Reliable Equipment Rental, Inc. – Lillian Bowers Continues to Lead Her Team of Operators and Support Staff to New Heights at the Wonderful Age of 85 By Brian Hoover, Senior Editor THE EARLY YEARS Hobart and Lillian Bowers were married in North Carolina in 1955 and Hobart began working in a local hosiery mill. The young couple learned of a job opportunity working in another hosiery mill in California and with a used car and $165 to their name, they decided to drive across country to start a new life in the sunshine state. Sometimes things don’t work out like they are planned and when Hobart arrived for his first day of work, he knew that he was not going to last long under the below standard conditions. The mill was hot, loud and dangerous. Thankfully, Hobart was lucky enough to learn of another opportunity to work for General Motors in their Delco battery plant. So, Hobart and Lillian moved into a modest home on 7th Street in Buena Park, and started their new life of adventure and opportunity. Through fate or chance, things were about to change for Hobart and Lillian Bowers. A family member had borrowed some money from Hobart to purchase a used backhoe. The relative eventually decided that he wanted to move on to other ventures. With no money to repay the loan, Hobart’s relative made the decision to hand over his tractor backhoe as payment. Hobart Bowers grew up on a farm in North Carolina and 6
Above: Reliable Equipment Rental, Inc. using their John Deere 270D in 2019 to demo one of the last remaining oil derricks in Brea.
had been operating tractors for many years, and both he and Lillian saw this as a possible life-changing event. As equal partners, Lillian and Hobart penciled out their new business venture right there at their kitchen table with the idea that he would be in the field and she would be in the office. They both eagerly seized upon the opportunity as Hobart practiced his backhoe skills on an empty lot over a long Labor Day weekend. Soon after, Hobart and Lillian were ready to begin offering their services with his
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newly mastered Ford 4140 backhoe. The year was 1963, and the Bowers’ decided to name their new business Hobart E. Bowers Backhoe Service. They started out doing various excavation duties for general contractors before landing a cleanup job for an oilfield operation in the late 60s. The business slowly grew and prospered to the point where the couple could buy a brand-new Ford 4500 with an HD-15 backhoe in 1966. By the end of the 60s, the company was running three to C A LCO N T R AC TO R .CO M
