KSM 40 years Main Story headline

Ed Kirby remembers the early 1980s. Lots of people do, with a shake of their heads.

The United States was in the throes of a deep recession at that time. Interest rates were double digits and bankruptcies were soaring. Oil-producing states like Oklahoma were given a double whammy because the oil industry went on the skids at the same time agriculture exports declined.

But when the national economy rebounded in 1983, Oklahoma’s business activity didn’t, lagging far behind and only growing that year at a rate less than one percent. It was a bad time to be in business in the Sooner State.

“The economy in Oklahoma and, specifically, Oklahoma City was as bad as it could be,” Kirby recalled.

When the company he worked for in 1983 was about to close its doors, it was decision time.

“I really had no choice but to go out on my own,” Kirby said.

The young businessman might have been forced into it by circumstances, yet starting his own machinery outlet proved to be a good decision. Forty years later, Kirby-Smith Machinery Inc. is a thriving, multistate equipment dealership that Kirby – as founder and chairman of the board – is able to look back upon proudly.

The fledgling machinery outlet in 1983 sold used equipment, with the few pieces of machinery displayed in the yard of a friend and customer, Jack Hodges. Another friend, Thornton Wright, let Kirby work rent-free from an office. The company was, as Kirby described it, “underfunded.”

Yet, it was a start, and a year later, with the economy picking up, the company took on representation of a major manufacturer, Link-Belt. Then, a mere four

Komatsu provides Kirby-Smith Machinery telematics data on machines that are equipped with it, so in many cases, the contractor can make a diagnosis before arriving at the site.