These Guys Have a Connection to the Bobcat Founding Fathers

It Started with E.G.

In 1947 E.G. Melroe founded the Melroe Manufacturing Company in Gwinner, North Dakota. After E.G.’s death in 1955, he left the company to his four sons: Les, Cliff, Roger and Irv — and their brother-in-law, Gene Dahl. In the summer of 1958, the Melroe brothers were introduced to the Keller brothers of Rothsay, Minnesota, and soon they joined forces. The result was a machine that became a worldwide icon: the self-propelled loader.

Mike Melroe, West Fargo

Fast forward to 1989. Like many Gwinner-area high school graduates, Mike Melroe got his foot in the Bobcat factory door as a vacation replacement (VR). In 1994 he scored an internship with the Bobcat Product Management group in West Fargo, North Dakota, where he washed, transported and operated the Bobcat equipment used for sales training, marketing videos and photography. Mike then joined Bobcat Company full time in 1997 as a member of the Product Information and Training team.

Today the 45-year-old is director of Key Accounts and Government Accounts, managing a team of internal sales representatives who call on government agencies and large- volume contractors and corporate businesses.

Mike says he’s proud to contribute to the success story his great-grandfather started some 70 years ago. “It’s important to remember your roots — where you came from,” he says.

It’s fitting that Mike works in sales. After Bobcat loaders joined the Melroe lineup, Mike’s grandfather, Irv, was responsible for sustaining the ag side of the business — the plows, harrows and windrow pickups sold in the Midwest. In 1969 Irv and his brothers sold their interest to Clark Equipment Company. The Clark assets were sold to Ingersoll Rand in 1995, which sold the business to Doosan in 2007.

Nearly 50 years after the sale, people still recognize the Melroe family name. Mike says it comes up regularly in his travels. “When I am at trade shows, I may be asked two to three times a day if I’m related to the founders. I’m very proud of the Melroe name.”

Lucas Melroe, Gwinner

Lucas Melroe grew up in Gwinner and works as a manufacturing engineer focused on production of Bobcat excavators and Toolcat utility work machines. His great-grandfather, Sig, was a brother of founder E.G. Melroe.

Graduating from Gwinner High School in 2010, Lucas — like Mike Melroe — joined the company as a summer vacation replacement worker. He repeated that summer assignment in 2011, followed by an eight-month manufacturing engineering internship in 2013. Lucas joined Bobcat Company full time in 2015 after finishing his degree in agricultural engineering from North Dakota State University.

As one of just two Melroe family members in the company, he’s proud to represent the name. “My grandpa’s cousins were the Melroe boys,” Lucas says. “It’s a pretty neat story, one I grew up hearing from my uncle, Sylvan. I am proud to be a Melroe.”

Lucas also still helps out on the family farm southwest of Gwinner that was once operated by his great-grandfather Sig and E.G. Melroe.