The title song from a Broadway musical which debuted when Bob Hill Hydraulic Crane Rentals was only in its fifth year of business had the chorus singing to its main character that she was "still going..still going strong."

Well, Hello, Bob Hill! Now 76 (as of November 11), and with 55 years experience in the business--over 40 as head of his own innovative hydraulic crane rental company--Bob Hill is still going strong.

This World War II veteran (US Navy) has had his share of high and low points along the way, personal and business. He was born in Salmon, Idaho, where his father, Harry, was a successful businessman and a 33rd degree Mason. Harry attended a Shriner's Convention in Los Angeles in 1927 and came back to tell his wife, Louise, of a life better than the one they had in their native Sheridan, Montana--where both had been born and raised--or in their adopted state of Idaho. Within a year, they bought a home resettled their family in the then- small town of Long Beach, California.

Tragically, Harry was killed in an automobile accident, only 9 months after the move, leaving his widow to raise Bob and his older brother Bernie, as his oldest brother Joe was already on his own.

At 17, Bob enlisted in the US Naval Air Corps, and later saw service in the Philippines as part of a forward bomber and patrol squadron. At war's end, he joined his brother Bernie and sister-in-law's crane business. Bob spent 13 years with this company, and became general manager after his brothers untimely death in a traffic accident. Bob continued to fill in as a salesman and sometime operator, more than doubling the companies business in those last four years before moving on to start his own crane company.

It was 1959 when Bob and Naomi ventured out on their own, going out on a limb, borrowing just enought money to purchase a 5-ton stinger. The company was initially called "Bob Hill Stinger Crane Service", and started business with a one man Stinger Crane, and eventually increased that fleet to five. During this time Bob Hill and his first employee Bob Evans served as operators and mechanics while Naomi kept the books, dispatched and answered the phones, as well as somehow findiing time to raise three fine children. Around 1962, the property at 1444 E. Burnett Street was purchased with permanent offices set up in the building that still stands at this same site.

In 1963, they moved into the hydraulic crane rental business with his first purchase of a Grove hydraulic crane. This was the first Grove purchased on the west coast, as well as one of the first hydraulic cranes to appear on the scene. It is interesting to note that Bob purchased this crane from only a sketch , as literature was not yet available on these hydraulic cranes. By year's end, he had a fleet of ten such cranes. From that point on the company's mission was set: to provide general hydraulic crane service to all types of industry, including utility companies, refineries, and general construction.

Bob refers to his company as a "Taxi Cab Rental Business", meaning that "we are in and out of a lot of minimum work--which is why the hydraulic cranes are so special. We can go and make one of two lifts and put in 180 ft. of boom and be back, all in four to six hours." Bob says.

Today, that "Taxi Cab Rental Business", has a fleet of 32 cranes, ranging in capacity from 8-ton to 180-ton and numbers in between. The company occupies a three acre site in the Signal Hill section of Long Beach and employs 35 people, including general manager Tommy Thomas, a shop superintendent with three mechanics, a dispatcher and assistant dispatcher, in-house accountant, a crew of crane operators, oilers, and drivers--each crew person a member of Local 12 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

Mr. Hills son and daughter are both company officers, Ken serving as vice president and Cheryl Hill Oakes as vice president and secretary-treasurer. Another son, Gary, had been the company's business manager until his death in 1992 after a lingering illness.

Bob's lifetime companion, his wife of 48 years, Naomi, was an invaluable help to Bob and the business. Naomi and Bob Hill met in April of 1947 and were married the following September. "Heck, I brought her out of retirement three times to help me out," he says. Naomi died of cancer in 1995.

But Bob's philosophy , of life and business, encourages him to go on. "We're just plugging right along and looking as some bigger equipment," he says.

The company lost about 20 percent of its business in 1990 when California's newly imposed air quality regulations forced some of Bob's chemical plant clients, such as American Chemical, Stauffer Chemical and Whitfield Chemical, to move out of state. The company continues to replace aging equipment with modern, state-of-the-art cranes. "We keep up maintenance and add new machines. We have a sound safety and drug awareness program, and we are fortunate to have a great following of loyal clients in several industries," Bob says.

In his spare time Bob enjoys his motor yacht, which he has owned since the 1960's, and relaxes on Catalina Island, where he has a mooring. On occasion, he makes use of a time share condo on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. "That and some fly fishing..that's how I relax," he says. In recent years, Bob also has established a significant relationship with a woman--a widow about Bob's age-- who has her own sense of values and independence. She lives 8700 ft. up the mountains of Colorado. On occasion, they travel together, enjoying each other's company. Life goes on.