On Aug. 4, Five Star Equipment held a golf outing to celebrate its 25th year in business. The event was held at the Lima Country Club in Lima, N.Y., and included an 18-hole scramble, lunch on the course and dinner following the tournament.

Participants included employees, customers and vendors of Five Star Equipment, and most notably, Samuel R. Allen, president of John Deere Worldwide Construction, Forestry and Power Systems Divisions.

Five Star Equipment has grown from a small company in Dunmore, Pa., to eight branch locations in two states. Prior to starting their own company, Frank Gallo and Bill Bochicchio had worked together at Ingersoll Rand — Gallo as service manager and Bochicchio in sales. They started their own business in 1980 when they purchased Drake Diesel, Dunmore, Pa. This company was a GMC dealership that sold Detroit, Cummins and Caterpillar engines, Dresser Leroy compressors and drills and Driltec rotary drills.

They purchased the GMC truck dealership because they knew they wanted to make a move on their own and the truck dealership was readily available. They liked the idea of the truck dealership because of the variety of diesel engines that it sold and because of the drilling equipment it offered. Drilling and blasting was the background the two men were bringing with them from Ingersoll Rand, so they were already familiar with a lot of the equipment the truck dealership sold.

But 1983 was the year the men’s business partnership really took off. That was the year they expanded their company by purchasing a local John Deere dealership called Charles Siepiela Inc. The dealership represented John Deere construction, forestry and utility equipment. The dealership was moved to Dunmore to join Drake Diesel and Five Star Equipment was born.

The name was derived from the combination of the GMC Five Star Mark of Excellence along with the rare military rank five star general in order to represent the quality products and service they intended to offer their customers.

For more information, visit www.fivestarequipment.com.

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