Warren Dale Messner loved moving dirt. Later in life, when he was more of a supervisor for his construction company, he loved watching others move dirt.

"They moved the dirt so something could be built on it," said his sister, Beverly Stack of Moon. "He loved to get in his truck and go and sit in his truck and watch them. And he would stay there for hours."

Mr. Messner, owner of Anthony Coal and Construction Co., in Findlay, died of cardiac arrest Monday at Allegheny General Hospital. He was 68.

A native of Findlay, Mr. Messner attended West Allegheny High School but dropped out because he already knew what he wanted to do in life: move dirt.

Mr. Messner's father was a heavy-equipment operator, and he wanted to be one, too, Mrs. Stack said. So he took a job with a construction company owned by Ray and Tony Bologna in Washington County.

In the mid-1960s, however, Mr. Messner was drafted into the U.S. Army and was sent to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. He got a job moving dirt for the Corps of Engineers.

Mr. Messner didn't see any fighting, his sister said, and it wasn't long before he was home, where he and his four younger brothers started their own construction company. For 35 years, Anthony Coal and Construction -- named after Tony Bologna -- used heavy equipment to get the ground ready for construction projects in the region, including malls, road work and the Montour Trail.

But most of the projects, Mrs. Stack said, were smaller ones. Whenever someone needed help, Mr. Messner was willing to lend a hand -- and a bulldozer.

"I knew him for 40 years. Anytime I needed anything done, he was willing to help," said Sonny Janoski, 72, owner of Janoski's Farm and Greenhouse in Findlay. "Grading. Pond-making. He loved dirt-moving. That was his life.

"And he was always right there on a job. He didn't do much operating. Maybe in his younger years," Mr. Janoski said. "Later on, he would sit and I'd talk to him. He could talk all day about moving dirt."

Mr. Messner, who never married, was known to relatives as "Uncle Whoa," a nickname he got while watching helplessly as one of his workers, who couldn't hear him, backed a big piece of equipment into a lake. Mr. Messner, his sister said, kept yelling "Whoa!" -- to no avail.

Mrs. Stack said her brother wasn't much for vacationing and worked late into his life.

"He never went to Hawaii or the Caribbean," she said. "A fun vacation for him was going to Utah to watch them work the copper mines."

In addition to his sister, Mr. Messner is survived by four brothers, Leonard "Mike" Messner of Hookstown, Barry "Moats" Messner and Terry "Tuck" Messner, both of Findlay, and Timmy Messner of Smith.

A funeral will be held today at 11 a.m. in Moody Funeral Home, Route 30 in Findlay.