![Richard Steele](https://chsfomaha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/steele-HOF-headshot.jpg)
Steele built a company specialized in maintaining locomotive engines, instilling it with a unique cooperative culture. After graduating from Iowa State University, Steele with two friends in 1971 founded Peaker Services, a firm to maintain the engines of the backup generators electrical utilities use to meet peak demand. Starting with three trucks working out of a two-car garage, Steele helped grow Peaker Services into a $25 million company servicing large engines for a range of industrial customers, among them utilities, railroads and the maritime industry. Adopting the industrial model of post-war Japan, as CEO he established a company culture built around extreme cooperation over internal competition, continual learning and a shared vision of quality, creating an environment where workers experienced a greater sense of purpose and fulfillment. He remains chairman of the now employee-owned company.