John Hervey, a former NACS employee and PCATS executive director, with a long and distinguished career in the convenience and petroleum retailing industry passed away on Aug. 5.
Hervey’s 40-year-plus career began at Mobil Oil Corp., where he served in a variety of capacities for 25 years, including providing retail automation solutions for its 1,000-plus convenience stores. He retired from Mobil in 1992 and began a second career as an industry consultant.
In 1995, he joined Minit Mart Foods in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as its director of IT, where he was an early proponent of data standards. In 1997, Harvey returned to consulting with Gerke and Associates, where he led the industry standards initiative that was to become the Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS). Hervey also was a retired U.S. Navy Captain, having served more than 35 years both active duty and in the Navy Reserve beginning in 1955 as a seaman recruit.
Hervey’s career at NACS began in 2000 as its chief technology officer, where he took the helm of the NACS Technology Standards Project. In 2003, the NACS Board of Directors agreed that a spinoff of the project into its own organization was appropriate, and PCATS was formed. Hervey was named executive director of the newly formed association and guided its growth and standards adoption work until his retirement in 2009.