Industrialist sees potential profit in helping keep highways clean

by Calvin Trice
for Virginia Business
October 2005

Walter M. "Gator" Hopkins in many ways personifies the Shenandoah Valley's agrarian roots and its growing industrial might.
A farm boy who graduated from a local high school and James Madison University, Hopkins is president of Cave Hill Corp., a small, heavy-industry business in McGaheysville in eastern Rockingham County.

Although his business interests operate in 48 states, the Valley is all Hopkins has ever known as home. "I'm proud to be here. Very proud," says the 51-year-old entrepreneur.

Hopkins is the sixth generation of his family to live in the Valley. His ancestors moved to the McGaheysville area in 1830 and began farming. The family farm has focused on poultry and dairy, but the site has produced just about everything at some time. "You name it, it's been grown there," he says.

But Hopkins, the oldest of four children, was never interested in working on the farm. "I loved growing up on a farm, but I didn't want to farm," he says.

Instead, Hopkins, a high-energy innovator and inventor, started Cave Hill when he was 26. In the past 25 years, he has created six divisions under the Cave Hill umbrella. The companies employ 48 people and generate just under $5 million in annual revenue. Hopkins' various businesses fabricate steel, rent industrial cranes, install oil-change equipment, build storage tanks and invest in real estate.

His latest enterprise is Gator Industries LLC. The venture is based on the Gator Getter, Hopkins' invention, which can be used to remove highway debris. The Gator Getter is a cylindrical device that is attached to the front of state highway vehicles. It is designed to pick up debris in the middle of roadways that might compromise motorist safety. Hopkins says the Gator Getter can, for example, retrieve tire treads, dead animals and automotive parts at full highway speeds.

Hopkins says research supports the need for his invention. A recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, for example, found that road debris caused an estimated 25,000 wrecks annually in North America resulting in 80 to 90 deaths.

Hopkins believes the Gator Getter, could save time, money and possibly lives at highway departments around the country. "The state has at its fingertips a tool that has come to the market and has proven that it can keep Virginia Department of Transportation workers out of harm's way," he says.
So far, however, the state is not biting. VDOT officials met with Hopkins to discuss the device, but they decided that the agency doesn't need it right now, says department spokeswoman Tamara Neale. "If we were to [use it] we would have to test it and make sure it meets our specifications, with safety being our utmost priority," Neale says.

Hopkins, however, is undaunted. He is pitching the Gator Getter to departments of transportation and state police throughout the Southeast. He envisions selling as many as 10,000 of the devices in the next few years at $7,000 to $9,000 apiece.