While never an actual employee, Jackye was an integral part of the ECC supporting cast. She would run errands, pick up supplies, help with entertaining clients and hosting company gatherings. While Larry Berger ran the company, Jackye was a stay-at-home mom. Larry was fortunate to be able to walk home for lunch most days, so he was able to spend lunch hour breaks with her. She served as a reassuring break from what was often a stressful job.
As outlined in her obituary, Jackye was also very involved in her community, volunteering and and serving on multiple boards and service entities. Her willingness to give of her time, knowledge and talents had an outsized effect on the Culver community.
Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease and the ECC family was saddened to watch her decline.
There will be a Celebration of Life this Summer when Larry returns to Culver, date yet to be determined. For those so inclined, her family requests in memoriam donations to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Easterday Construction Co., Inc. is proud to have achieved STEP Silver status again in 2025. We always strive for safety and we’re pleased to receive the recognition for it.
Easterday Construction lost another long time employee last week. Leroy Bean worked for Easterday Construction Company for over 43 years, His funeral was last Friday and not only featured an ECC hat hanging by the casket, but his time with Easterdays was mentioned throughout the ceremony.
Leroy’s family has had an outsized connection to Easterday Construction with not only Leroy’s long legacy, but both of his grandsons, at least four of his nephews and one great nephew working for us at one time or another. Nephew Bob continues with us and has been here with a tenure rivaling Leroy’s. He also has a similar career path, moving from truck driver and laborer, to skilled trades to job superintendent today. Listening to the impact Easterday Construction had on Leroy and his immediate family was humbling. ECC has always been a family business and that extends to employees and their families as well.
Leroy Bean’s Obituary
Leroy had an outside impact on ECC and the Culver Community. Active in several local organizations while working for ECC, he continued that through his retirement. (See the adjacent obituary.) It’s obvious that not only will he be missed by his family, but also by the ECC family and the Culver community too.
We used to do a newsletter called the Easterday Parade. in volume 1, No. 6, October 1990, there was an employee profile on Leroy. Here’s the text of that profile:
Leroy William Bean has been an employee of Easterday Construction Company since 10/01/62. Nearly 20 years ago, Leroy was hired by Russell L. Easterday as a truck drive, to work and make deliveries out of the shop. He held this position working under Cubby Bair for approximately 3 years, until the office began receiving too many complaints about Leroy from the job sites. Apparently, Leroy was such a hard worker, that the superintendents wanted to keep him on site.
The Easterday Parade Logo
Leroy went from truck driver to laborer to labor foreman under Denny LaRue to Job Superintendent. The first major project placed under his control was the Saemann Building downtown in Warsaw. This was the renovation of an old building under the Historic Preservation laws in 1982 and 1984.
While on the jobs, Leroy was shortened to Roy, which is how many of us still know him. Avon Murray, an electrician that worked for ECC in the past, did this bit of editing for him. Apparently, Avon thought Leroy was too long to remember.
Leroy was born in the Chicago area on May 7th, 1941 and grew up around Culver. Margaret, Leroy’s wife was from Winamac. They were married on July 22nd, 1961. They have lived in their current residence, in the town of Culver, for the past 22 years. They have spent loads of time and energy remodeling and recently won a civic award from the Culver beautification committee. This effort is still continuing, with Leroy spending much of this summer remodeling their kitchen with new cabinets made by “Uncle Bud” Cripe.
Leroy and Margaret have two daughters, Kim and Cheryl, both in their late twenties. They have three grandchildren, Kim’s 8-year-old son, Roy Lee, Cheryl’s 6-year-old son, Mogan and 4-year-old daughter, Amy.
We received our ABC STEP Silver Safety certificate from Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) this week. Last week we had two employees complete their OSHA 10 Hour safety training as well as their Red Cross First Aid Training. Hopefully one of them will be around when I stress out and have a heart attack here! Ha!
We do our best to be responsible and safe at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. We distribute weekly tool box talk safety meetings and share safety training lunches with information provided by our insurance provider, Gibson Insurance. Last month we had some questions about safety on a job site and they provided a review of our procedures. They congratulated us on the safety measures we had in place and said we were doing everything right. Kudos to the field crew for meeting and exceeding standards!
Easterday Construction has a long history, dating back to the 1920’s. Melba Easterday told stories of working at the Kingsbury Ordinance Plant with company founder, Russell Easterday, while her husband, Edward Easterday, was fighting in World War II. Easterday Construction benefited from many skills that employees brought back from their service.
We are doing some purging here and as usual, are amazed at the number of people that worked for Easterday Construction throughout the years, many of which were veterans. While we have many of their names, we don’t have records of who also served our country. Here’s a short list of past employees that served. We’re confident that this list is inadequate by several score at a minimum! If you know more and can fill in the blanks for us or add any details, they’ll be added here:
