Harold E. LeMay

Harold E. LeMay
Harold LeMay

Take a tour:

  • Vintage Vehicle Tour
  • LeMay Private Tour
  • Historic Tour
  • Vintage & Historic Tour

Harold E. LeMay was born in Yakima, WA, on September 4, 1919, to Marie E. Couch LeMay and Joseph E. LeMay. He was the youngest of three children, with an older brother Emil (Buzz) LeMay and a sister, Virginia. He came to Tacoma with his mother when he was 18 months old, went to Rocky Ridge Grade School, and graduated from Kapowsin High School. Harold then settled in Parkland, WA. Always the entrepreneur and just out of high school, Harold became a partner in the automobile business in the Lincoln District of Tacoma. He began Victory Bus Routes shortly after World War II began, picking up shipyard employees and transporting them to the shipyard. After enlisting in the Navy as a Seabee, but before he left for duty from 1944-46, he traded one of the trucks off of the Victory Bus Route and began his first garbage route. When Harold passed away in 2000, he had 475 employees, and his company picked up garbage from the Pacific Ocean to the base of Mount Rainier, encompassing five counties. Harold started collecting cars in the late 1960s, and his collection grew to be the largest private collection of automobiles and trucks in the world. Harold lived just past his 81st birthday, passing away on November 4, 2000. The refuse company was sold in 2008, and the name “Harold E. LeMay Enterprises, Inc.” was part of the sales package, preserving his name and legacy in the communities he served for so many years.