Page 25 - ATR 4 2013

th
As the 4 generation to lead Tri-State Truck Center,
Will Maddox is taking things slowly and learning

from those who’ve been there.

grandfather, grandfather, father, and are negatives to it that would make it
by eric Francis uncle by stepping into a role at Tri-State. very easy to say, ‘It’s Friday afternoon,
Contributing Writer A role that is… well, if you ask Maddox, let’s knock off’ and so you have to fight
still sort of undefined. that.”
Even when you grow up in the fam- “I’ve worked here for two years,” To clarify, “Dad and them” means
ily business, there’s always something he said while sitting at the long table in his father F. James Maddox (who goes
new you can learn. Standing in the the conference room, where paintings by Jim), his uncle Rodney Alexander
front office of Tri-State Truck Center in of Fontaine Alexander Maddox Sr. and Maddox (Rod to his friends), who are
Memphis, a fourth-generation Maddox Fontaine Alexander Maddox Jr., the first co-owners of the company, and the
family member shares one such lesson two generations to lead the company, other long-time Tri-State employees
he has picked up. gaze out from the wall. “But I don’t (some of whom have been there 25
“Never put tile with white grout in have an official position, I don’t have years or more). And “us” is his cousin
a truck dealership,” says Will Maddox, a territory, and we’re not going to fire Paul Maddox, brother James Dickson
gesturing toward the floor where the somebody to let me do [their job].” He Maddox, and himself, William Nix
grout is now, indeed, very black. shows that smile, “so I ride around with Maddox. There’s also a sister, Elizabeth
This nugget of wisdom is delivered the service guys and do whatever I can Camile Maddox, who doesn’t work for
with a big smile, one that Maddox to help. the family business.
breaks out pretty much for every person “That’s part of the fun,” he added, Tri-State was founded in 1945 by
he runs into – whether for the first time still grinning. “Dad and them have F.A. Maddox Sr., who came to Memphis
or the fifty-seventh. Boyish looking at allowed us to come in here, do what we from Birmingham, Ala., and started
27 and looking for all the world like he want to do, and find out what we like. out with seven employees in a single
could still reside on a campus, Maddox We very well could do something struc- location. Today it has seven dealership
is following in the footsteps of his great- tured but I like what we’ve done. There locations in Tennessee, Arkansas, and


photography by John david pittman

arkansas Trucking reporT | issue 4 2013 25