Joseph Bamford, the founder of privately-held construction equipment manufacturer JC Bamford, died on Thursday at age 84.
Bamford’s initials, JCB, were emblazoned on his excavators and diggers, and became a generic term for the machinery which entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1985.
The JCB Group remains owned by Bamford’s son, Anthony Bamford, who is chairman and managing director.









