19.06.2003

John Landis Grove 1921 - 2003

John L Grove has died at the age of 82. The man who gave his name to Grove Worldwide and his initials to JLG passed away at his home in Greencastle on June 16th after a lengthy illness. Grove founded Grove Manufacturing in 1946 together with his brothers Dwight and Wayne Nicarry. He went on to start JLG in 1969 after relinquishing his interests in Grove.

Grove was one of the pioneers of both the hydraulic crane industry and the powered access business and never lost his interest in the business - right to the end his "garage" was littered with "projects" and ideas. Speaking at the inaugural Apex Conference in 1998 he called on the industry "to keep it simple and safe" and not get carried away with technology
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John Grove

Speaking to the Waynesboro Record Herald Jo Shull, who was president of Grove in the mid-1990s and knew Grove personally, described John Grove as "a visionary - not your typical businessman."

Grove is remembered locally as an important philanthropist. That generosity included a $200,000 donation that endowed the John L. Grove Medical Center, which was built to attract doctors to the community.

He also endowed the John L. Grove College of Business at Shippensburg University where he and his wife Cora helped start the college of business with a $1.25 million donation in the early 1990s.

"What he was rewarded with in business, he shared with an awful lot of people," said Shull.