History
Huntington Coach Corporation has a rich and vibrant history stretching back to its beginnings in 1927. Throughout its 90+ years of providing reliable student transportation, it has grown into one of the largest providers on Long Island.
1927
Huntington Coach is formed
Huntington Coach began its operation in 1927 when it was founded by the Dempsey family of Huntington. The company transported workers to local factories during World War II.
1950's
Huntington Coach Corporation enters the School Bus transportation industry under the leadership of the Clifford family.
In 1950, Ernest Schenk, who operated his own large transit company in Floral Park, purchased the company from the Dempsey family for his son, who wished to enter the transportation business. This idea didn’t pan out, and in 1955, Mr.Schenk sold both Huntington Coach and its sister company, Hendrickson Bus (another small transit company, also founded in 1927, that he had purchased from the Hendrickson family in 1950), to Mr. James Clifford (a former driver and labor leader at Schenk Transportation) and his wife, Dorothy Clifford. At the time of this purchase, Huntington Coach operated fifteen transit buses for the town of Huntington, and Hendrickson Bus operated fifteen transit buses and two buses transporting school children for the Bayville-Brookville-Locust Valley Schools.
1965
Huntington Coach Corporation grows its fleet
In 1965, Kevin Clifford became president of Huntington Coach and Hendrickson Bus, the position he still holds to this day. He has overseen an aggressive growth and acquisition policy, taking the fleet from under one hundred vehicles in 1965 to the over nine hundred the companies operate today. In 1974, Roy K. Davis Bus (Est. 1940) was purchased and made a subsidiary of Huntington Coach Corp. This acquisition, along with the addition of K&S Transportation in 1988, added greatly to this expansion. In 2000, Huntington Coach LLC was added, operating for the South Huntington and Syosset School Districts, and the Suffolk County Preschool Disabilities program. Mr. Clifford’s accomplishments and dedication to the industry were recognized in 2006, when he became the 37th inductee into the National School Transportation Association’s “Hall of Fame”.