Pasadena, CA 10/19/2004
Kinemetrics Founders in 2001
Bob Griffith, Bill Rihn, Bob Swain
Here is a list of events from 1969, the year Kinemetrics began, which help give a perspective of the times:
Movies released – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Easy Rider, True Grit.
1969 was the height of the muscle car era, the Chevy Camaro, Pontiac GTO, Dodge Charger and Cuda, Plymouth Roadrunner, Ford 351 Boss Mustang, etc.
Joe Namath was named the MVP of SuperBowl III.
Boeing released the first production on the 747 jumbo jets
It was the year of the First Draft Lottery.
On July 21 of 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.
ARPNET, the precursor of the Internet was created.
The famous Rock-and-Roll concert at Woodstock was held.
Sesame Street first aired.
The Beatles released both the Abbey Road & Yellow Submarine albums.
The Brady Bunch premiered.
Star Trek aired its final new episode after being cancelled by NBC.
Since those days we at Kinemetrics have become an interesting group. By the end of 2004, 10% of our staff had been with KMI for 25 years or more. Also, 10% of our staff has been with the company for less than one year. 20% for 15 years or more and 35% for 10 years or more. Well over half our staff has been with KMI for more than 5 years!
35 years ago, four gentlemen started the company, and we first pay tribute to them:
Bob Swain – President and majority shareholder, was the brain thrust behind starting the company. He had the vision to create a company that would grow beyond a privately held small business. Mr. Swain set-up the company for growth, even from its beginning.
Bob passed away on October 16, 2004, just 10 days past the company's 35th anniversary date. We shall miss Mr. Swain's great interest in our on-going successes
35th Anniversary Celebration, Oct 2004
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and plans for the future. But we know that he felt very proud of the legacy he and the other founders have given to Kinemetrics.
Harry Halverson – Vice President of Sales and Marketing – Harry was the passion behind Kinemetrics. He traveled the world to promote the SMA-1 and other early products. We are safe in saying that without Harry and his efforts, we would not be celebrating today. Harry passed away a few years ago after another decade-long carrier as a professional photographer.
Bob Griffith – Vice President of Operations – Griff had “golden hands” that could turn ideas and designs into quality instruments. He also had an almost unique ability to find and develop capable vendors. The quintessential optimistic realist, Bob had the ability to make something real out of vision. Griff passed away earlier this year.
Bill Rihn – Vice President of Engineering –Bill had a passion for design and an extreme aptitude for detail—a combination that set the standard for quality in Kinemetrics’ products. Bill is enjoying his retirement here in Southern California.
A short time after the company founding, Lee Benuska was persuaded to join the founders. Lee brought a professional knowledge of Earthquake Engineering and market credibility to the company. Lee still lives in the local San Gabriel area.
Founders in 2002, left to right, Bob Swain, Bill Rihn, Bob Griffith, Lee Benusca (Harry Halverson not shown.)
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What an interesting group they were! Together with their partners in the academic world, Professors Housner & Hudson of Caltech, and others, they set out to make the built environment safer through providing data that would help scientist and engineers better understand earthquakes and their affects on structures. They also set out to build a company that would grow and succeed. Well, they did both. Data from products and systems created by Kinemetrics have provided a large portion of the world’s inventory of such information. Indeed, the world you and I live in is safer, in some part, due to the vision of these men and the work they did and the work we carry on today.
So what will some future person say about Kinemetrics 25 or 35 years from now? That story is for us to write. Or as Paul Harvey says, that’s “the rest of the story”.
How it turns out we don’t really now. But neither did Bob, Griff, Harry and Bill at the beginning of their endeavors. Some things are clear though; we have a healthy company with a committed parent, talented employees, a healthy financial position and loyal customers. 35 years is a good foundation, and now we’re building something even bigger and better upon it.
Robert J. Swain
Engineer, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Family Man
Much like ripples on a pond, the impact of one man’s life can have a profound effect on the world in which we live. Such is the case with Kinemetrics’ founding president, Robert J. Swain, born in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 1928.
