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When Carolyn Moon and her husband Bill opened Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa, they started with $100, and Moon joked that they had mortgaged every­thing but the kids. They grew the busi­ness into one of the largest truckstops in the country, established the indus­try standard that continues to serve as the underpinning of the truckstop and travel plaza community and left a legacy that continues to this day.

“She came from nothing and made something. That is a great story and it should be inspirational to everyone,” said Delia Moon Meier, the Moons’ daughter and an owner and the senior vice president of Iowa 80 Group. 

Carolyn Moon passed away May 4 at the age of 81. The truckstop industry mourned the loss and re­membered the significant contribu­tions Moon made to the industry, including serving as a co-founder of ºÚÁÏÉçÇøand supporting the NAT­SO Foundation.

“She is a very special person any way you cut it. ºÚÁÏÉçÇøwouldn’t be what it is today without Carolyn and Bill,” said Jim Goetz, Sr., founder of Goetz Companies. “Carolyn was one of the heavy lifters in ºÚÁÏÉçÇøin the 80s and early 90s. When we wanted to re-start the government affairs op­erations, she moved in and provided the leadership necessary.”

Meier said her mother was creative and smart and called her a pioneer. “She really was able to think about things in a different way than lots of other people. When others saw trash, she often could see something useful. When other people would see a crabby person, she would see a person that needed a different job,” she said. 

Lisa Mullings, president and CEO of NATSO, said the entire NAT­SO family was saddened to hear of Moon’s passing. “She was one of the first ºÚÁÏÉçÇømembers I met when I joined the staff, and her easygoing warmth and kindness made me feel like we had known each other for years,” Mullings said.

After graduating from Southwest Missouri State University with a degree in mathematics, Moon was recruited by Lockheed Missile in California for advanced training in designing missiles. She went on to break the glass ceiling at Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas, as the first woman to enter the engineer­ing and programming department. She was frequently the only woman in the room and programmed a gi­gantic mainframe computer to solve engineering problems mainly for the B-52.

“She was used to working in a man’s world because of her time at Boeing,” Goetz said. “She set the groundwork for females to have credibility and be allowed to provide leadership within our industry as well.”

Moon revolutionized the truckstop industry with innovative advance­ments. Her mathematical mind and programming skills, once used to de­sign missiles and aircraft, helped to turn a simple road side gas station into a multimillion dollar business. 

The Moons started their truckstop career in 1965, when the couple leased Iowa 80 Truckstop in Wal­cott, Iowa, from Standard Oil. In 1984, they cashed in their savings and retirement funds and borrowed money from friends to purchase their first location, which has grown into the world’s largest truckstop. 

The Moons founded Truckomatic truck washes, a truck wash chain lo­cated throughout the Midwest. In 1977 they introduced the first total­ly automated, full-length platform scale, known as CAT Scale, that al­lowed truck drivers to quickly and accurately weigh their entire truck and trailer unit simultaneously.

Meier said Moon often found ways to streamline operations to make them easier and faster. “She saw things that other industries were doing and helped apply them to our business,” she said. “Examples of this are cashier checkout procedures, check reconciliation, sales projec­tions, invoice coding and AP. In the early 70s she designed a cash register system for our business that allowed us to run multiple locations and have accurate and timely financials produced out of our headquarters.”

For 50 years, Moon worked at the Iowa 80 Truckstop and CAT Scale as chairman of the board and chief information officer until De­cember 2016. She went into the office regularly until a few months before she passed.

Meier said Moon liked to work nights at the location. “She needed very little sleep and she liked to work alone,” she said.

One night, Moon was sitting alone eating a sandwich at 9:00. “A house­keeper was working around her. He said, ‘Don’t you own this place?’ She said yes and he asked her if she had ever felt like running away. She told him she had never considered it, and I think that shows how committed she was and how much she was en­joying herself here,” Meier said.

Moon also opened the Trucking Hall of Fame in tribute to Bill after he passed away. The trucking mu­seum showcases Bill’s personal col­lection of more than 100 trucks and trailers. She generously donated both time and money to ºÚÁÏÉçÇøand the ºÚÁÏÉçÇøFoundation, including chairing the Public Awareness Com­mittee and serving as a member of the Long Range Planning and the Government Affairs Committees.

Meier said Moon took a deep interest in the drug-free truckstop program that was started in the 80s. The Moon Family also helped en­dow the ºÚÁÏÉçÇøFoundation schol­arship program, which awards mul­tiple $5,000 scholarships each year to deserving travel plaza employees and their dependents.

In 2002, Moon was awarded NATSO’s Distinguished Member Award for exemplifying the prin­ciples by which ºÚÁÏÉçÇømembers strive to lead their daily business practices and lives. The award rec­ognizes an individual resonating integrity, character, charitable, po­litical and community benevolence and service to the truckstop, and travel plaza community.

Moon was active in the American Association of University Women in Davenport where she served as treasurer. Ernst and Young awarded Moon the Iowa Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2000. Junior Achievement of the Heartland in­ducted Carolyn and Bill into the Business Hall of Fame in 2006.

Meier said, “She showed me that you have to work hard to be the best and earn respect. She taught me to get mad and prove people wrong when they say you can’t do some­thing. She told me to do what men are doing, but do it your own way.”

Moon had many things to be proud of throughout her life, but Meier said she believes Moon was the most proud of building a busi­ness that lasted. “She was proud she did her best every single day and that her family is continuing. It didn’t fall apart when her husband died and it isn’t going to fall apart when she died. I think that has to be the pin­nacle of success,” she said.

Photo credit: The moon family shared photos of Carolyn Moon at ºÚÁÏÉçÇøevents throughout the years.

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