PHOENIX, Nov. 10,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Army veteran William E.
"Hap" Carty, an industry pioneer and the first U-Haul® employee,
will be recognized posthumously as the Business Community Grand
Marshal in Friday's annual Phoenix Veterans Day Parade.
The longtime Tempe resident
passed away in June at age 95. Members of the Carty family will
take part in the parade, and U-Haul Team Members will wear shirts
with his image on the back.
U-Haul, veteran-founded in 1945 and headquartered in
Phoenix since 1967, remains a top
U.S. veteran-friendly employer and a staple of the Phoenix Veterans
Day Parade, which is presented by the nonprofit group Honoring
America's Veterans.
The DIY moving and self-storage company will again showcase
its fleet of moving trucks with the popular U.S. Armed Forces
SuperGraphics® on the sides to honor veterans and active military
personnel. This year, the U-Haul entry will also feature a special
truck saluting Carty.
Nicknamed for being a happy child with a big smile, Hap helped
his brother-in-law, U-Haul co-founder and Navy veteran L.S. "Sam"
Shoen, build the Company's first 10 rental trailers in 1945 while
on leave from the Army.
Carty joined U-Haul as its first official employee the next
year. He served as Board Chairman of U-Haul International and
president of U-Haul during a 43-year career. Carty spent half of
his life in the East Valley and was instrumental in opening the
U-Haul Technical Center when Tempe
was mostly undeveloped desert in 1970. Home to the only R&D
facility of its kind in the world, the Tech Center signaled
business expansion for Tempe – and
the entire Valley.
"This is our 26th annual parade, and we've had longtime support
from U-Haul," stated Paula Pedene, executive director of Honoring
America's Veterans. "When I saw that Hap Carty had passed away
earlier this year, I contacted (U-Haul) and asked if they would be
willing to let us honor Hap as a Business
Community Grand Marshal. U-Haul has helped us for so
long. We wanted to do something in return.
"For nearly 20 years, U-Haul has printed our parade programs.
They give us a truck to put the programs in, and we hand out the
programs to the Boy and Girl Scouts who distribute the programs to
people along the route. We are so grateful to U-Haul, and to all
our sponsors for helping to make this beautiful parade a
reality."
The parade begins at 11 a.m. on
Friday. The route starts on Central Avenue just south of
Bethany Home Road, turns east on Camelback Road, and then south
again on 7th Street. The parade ends near Indian School Road
alongside the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center.
More than 45,000 spectators and 2,500 marchers are expected to
be in attendance.
About U-HAUL
Founded in 1945, U-Haul is the No. 1 choice of
do-it-yourself movers, with a network of more than 23,000
locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces.
U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every
hour of every day through the customer dispatch option on their
smartphones and our proprietary Live Verify technology. Our
customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to
approximately 186,000 trucks, 128,000 trailers and 46,000 towing
devices. U-Haul is the third largest self-storage operator in
North America and offers 895,000
rentable storage units and 76.6 million square feet of self-storage
space at owned and managed facilities. U-Haul is the largest
retailer of propane in the U.S., and continues to be the largest
installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive
aftermarket industry. U-Haul has been recognized repeatedly as a
leading "Best for Vets" employer and was recently named one of the
15 Healthiest Workplaces in America.
Contact:
Jeff Lockridge
Sebastien Reyes
E-mail: publicrelations@uhaul.com
Phone: 602-760-4941
Website: uhaul.com
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SOURCE U-Haul