Last year, Kinemetrics provided earthquake and seismic instruments to 60 countries, in great part due to the legacy given to us by Bob Swain. Therefore, we were saddened at his passing on October 16, 2004.
Bob’s work as manager for many notable projects included putting the seismometers on the moon as part of the Apollo project. For years to come, many will feel his unparalleled contributions to the fields of seismology and earthquake engineering as well his personal interest and friendship.
Bob Swain graduated from Purdue University with honors in 1951 and was recognized in 1993 by Purdue with the “Outstanding Electrical Engineer Award.” He was listed in the “American Men and Women of Science” and was a member and active participant in a number of professional associations including Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, American Geophysical Union, Seismological Society of American, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Civil Engineers, Scientific Research Society of America, Geological Society of America, American Nuclear Society, Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, as Chairperson for the coalition.
In addition to his professional affiliations, Bob Swain was vitally interested in his family and active in his church, the YMCA, and the United Way, contributing much of his time and talents for the good of others. To Mr. Swain, the Kinemetrics employees were his “family” too. He showed his interest in everyone during his “rounds” by a friendly smile and greeting—every morning without fail.
Those of us at Kinemetrics agree with Leonard Berkowitz, Program Manager for the Lunar Seismometer, “I never heard a mean word from ‘the boss,’ even though we had many problems during the Apollo program and a lot of frustration. Bob always went out of his way to offer praise and was very optimistic. The workplace was always friendly and because of Bob’s grace and sensitivity to all his employees, there was a family atmosphere.” Bob Swain was truly a man of both heart and vision. Kinemetrics is indebted to him for the legacy he has given us.
Recollections of Some Times Together
by Bill Rihn, Kinemetrics’ founding Vice President of Engineering
The Man. I think Bob always thought of himself as both an engineer and an entrepreneur. Indeed he was both. Even though it had been a long time since he had actually practiced engineering when we were at Kinemetrics, he always thought like one.
Before Kinemetrics, Bob was the general manager of UGM (United GeoMeasurements), a division of United Electrodynamics. During that time, everyone in America was excited when the Apollo program was announced. A few even realized that, in addition to putting men on the moon, there would also be some scientific experiments. One of the people in marketing, Leonard Berkowitz, and I plotted as to how UGM could get the job of building the seismometers for Apollo. After planning the way, we let our supervisors and Bob Swain in on the idea. Of course, Bob immediately got excited and made sure that we had all the resources needed. We bid, beat out our rivals and got the contract. The Lunar Seismometers were made and sent to the moon.
Along the way, Leonard, Bob and I had many exciting meetings with the prime contractor, Bendix Aerospace in Ann Arbor, NASA in Houston, and the principal Investigators who were seismologists at Lamont Geological Observatory in Palisades, NY. Not long after we started on the Lunar Seismometers, we were acquired by Teledyne. That enabled Bob to get us needed help from several other divisions of Teledyne. Needless to say, after all the difficult work of designing, building, and testing those Lunar Seismometers, it was a super thrill to watch on television as Buzz Aldrin deployed the first one on the moon!
Our longer-term thought was that we would continue to work in the space business. But after Apollo, there wasn’t any more space business. And the core business of what had been UGM had pretty much shriveled up while we were preoccupied with the Apollo seismometers.
What to do? Without jobs, Bob Swain said he was going to start a new company, and asked Bob Griffith, Harry Halverson and me, Bill Rihn, to join up. That was the summer of 1969. We met many times around Bob and Marge's dining room table, trying to decide financing and profit plan, incorporation, first product, marketing plans, and certainly a name for the company. And, believe it or not, Kinemetrics was not the first choice. After divining at least a hundred names, we came up with Envirometrics. But when we tried to register it, we found that that name was already taken.
Back to the drawing board. More combining of phrases. Finally, somebody said Kinemetrics -- and we all knew that we had the right name -- even better than Envirometrics. Bob Swain searched out and found our first building. Then in October 1969, we rented that building -- at 336 Agostino Road in San Gabriel -- and Kinemetrics was off and running.
Article with photos included:http://www.kinemetrics.com/PDFs/bob%20swainTribute.pdf
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