Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1346654
ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION MARCH 3, 2021 Page 7 Continued on page 8 Pioneer of Our Industry: Al Hilde By Jeff Wigley, Past PSAI President This is the first in a series of articles in which the "Pioneers of Our Industry" are profiled. These early hard- working individuals had a common goal: to improve public health through the creation of portable sanitation. The contributions of these innovators were vital to the success of our industry as well as to our own PSAI. T here were no portable restroom manufacturers as fledgling liquid waste companies began to develop in our country. You made your units on your own. There were no deodorizer companies. You made your own. Finally, there were no portable restroom truck manufacturers. You were on your own. Al Hilde is one of those early, dedicated and determined business owners who changed all of those things. Through his hard work and vision, Al grew a small service company of 36 wooden units into a worldwide corporation. Born in 1933 in Freeport, Illinois, Al grew up on a farm in southeastern Minnesota. He was heavily involved in athletics, lettering in three varsity sports. After high school, he attended the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1955. Al proudly served in the US Army from 1956–1958 and was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. As a result of his involvement in sports and service in the military, Al made several observations that changed his life and the portable sanitation industry forever. As Al described in an interview with the Minnesota Historical Society: • "When playing outdoors there were no restrooms. The only real negative about being outdoors was the lack of sanitation." • "In the field in the Army, they would dig pits and put little houses over them, and that became the privy. It was the military's way of handling the waste and providing a little comfort to the person using the privy." • "Also, while in the Army, I worked part-time on construction, and I noticed again the real problems when people need to use a restroom." • Just before Al left the Army in San Antonio, he noticed a fellow in San Antonio who "built little shacks—people called them privies—which he placed over a hole that was placed in the ground. He said that "these shacks were not too pleasant. They weren't comfortable or desirable. Or sanitary." • Al concluded by saying that this process of access to a restroom was "very awkward and inefficient, and so I thought that there must be a better way." "A better way" is the cause to which Al Hilde has devoted his entire life. Founding Satellite Industries In 1958, Al Hilde imagined that he could form a portable restroom company in which he would construct, rent, and service small wooden units in his chosen business location of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Al Hilde