Charles “Rocky” Turner, one of the founders of LPR Construction in Loveland, Colo., died April 16 at age 74.
After graduating from Ball State University with a master's degree in industrial engineering, he spent some time teaching shop before moving west, where he and two close friends, Larry Boyd and Pete Carner, founded LPR Construction in 1979. Within a decade, LPR had grown to be one of the nation’s leading steel erection firms with notable projects including the America West Arena (now PHX Arena), Coors Field, Denver Art Museum, Dicks Stadium, and Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park).
"Rocky led LPR to much of its success,” said Chip Pocock, a long-time friend and the safety and R&D manager at Barnett Steel Erection, Inc., in Thomasville, N.C. “He was also instrumental in moving the bar on fall protection safety in the steel erection industry. More importantly, he was a gentleman and a man of great character who did a lot for those who worked for him as well as his community."
Beyond the founding of LPR, Turner’s legacy is his work on standards that led to increased safety in the erection industry. As a member of the OSHA Steel Erection Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee (SENRAC), he contributed to the drafting of a new fall protection standard that has dramatically reduced injuries and deaths. He was also named an ENR Top 25 Newsmaker in 1994 for LPR’s advancements in erection safety and fall protection.
“The industry has lost the father of fall protection,” said Rex Lewis, president of Puma Steel and an AISC board member. “Over three decades ago, Rocky told me he was going to make steel erection safer or he was going to get out of the business. That was the first I had heard of fall protection. Rocky was a charter member of the OSHA SENRAC committee that rewrote the steel erection safety standards. Rocky and his fellow SENRAC committee members made the steel industry a much safer place to work.”
Turner served as president of the Steel Erectors Safety Association of Colorado for 15 years, as a board member of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Colorado, and on the board of the National Center for Construction Education and Research.