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B U S I N E S S P RO F I L E S 60 B U S I N E S S P R O F I L E S S P E C I A L A D V E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N O n t h e e v e n i n g o f A p r i l 1 0 , 2 0 2 6 , 8 0 0 people filled the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor for the kind of event the construction industry rarely gets to hold: a centennial. Employee-owners, retirees, members of the Sargent family, and business partners gathered to mark 100 years of Sargent Corporation, the heavy civil contractor headquartered in Orono. A new documentary was screened, the Maine-grown band 12/ OC performed, and at the center of the room, serving as the cen- terpiece of the evening, sat a custom-painted bulldozer, finished by employee-owners Dustyn Davis and Ron Powers. "When I think about Sargent reaching 100 years, my first thought is, how did they start this thing 100 years ago?" said Herb R. Sargent, the company's board chair and the founder's grandson. "en right behind that is just what a privilege it is to be part of it. I feel a real connection to the people who built this company long before I was here, the people I've worked with through the years, and the people who aren't even born yet who will carry it forward. at's what makes this milestone feel so deep and so meaningful." e story begins in 1926 in Stillwater, Maine, with a young man named Herbert E. Sargent and a used REO dump truck. Herb Sargent grew up in Alton, a sparsely populated farming and lumber town, one of a handful of students in a one-room schoolhouse. He once told his grandson that, standing on that school step as a boy, looking out at Passadumkeag Mountain some 20 miles away, he wondered if he would ever travel that far in his lifetime. e world was that small. e automobile had just arrived. Paved roads barely existed. Herb Sargent could see what was coming. He had grown up around his father's sawmill, knew how to work, and under- stood the opportunity when infrastructure began to be built in earnest. In 1926, he bought that used REO dump truck, with a bed that had to be tipped by hand, and hired it out for road work. Over the following decades, his company, H.E. Sargent Incorporated, helped build portions of the Maine Turnpike and key sections of Interstate 95, and expanded into airports, utili- ties, and landfill projects as the state built itself up. What set H.E. Sargent apart, by nearly every account, was something harder to quantify than equipment or revenue. "A lot of successful businessmen did projects on a handshake," said retired Business Development Manager Stephen Perry, who joined the company in 1975 and spent 46 years there. "Herb went above and beyond that. He basically felt like, regardless of whether he was going to lose money or not, he was going to do the project to the satisfaction of the customer, regardless." A Century of Building Together Sargent Corporation Marks 100 Years Sargent Corporation 3 Godfrey Drive, Orono, Maine 04473 Sector: Heavy Civil Construction Eric Ritchie, President & CEO Founded: 1926 Maine employees: 420 www.sargent.us P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F S A R G E N T P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F S A R G E N T Above: Sargent 100th Anniversary Celebration at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine. Right: Jim Sargent, Herbert E. Sargent, Ralph Leonard, c. 1962.