Jerry Lankenau was a former president of the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA), which merged with the Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA) to become the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) and eventually NALP.
Lankenau grew up during the Great Depression and was the son of a Ford executive. In high school, he worked enough odd jobs to pay for flying lessons and eventually bought his first airplane before he even had a pilots’ license or owned a car, sparking a lifelong love for flying.
After graduating from the University of Miami, he was offered a job with Ford Motor Company in industrial relations. His father, Floyd, soon after retired from Ford as their landscape architect and launched Lankenau-Damgaard and Associates, Inc. in 1959.
Lankenau soon joined his father at the commercial/industrial landscape company and had many well-known clients including Dow Chemical, The Trane Company, General Motors, SS Kresge, Avon Products, Metropolitan Life Insurance, John Deere, Ford Motor Company and Ford Motor Land Development.
Lankenau’s son Kip also worked at the company after graduating from college. He says they couldn’t show up on a job site for Ford with a General Motors car and vice versa. One time his father had back to back meetings with General Motors and Ford but wasn’t able to switch cars in time.
“In the meeting is a number of Ford executives, construction types and Henry the second,” Kip says. “And when the meeting was over, Henry Two says ‘Hey Jerry, I’ll have my secretary call you and find out what kind of new car you want. Someone had seen Dad drive in with a Pontiac so he couldn’t leave the meeting without buying a new Ford. Sure enough by the time he got back to the office, Henry’s secretary had already called. So, we were late for the meeting and bought a Ford.”
Kip says his father was involved with the association for the betterment of the industry and to help all the other contractors.
“Jerry was a team player,” says Ralph Stout, another former ALCA president. “He cared greatly about the industry for landscape contractors and he worked diligently and very hard to help create good reputations and a better understanding with the public of what was involved with landscape contracting.”
One of the main impacts Lankenau achieved for the industry was getting landscape contractors and architects to the same table, as they did not have good relations at the time, according to Kip. He was also the legislative liaison for ALCA and would visit D.C. quarterly to meet with people from Congress and the current administration.
“He was definitely a people person,” Kip says. “He had lifelong friendships he made, especially in the industry. He was very outgoing and everyone he met was a friend.”
During his time as ALCA president, Lankenau took advantage of his flying skills using it to visit members and travel to various events.
“He got around the country a lot visiting with other people and other contractors,” Stout says. “And even after he was president he still stayed involved on various committees and groups working on different aspects of the association.”
Lankenau passed away on December 22, 2019, at age 86. He is survived by daughter Tami (Lankenau) and husband Marvin Johnson, son Kip and wife Debra (Veazey) Lankenau, granddaughter Tatyana (Lankenau) and husband Sean Rust, and grandson Vladimir Lankenau.
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