Association (TIA) has a history that spans more than 80 years and includes several name changes. Originally known as the National Tire Dealers & Retreaders Association (NTDRA), the organization gave birth over the years to the American Retreaders Association (ARA) and the Tire Association of North America (TANA). ARA changed its name to the International Tire & Rubber Association (ITRA) and merged with TANA in 2002 to form the current Tire Industry Association (TIA), which now represents every interest in the tire industry.
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