Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1433567
13 I PSAI Association Insight, December 1, 2021 Past Presidents Reflect Upon the PSAI's Past: Ned Carpenter and Flay Anthony (continued from page 12) In Ned's Own Words "I just know that the money spent traveling to all PSAI meetings and board meetings all over the world did not cost Flay and I any money because the ideas we received made us many times over what we spent. Our people at Porta-Jon used to kid Flay and I about coming back from a PSAI meeting ready to try what we just learned at a PSAI or SEPSA meeting. I took many people on our yard for visits and would tell them I learned this from Barry Gump or this from Ron Inman or Ned served his time on the PSAI Board in the mid-1980s and served again in the mid-1990s. He was PSAI President in 1998-1999. At this point, his experience and knowledge were a tremendous benefit to the entire PSAI. As a result, in 2004, Ned Carpenter received the Andy Gump Award. Coincidentally, his partner at Porta-Jon, Flay Anthony, also served as PSAI President. After rotating from the Board a second time, Ned remained involved with the PSAI—to include requesting that the Board start the PSAI Scholarship Fund. He, along with many others, were an invaluable source of encouragement to me in my dual roles of leadership during the tumultuous period of 2012-2013. While everyone in the PSA was helpful and friendly, Ned gravitated to C.W. Harbert—who owned Chem Can in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas. "One of my early mentors was C.W. Harbert and I (and others) learned so much from him during meetings and through tours of his portable restroom yard. C.W. had wooden units and he put them through a repairing, cleaning, and painting process each time they came off rent. C.W. started off using a jet engine container as his vacuum tank on his truck," Ned recounts. He continues, "the education and the sharing of knowledge and experience in our industry began through the PSA in 1971 and is still continuing in 2021." Inspired to help other portable restroom operators in North and South Carolina, Ned worked with 1982-1983 PSA Past President Ted Hamre of Columbia, South Carolina, to form the Carolinas Portable Sanitation Association (CPSA) in the early 1980s. The first meeting was held at the North Carolina-South Carolina boundary in Ft. Mill, South Carolina. With the CPSA information shared on a national level by the PSA, it could be shared with other smaller operators—who perhaps one day would be able to join the PSA in person at conventions and Nuts and Bolts Educational Conferences. Ed Crafton, then owner of Poly Portables in Dahlonega, Georgia, encouraged the CPSA to expand to Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida with some people coming from Delaware; the group then became the Southeastern Portable Sanitation Association (SEPSA). Terri and I joined the SEPSA in the mid-1990s as we were just beginning our company from scratch. We were extremely impressed with the SEPSA and its mission. We looked forward to being able to attend their events in the future. It was at the SEPSA meeting that we met Ned Carpenter and Flay Anthony, who became our mentors and close friends today. (continued on page 14) Ned Carpenter and Lee Sola