Charlie Grogean
It was a sad day last week to learn of the passing of Charlie Grogean via the Fish Report article honoring Charlie’s life including his naval service during WWII and his many contributions to the Russia community for almost 97 years. Click here for his obituary. Russia Mayor Terry Daugherty very appropriately ordered that all flags in Russia fly at half-staff especially the flag at the Veteran’s Memorial across from St. Remy’s church pictured here.
My first opportunity to meet Charlie was in 1966 when working at Copeland’s (now Emerson Electric) in Sidney for the summer after graduating from high school before heading to college. Here’s a previous blogpost about those times. Charlie was a talented technician I met in the test lab of Copeland’s Engineering department.
Under Charlie’s tutelage, we were working on a new compressor that Copeland was developing for automotive applications. Their compressor offerings at the time were limited to stationary refrigerators and air conditioners. The new compressor design featured light weight, compact aluminum components and was half the size, weight and cost of any other automotive compressor on the market. But the challenge was meeting the stringent specs for the device, most particularly the 10,000 rpm test, since the compressors had to withstand the peak rpm’s of a car engine. So Charlie and I would assemble the prototypes, run the high speed test until something broke, tear down the failed unit to see what happened, work with the engineer to tweak the design, modify the parts accordingly and repeat the process. Charlie called it the "Build ‘em and bust ‘em!” approach, which became our salute to each other whenever we met over the years. Those times were very special, as Charlie taught me so much about engineering. Working with Charlie for that memorable summer before leaving for college had a profound influence on my career in so many ways.
Copeland eventually abandoned their automotive compressor development as the device never could survive that 10,000 rpm test; however, from that original design work, the scroll compressor pictured here was conceived, a major breakthrough to this day for their lower speed stationary refrigeration and air-conditioning applications. A high school classmate, John Gephart, who also recently passed away and was featured on Fish Report for his baseball hitting and catching skills, led the design work of the scroll compressor. He and Charlie also worked closely together over their careers.
While attending college at General Motors Institute, I performed coop work at Frigidaire in Dayton. My job was to help design a similar automotive compressor to the one Copeland conceived that eventually did get into production, including sales to GM competitor, Ford Motor Company. But then Henry Ford II decided he didn’t like buying parts from GM, so I was recruited by Ford to design their own compressor, cutaway photo shown. Once the design was ready for production, I then transferred to the manufacturing plant in Indiana to lead the compressor launch team. Charlie loved to catch up with my career exploits whenever our paths crossed, plus we’d always reminisce about those Copeland days. He was a wonderful mentor to me.
And thanks to another coincidental connection, our paths crossed quite frequently, as Charlie was a great friend and card-playing buddy of my father-in-law, Doc Francis. Charlie and Doc held weekly euchre games with Syl Daniel and Pete Magoto Each Christmas traditionally the families of the four card-playing buddies would move from house-to-house just long enough so they could play one game of euchre and have a drink while the kids checked out each other's Christmas presents, then move onto the next place. The four would demonstrably pound their trump card down on a rickety card table and let out a shout of conquest that would rise above the Christmas commotion I was invited to sub in the card game for the host while he mixed the drinks for everyone. What a whirlwind day for a newcomer like me attending my first Francis Christmas in 1971 after meeting my future wife. About all I remember is that first Manhattan!
Charlie’s son John and I became great friends as well, going on numerous golf and skiing trips over the years. Deepest sympathies to Charlie’s wife Hilda, John, Tim and all of Charlie’s family. Rest in peace, my build ‘em and bust ‘em friend and mentor!
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