The utility construction industry lost a giant with the Dec. 11 death of Ed Malzahn, chairman of the Charles Machine Works Inc. (CMW). Malzahn's invention of a compact trenching machine paved the way for changes in the way essential utility services are delivered to customers. Malzahn, 94, died in Perry, OK, the small northern Oklahoma town that was Malzahn's lifelong home and where CMW is headquartered. A memorial service was held Dec. 18 at the Ditch Witch training center on The Charles Machine Works campus with funeral services on Dec. 19 at the First Presbyterian Church of Perry, Malzahn's long-time family church. In 1948, Malzahn designed the world's first compact trenching machine, a product he envisioned could be used to dig water and gas service lines to houses which at that time was done by hand. Malzahn, a recent engineering graduate of Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University), devoted two years working in his father's Perry machine shop to perfect the new product.
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