In a sad story, Rick Hendricks of Beloit, Wisconsin, died after falling through his garage roof. The 66 year old was the founder and CEO of ABC Supply and the 91st richest man in the United States.
The self made billionaire fortune was built by consolidating many of the suppliers of roofing and building supplies across the country. Hendricks also through his Hendricks Development Group owned over 20 million square feet of real estate.
Rock when he fell through, the sheriff’s department said. He suffered massive head injuries, according to his company, ABC Supply Co. Hendricks was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the company, the self-described nation’s largest wholesale distributor of roofing. The Beloit-based company does about $3 billion in business a year.
Hendricks had a net worth of $3.5 billion in September, according to Forbes magazine. That made him the country’s 91st richest person, according to the magazine’s ranking of American billionaires. Hendricks, the son of a Janesville roofer, worked side-by-side with his father growing up. A high school dropout, he started his own roofing business at age 21, according to his biography on ABC Supply’s Web site. via ajc.com
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The loss of Ken Hendricks is a big tragedy. I got to know Ken Hendricks through my work with the Rockford Area Ventures developing the Essex building (a former munitions factory) that he had recently purchased. Many of us involved with the project were excited about repurposing the facility as a global center for innovation. Ken was an inspirational character—little ego, optimistic, entrepreneurial and a man of great accomplishments. I remember a number of meetings with him revolving around the future of the Rockford economy—K-12 education, leadership, business incubators, emerging markets, green technology, wind turbines and broadband access among others. His insights were respected and he was always encouraging those around him to get on with the job. He was a visionary and, more significant, an actionary. He will certainly be missed.
Egils Milbergs
Center for Accelerating Innovation
http://www.innovate.typepad.com
Really a sad story for the roofing industry
May his soul RIP