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Spike Ashbach spent 53 years in construction work |
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Wednesday, 23 April 2008 |
Cliff Buchan
News Editor
Thin as a rail, Bernard “Spike” Ashbach was given his nickname early in life. At 6-foot-2 and 130 pounds as a young man, “Spike” seemed to fit well.
But looks can also be deceiving, said Ashbach’s son, Rick of Forest Lake. Although slight and slender, the elder Ashbach was a quiet and thoughtful man with a solid sense for business.
It was the combination of work ethic and business organization and smarts that led Ashbach to build what would become one of the premier construction companies in the Upper Midwest. For more than a half century, he worked with or ran what was Ashbach Construction of Roseville, a business founded by his father, Otto Ashbach in 1932.
Ashbach, who bought land in Forest Lake in 1959 and made the area his home a year later, has died. He passed away on Monday, April 14.
He was 88. He spent his final years in Forest Lake and at his home place in Roseville during the summers. He spent the winters in Marco, FL.
Rose Township
One of four children, Spike Ashbach was born to Otto and Amy (Reiling) Ashbach on Sept. 18, 1919 in Rose Township which is today part of Roseville. His parents owned a 50-acre farm from which they ran a dairy farm and grew garden vegetables that they hauled to markets in St. Paul by horses. The Ashbachs also ran a milk delivery business.
It was a full-fledged farming operation that involved all of Otto and Amy’s children, Rick Ashbach said. “They worked on the farm,” he said. “He (his father) often talked about crop rotation.”
The Ashbachs worked the land from 1906 until around 1930 when the farm income became tighter and the milk business fell off as more and more regional creameries formed. But Otto Ashbach did not turn his back on the ground.
Rather than plowing for cash crops, Rick Ashbach said his grandfather put his horses to work digging basements for the growing housing market. By 1932 he had started Otto B. Ashbach Construction, a business that eventually found his sons — Spike, Robert and Clarence “Blackie” Ashbach — all involved.
It was the start of what would become one of the most successful construction firms in Minnesota. From digging basements in St. Paul neighborhoods to carving out one of the first roads in the Gunflint Trail area near Ely in 1940, the business grew.
By 1950, the three brothers were at the helm of the company. Spike Ashbach became sole owner in 1972.
Far and wide
During its business peak in the late 1950s until the early 1970s, the company employed 500 workers and had completed jobs in every state west of the Mississippi River, including Alaska before it became a state.
The firm operated a regional office in Texas for 40 years and looked far and wide for its contracts.
The company was heavily involved in a number of construction areas, including flood wall retention projects and highway construction. The company built many of the metro area freeways.
In the 1950s, Spike Ashbach ran two key Colorado and Tule river diversion projects in California building the 85-mile long All American Canal and the Friant-Kern Canal, in southern California. The All American Canal in the Imperial Valley was a $1 million contract, a huge sum for the day, his son said.
The All American Canal contract was an example of his father’s strong business sense, his son said. As he completed the job, he insisted that canal officials sign off on the project was completed as bid. That was on a Friday.
Although officials tried to delay the signing, Ashbach insisted and prevailed, but officials did not begin the process of allowing water to enter the canal. That weekend a sandstorm swept through the valley and filled much of the empty canal with sand.
Ashbach’s crew was hired, under a new contract, to clean out the sand, his son said. “He was always on task,” Ashbach said of his father.
Canal and flood retention projects were two of the firm’s strong suits. Most of the Mississippi River flood walls in St. Paul were built by Ashbach and the firm was also busy in Duluth, developing water retention walls that eventually allowed for the development of the Canal Park area next to Lake Superior.
Near Anchorage, the company paved 50 acres of tarmac for an airforce base. The Ashbach family would spend summers in Alaska during the project. Ashbach would often move his family to job sites, be they in Alaska or in Iowa.
During his years with the company, Ashbach developed 13 design patents for equipment used in the industry.
Ashbach said his father’s company remained west of the Mississippi after one failed attempt to move into eastern markets. In the late 1950s, the company was the low bidder twice for contracts at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, only to see the bids rejected. When a contract was finally awarded to a regional firm, Ashbach never went east again, his son said.
The business was eventually dissolved in 1997 after 65 years of existence. Ashbach retired in 1985.
The FL move
By the late 1950s, as the Roseville area continued to grow, Ashbach’s family began looking for more “elbow room,” said a daughter, Sandy Anderberg of Forest Lake. The family went land searching and made the drive up old Highway 8 (CR-23). Near what is today Ashbach Point, the family found a 42 acre parcel that included two homes near Clear Lake that the Waldref family had for sale.
They bought the land and within a year had moved to Forest Lake. “Roseville was growing and mom had a hard time keeping track of seven kids,” Anderberg said.
By the late 1980s, a family development team crafted a plan for housing in the area and Ashbach Point resulted with 29 homes on the triangle of land that fingers out to Clear Lake.
Ashbach was a submariner during World War II, serving in the South Pacific. His Naval service was from 1941-1945. He married Arlene “Ronnie” Peterson of St. Paul on Aug. 1, 1942 while he was in the service.
During his years in Forest Lake, he was active in Masonic Lodge 343 and played a key role in 1963-64 during the construction of the Masonic Lodge here.
He was also active in school functions, serving on the Forest Lake School Board, from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. He did not seek reelection in 1968 after being hurt in a car accident, but citizens of the district voted him in by write-in ballots.
Funeral details
A funeral service for Bernard Ashbach was Saturday, April 19 at Faith Lutheran Church, Forest Lake, with interment at Sunset Memorial Park, St. Anthony.
He is survived by his children, Sandy (Richard) Anderberg, Diana Ashbach, Bernard “Nick” (Pam), Steven (Annette), Susan (Jerry) Tienter, Gregory, Richard (Daniela); 12 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; sister, Jean Swanson; and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Arlene “Ronnie”; brothers Robert, a former state senator, and Clarence.
Memorials are preferred to the Forest Lake Masonic Lodge.
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