Ed Malzahn, founder of Ditch Witch, a Charles Machine Works company, died Dec. 11, 2015. He was 94. Malzahn is credited with changing the way utility infrastructure is installed and maintained when he launched the first service line trencher, the Ditch Witch DWP, in 1949, from a small machine shop in Oklahoma. Today, the company employs more than 1,500 workers and has more than 175 dealerships and branches serving 195 countries.