Snorkel Founder Art Moore, Ferwerda Brothers, Inducted into AEM Hall of Fame
The late Snorkel founder Art Moore has been honored as an industry pioneer by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. The induction announcement took place during the AEM Annual Conference, held virtually November 17-20, 2020. The digital edition featured several speakers, panels, roundtable discussions and networking events. Interviewed in the announcement video, Sue Moore, Art’s wife, shared the history behind her late husband’s innovations and the founding of Snorkel.
Also inducted were brothers Ray and Koop Ferwerda, inventors of the Gradall excavator.
The AEM Hall of Fame spotlights pioneers whose inventions, ideas, leadership and courage have contributed to the industry and our community's quality of life. The recognition also strives to instill a deeper public understanding and appreciation for the continuing role of the industry in global business success.
Nominees were considered based on their innovation, industry contributions, leadership, corporate citizenahip and social responsibility. Among many unique ideas developed during Moore’s lifetime included firefighting equipment, aluminum booms and hydraulic telescopic designs that helped solve problems critical to the off-road equipment industry.
In 1959, Moore’s development of telescopic firefighting equipment became so integral to the profession that the company name, Snorkel, would become genericized for the equipment throughout the industry.
Yet another innovation was his use of aluminum extrusions on aerial lifts. The unprecedented use of this material revolutionized the industry as it allows better functionality while weighing and costing less than comparable steel models.
For more information on the AEM Hall of Fame, visit https://www.aem.org/about-aem/hall-of-fame or Snorkel, please visit https://www.snorkellifts.com/.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.