Hub Group found Yeager dies
Phillip C. Yeager, 80, founder and chairman of Hub Group Inc., died Monday from complications following a heart attack.
| Yeager |
An intermodal industry pioneer, he founded Hub in 1971 with his late wife Joyce. Working together they grew the company and today it has $1.6 billion in annual sales.
Yeager was born in Bellevue, Ky., in 1927 and began his transportation career in 1952 with the Pennsylvania Railroad. He worked for the railroad for 19 years, witnessing the introduction of intermodal service. Realizing the benefits of combining rail and road transport, he founded Hub.
Today, Downers Grove, Ill.-based Hub is a leading asset-light freight transportation management company providing comprehensive intermodal, truck brokerage and logistics services that operates through a network of more than 30 offices throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Yeager’s leadership in the intermodal industry was recognized through the many awards he received: the Silver Kingpin award from the Intermodal Association of North America in 1998; the New York Traffic Club named him Transportation Person of the Year in 1999; he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Denver in 2006 in recognition of his achievements in the intermodal industry; and in 2006 the Containerization and Intermodal Institute presented him with its Connie Award.
Yeager is survived by his wife Anne, daughter Debra Jensen, and two sons David and Mark who serve as chief executive and president of Hub, respectively. He also leaves seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Visitation is 5 to 8 p.m., Oct. 1, at Gibbons Elliston Funeral Home in Hinsdale, Ill. and a service will be held at 10 a.m. Oct. 2 at St. John of the Cross in Western Springs, Ill. In lieu of flowers, memorials should be made to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago directed to the “Yeager Professorship in Pediatric Neurosurgery.”