22.01.2008

LDC Founder dies

William "Bill" Dowsett Jr, 89, the founder of LDC, the manufacturer of the Uni-Lift trailer lift in Moline, USA, died on Friday at Heartland Health Care Centre in Moline. Dowsett had been suffering from Parkinsons disease for some time and had been ill four to five months

Dowsett was born and raised in the ‘Quad-Cities’ and founded East Moline Metal Products Company in 1946 with Harold VandeWater, after returning from serving in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II.
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An LDC 42ft Unilift

The two started the business in a three-car garage on East Moline's 18th Avenue the company began producing metal parts for Caterpillar and other construction equipment manufacturers. A few years later Dowsett bought out his partner and served as president and chairman for the next 61 years.

Subsidiary LDC Industries came later and today builds the unusual Unilift trailer mounted telescopic boom lifts.

Bill Dowsett retired some 20 years ago, leaving the running of the business to his sons, Pat Dowsett, company president, and Jim Dowsett, president of LDC and Arrow-Master concrete finishing products, another subsidiary, and his daughter, Connie Dowsett, chief financial officer and treasurer.

Today the company produces a 38 telescopic and 40 ft articulated trailer lift.