U-Haul honors and celebrates the life of a Company titan, whose impact is still felt today
TEMPE, Ariz. and RIDGEFIELD, Wash., June 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- An 18-year-old William E. "Hap" Carty, while on leave from the U.S. Army in 1945, helped his sister and brother-in-law with an upstart company they were building – quite literally – in a milk house on the Carty Ranch in Ridgefield.
The concept was to create a line of trailers families could rent for one-way moves. The business was to be called U-Haul. The do-it-yourself moving industry would never be the same.
Carty joined U-Haul full-time in 1946 following his discharge at the end of WWII, and in doing so became the Company's first employee. While he never cashed his paycheck from the first 10 trailers he helped build in that milk house, his tireless commitment and influence over the next 43 years shaped the foundation and growth of one of North America's most recognizable companies and successful entrepreneurial stories.
Hap, nicknamed for being a happy child with a big smile, died on Friday. He was 95.
"U-Haul would not exist today but for Hap," stated Joe Shoen, U-Haul CEO and son of the Company's late founders L.S. "Sam" and Anna Mary Carty Shoen. "He was a recognized industry innovator who crossed paths with many industry stalwarts including John Rock, Red Pohling, Don Peterson, John DeLorean and Roger Penske.
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