Mar 01, 2024
Hawaii Asphalt Paving Industry Announces 2024 Hall of Fame Inductee Dave Funkhouser
BY AsphaltPro Staff
Established in 2021, the Hawaii Asphalt Paving Industry (HAPI) Hall of Fame honors and recognizes those individuals that have:
- Made significant and lasting contributions to the Asphalt Paving Industry.
- Unselfishly and generously served HAPI and the industry.
- Demonstrated a consistent high standard of ethics.
- Made outstanding contributions of time and/or ideas to the industry.
- Helped mold our industry, reshape, and improve the way the industry operates.
HAPI is honored to announce its 2024 Hall of Fame inductee, Dave Funkhouser.
Dave was a director when HAPI was incorporated in 1989, working for Chevron in California at the time.
He believes that the Hawaii Asphalt Paving Industry (HAPI) was born out of necessity because the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) was not giving their Hawaii members the attention they needed and deserved. The immediate benefit of starting our own industry association was vastly improved communication with all involved parties – government agencies, suppliers, contractors, etc. For Dave personally, it solidified the relationships with his customers and elevated Chevron’s interactions to that of colleagues with a common goal, providing the best product possible to the driving public.
In the early days, Chevron was a major contributor to the success of HAPI. In those days, they had a recognized group of scientists working at Chevron Research to keep abreast of best practices. Dave encouraged HAPI to use them as much as possible to lead seminars and contribute their vast knowledge to solving some of the issues in Hawaii, and HAPI did. He always made a point of showing up every time HAPI put on a seminar because he believed it was vital for the attendees to see at least one HAPI board member in attendance for the sake of credibility, acknowledging the importance of those sessions.
Initially, Chevron was one of just two asphalt supplier members. It was critical to the survival of HAPI financially, that Chevron continued to be a member and pay their dues. Other asphalt suppliers were not as committed and would sometimes drop out of HAPI. At the time, the Hawaii asphalt market was not very big compared to the mainland states, but fortunately Dave believed as the market share leader it was essential that they be members.
As a three-time president, his participation in HAPI was important to demonstrate that Chevron’s involvement was not just to make money in Hawaii but to make things better for the whole industry. Through Chevron Research, they were able to optimize the proper blends of various crude oils to produce high-quality asphalt, and their refinery at Barber’s Point made accommodations to allow that to happen. His position also made it helpful for the various agencies to understand what Chevron was able or unable to do given the supply chain logistics in Hawaii.
A major contribution of his was helping the industry understand the change to the asphalt cement grading system from the AR (Aged Residue) to the current PG (Performance Grade) system. Hawaii DOT really appreciated Chevron’s expert help early on when the Hawaii DOT was considering changing the asphalt cement grading system from the AR to the current PG system. To help the Hawaii DOT better understand the potential impacts of the change, Dave made arrangements, all at Chevron’s expense, to have their asphalt cement ‘guru’ come to Hawaii to give Lab an education on the PG System versus the AR System. The State really appreciated Chevron’s expert help in understanding the potential impacts of the change in grading systems.
Initially, Dave is quite sure that Hawaii’s collective impression of Chevron was looking at them as a giant, uncaring oil company. But thanks to his efforts, he was able to change the perception to that of an interested partner committed to making everyone’s job in the industry a bit easier.
In summary, Dave was an incredibly positive force for all of HAPI’s endeavors as an unwavering supporter for the industry.