William C. Holden, retired President of Block USA in Birmingham, Alabama, was presented with NCMA’s Hall of Fame award on August 16 at the ICPI-NCMA’s Midyear Meeting held at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego, California.
NCMA’s Hall of Fame award is presented to the industry’s most valued participants whose careers are highlighted by continual accomplishments on the industry’s behalf, and who have demonstrated unquestioned dedication to the association’s highest values.
William Charles Holden was born in Dallas, Texas, back in 1951. He likes to say that his penchant for punctuality comes from the fact he was born two months early. At birth, he was just two pounds eight ounces, but nothing about the rest of his story suggests “lightweight”.
At age four, his family moved to Georgia and settled around the fast-growing city of Atlanta and in 1965 he started Grady High School. During his high school career, Bill excelled both academically and athletically and for reasons long lost to history, even served as a temporary cheerleader. As a senior, he was recognized for his salesmanship, a skill he later honed to perfection. It’s during this time he also met his future wife Susan in what he calls the classic “football player- cheerleader romance”. The couple married six months after their high school graduation and have been together for over 52 years.
Bill attended Oglethorpe University where he obtained a bachelor’s in business administration and management. After college, he put his new degree and salesmanship to work for the panelized housing industry, starting out with a Georgia company known as Kingsberry Homes. As a Vice President of sales and marketing, Bill recalls the company’s best-selling model in the late 70s was the “Stovehaus”, a wood-burning home with a unique energy-saving design that was later featured in Popular Science magazine.
After becoming national sales manager and spending 15 years in that industry, Bill accepted a management position with Couch Construction Materials and in 1988 moved his young family to Dothan, Alabama, a mid-sized city in the southeastern corner of the state. Couch Construction was a 100-year road building company, which at the time was expanding its ready mix concrete operations. When the company acquired Dothan’s longtime block producer Brewton Materials, Bill quickly found himself immersed in the intricacies of concrete masonry production. Later plant acquisitions in Andalusia, Alabama, and Defuniak Springs, Florida, cemented his place in the block and hardscape industries.
By the year 2000, Couch’s upward growth caught the attention of Birmingham’s Ready Mix USA, a family-oriented company also expanding across the Southeast. Couch’s ready mix and block operations became a part of the Block USA family of companies in the fall of 2000. Bill was later named president of the company’s new block and hardscape division, Block USA.
He recalls one of his first major projects was Alys Beach, a luxury development along the Florida Panhandle. When designers asked Bill what he thought of their plans to use conventional materials to build the community, he convinced them that stuccoed grey concrete block was the best choice for the entire community. Today, this Scenic Highway 30-A community carries the “Fortified” designation, boasting solid masonry structures and timeless Bermuda-style craftsmanship that have resisted several hurricanes since they were built. During his 11 years as President of Block USA, the company grew to 26 masonry and hardscape manufacturing plants, spanning six Southeastern states.
Bill joined NCMA in 2000, later serving on significant committees such as marketing, governmental affairs and long-range planning. He’s most thankful to NCMA for providing him and his wife the opportunity to meet “many wonderful people from all over the globe.”
In 2008, he was selected to serve as NCMA’s Chairman, a challenging year for both the industry and the association. “You had to manage during turbulent times and you had to manage during some pretty good times as well,” says Scott Weber, President of Basalite Concrete Products and NCMA Hall of Fame recipient. “For that, we really appreciate it and it’s an honor that you well deserve.”
He spent his chairmanship building bridges with partner organizations such as the Portland Cement Association, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, and the Mason Contractors Association of America. MCAA later recognized Bill’s role as an industry emissary and liaison with the 2010 DeWitt Brown “Leadman” Award for exemplary leadership in advancing the masonry industry.
Bill is also recognized for his tireless work to establish a concrete masonry checkoff program, lobbying for “funding and support” and mentoring everyone involved in the effort. In the years since Block USA, Bill has served as a consultant to other block manufacturers, been a board member of the Besser Company and become a passionate advocate for building a better world with concrete.
While he may describe himself as “fully retired”, he continues to offer his industry expertise to CarbonCure, a Canadian technology company that introduces recycled CO₂ into fresh concrete to reduce its carbon footprint without compromising performance.
When he’s not advising or consulting, traveleling with his family remains one of Bill’s life passions. Bill’s global journeys include stops in 56 countries scattered across six continents. He and Susan have also visited 48 of the 50 states.
In recognition of his incredible personal and empowering brand of leadership and vision, the National Concrete Masonry Association is proud to induct Bill Holden into the NCMA Hall of Fame.
CMHA is the national trade association representing multiple market segments within the manufactured concrete products community, including concrete masonry, segmental concrete pavement, segmental retaining walls, articulating concrete block, and manufactured stone veneer.
