John Groendyke, Former Groendyke CEO, Dies at 81

John Groendyke became chairman and CEO at the Oklahoma-based company upon the death of his father, Harold, who founded the carrier in 1932. (Groendyke Transport)

John Groendyke, former Groendyke Transport chairman and CEO and a past chairman of National Tank Truck Carriers, died June 13. He was 81.

Groendyke became chairman and CEO at the Enid, Okla.-based company upon the death of his father, Harold, who founded the carrier in 1932.

Over the next couple of decades, Groendyke transformed the company and its culture — building on the pre- and post-deregulation accomplishments of his father — to create a tank truck carrier with a national footprint.

The company expanded largely through organic growth during Groendyke’s time as its top executive, according to current CEO Greg Hodgen, who is Groendyke’s son-in-law.

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John and Harold. (Groendyke Transport) 

“He had a vision of what he wanted Groendyke Transport to be transformed into,” said Hodgen, who first met his future father-in-law in 1989. “And he started hiring people that could do that. One of the things that was good about John was he wasn’t hard to help. He could take advice from people. He would seek out counsel of people that he thought could give him good input. And I think they helped him shape the company for the future.”

Safety and service were key to Groendyke’s vision. Groendyke introduced a formal Deming quality management system among other developments.

The second-generation owner of the company also sought to understand what was happening across all parts of the business.

One of Groendyke’s sayings was that “the best fertilizer for a farmer’s land are his footprints,” according to Hodgen, reflecting his belief that the best way to know what’s going on in a business is to go out among employees, visit terminals and see the trucks.

“He loved equipment,” said Hodgen, who is also chairman of American Trucking Associations. “He wanted to talk to the mechanics. ‘Hey, tell me, we bought this truck and we expected to do this. Tell me what it’s like to work on it.’ Talk to the driver: ‘Tell me what it’s like to drive this truck.’ He wanted to know because he wanted them to have the right tools to be successful.”

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“He had a vision of what he wanted Groendyke Transport to be transformed into,” Hodgen said. (Groendyke Transport)

It was an ethos that never left Groendyke, even after he handed over day-to-day responsibilities to Hodgen in 2001.

Groendyke continued to come into the company’s head office — he remained chairman of the board — even as he managed other enterprises, including an antique car business and ranches. He would visit employees’ desks, asking how members of a particular team were doing a task, empowering them and illustrating the ownership team’s engagement, according to Hodgen.

“He was a collector of relationships,” he said. “He valued getting to know people — knowing something about them and them knowing something about him — and so the relationships that are around today even after his passing are a tribute to how he valued people, and that bodes well for a family business. It’s made us very successful.”

Outside the family business, Groendyke was a collector of antique cars, watches and shotguns as well as an avid outdoorsman, rancher and conservationist. He served as an Oklahoma wildlife commissioner for 44 years — the longest tenure in United States history, according to an obituary from Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home & Crematory — and worked with The Nature Conservancy to protect the state’s landscapes.

Groendyke also served as chairman and member of the board of directors for the Grand National Quail Club and Foundation, helping pioneer the annual Grand National Quail Hunt in his hometown.

Born in Enid, Groendyke lived much of his life in his birth state, earning a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma.

(OkState Ag via YouTube)

He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the OSU Hall of Fame and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from NTTC in 2024.

Groendyke is survived by his wife, Virginia; children Shawn, Melanie, Hayden and Tucker; 12 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.