If the best success stories have humble beginnings, Reece Albert, Inc., qualifies.

In 1940, the heavy construction giant began its corporate life as a simple paving company with one truck, one tractor and a pony blade. Today, the company's complex at 3001 Foster Street in San Angelo resembles a military armor base. From here, massive equipment shuttles to and from site locations through-out West Texas as the firm fuels its stance as the region's preeminent heavy construction contractor specializing in earthwork and paving, handling of concrete and installation of underground utilities.  During the last half century, it has built a reputation of efficiency, innovation, cost effectiveness and customer satisfaction.  Through its subsidiary, CSA Materials, Inc., the corporation mines limestone and other materials needed to complete its contracts, and it sells large quantities to federal, state, municipal and commercial customers throughout West Texas.  Reece Albert, Inc.'s, acquisition of South Texas Construction of Midland in 1995 allowed the company to expand its operations into the Permian Basin.

With nearly 300 employees, several quarries and a huge inventory of equipment (including some that utilizes laser technology), the company is the vision of Reece Keith (Pete) Albert.  Born in 1910 in San Angelo, he was raised with a lifelong ambition to become a registered professional engineer just like his mother's four brothers. After graduating from Texas A&M, Reece Albert joined the city of San Angelo in 1935 as an assistant engineer. During a seven-year stint with the city, he helped lay out an aviation base for the U.S. Army Air Corps, a facility that today is Mathis Field, San Angelo's municipal airport. It was his first distinction in a long legacy of projects that helped shape the face of West Texas. He eventually earned his engineering license and struckout on his own to form Reece Albert Paving Co.

"In 1940, Reece left his job with the city and started the company with basically three pieces of equipment," recalls nephew Jack Albert, a guiding force and president of the company. "He did subcontracting work at Goodfellow Air Force Base, and in 1959 when I joined him, we had fewer than 30 employees. Basically, we were a parking lot contractor until the early 60s when San Angelo started booming." Jack says aspects of the company's growth can be linked to that of the city which has long been the agricultural, medical and retail hub of West Texas. As these services grew, so did the need for new housing. Reece Albert, Inc., soon became involved in virtually every new subdivision project in San Angelo and many shopping outlets, too.

According to Jack, the availability of local subcontractors was insufficient to help improve the competitiveness of Reece Albert, Inc.'s, bids, so the company began offering other services as well. Suddenly, Reece Albert, Inc.,expanded from paving parking lots to installing underground utilities. It acquired its own limestone quarries in order to control the supply of materials it needed to pave roads and highways. The result of this growth was a company that could operate without subcontractors. This capability continues to please customers, because with a Reece Albert, Inc., contract, they find they only have to deal with one company for their heavy construction needs. "That has been a real ace for us," Jack says, "because we can control a job site better; that, in turn, means time, and time is money. That's one way we control costs."

The firm has used this formula to complete some extremely unusual and difficult projects in recent years including the "tight tolerance" test track at the Goodyear Proving Grounds north of San Angelo, a specialized facility used to test tire performance on wet pavement. The challenge for Reece Albert was to create a pavement surface as big as 12 football fields but with a surface tolerance of just an eighth of an inch in slope and grade.

The company not only successfully completed the project, it has installed similar tracks at the Firestone test facility in Fort Stockton and another for General Tire Co.in Uvalde.

"The fact is, not everybody builds these kinds of tracks," Jack says. "We earned that reputation, and that's a good statement. But our general focus has been on commercial and industrial projects. We just want potential customers to know we're competitive, aggressive and know what we're doing. The bottom line to any successful business is the people. And we have a tremendously talented group from the managers to the superintendents to the equipment operators on the job sites."

Reece Albert died in 1988, but his vision lives on. "He never forgot that he got to where he was because of his customers," Jack says. "He did every job as if he would never get another if this one wasn't right. For any contractor, regardless of what he does, the best compliment he can have is a repeat customer."