The Hytrol Story

Hytrol’s history began and it is only fitting that this book ends with a tribute to Tom Loberg. The following quotes and excerpts from speeches and talks he made do much more to reflect Tom’s philosophy than any long-winded words. ON HIS WIFE, RIGMOR: (Talking about the first time he laid eyes on Rigmor) “I took one look and I was a goner!” “Throughout the years, as I was building Hytrol, constant encouragement was given to me by a loving wife.” “Sometimes, back in West Allis, when I was working late...Rigmor would come down...she’d have the kids packed in the back of our car...and she would sweep the floor in the entranceway and part of the shop and the office. We were the last two---and it might have been midnight by that time. And we did that more than once. It was cheap labor, but don’t quote me on that!” “She never really gave me business advice---but we’d talk and she’d throw out a couple of suggestions...why don’t you do this or why don’t you do that. She got me to thinking.” ON LESTER JARLSBERG: “My friend Les Jarlsberg was after me all the time to make a conveyor. He told me how to build it.” “We were personal friends. He asked me about the conveyor two or three years before I really got to it. He was at me all the time. I remember, we were sitting in my living room---it might have been 1945---that I really listened to him in earnest and I made some sketches.” THE EARLY YEARS: “We made lawnmower parts when we were in Milwaukee and we were buying reducers. I looked at one of the reducers and I thought we could make our own. We had that Gisholt turrent lathe and so I made ours a little different...made it all in one casting with a cover front and back. That’s been another thing we have over the competition---we make our own reducers.” “Sometimes I’d lay in bed late at night and design a conveyor in my mind. I sometimes got up and made a little sketch so I’d remember where I left off.” 23 t o m l o b e r g