Preserving Arvin

You can "mouse over" menu items at right to reveal more menu options!

Acknowledgements

You can "mouse over" menu items at left to reveal more menu options!

We thought it might be nice to begin a collection of entries acknowledging sources of information for this website.  We will continue to add to this page over time.

First and foremost, thanks go to the many thousands of company employees that spanned almost 90 years and covered all or part of 10 decades. 

Major thanks need to go out to Coke Coons and the work he did to assemble and publish Arvin: The First Fifty Years (and subsequently those who added addenda creating  "the first 60 years" and then "the first seventy years".

Fred Meyer was instrumental in keeping together much material for the historical archives of the company for many years until he left the company.

After the merger that created ArvinMeritor in 2000, management and disposition of facilities and many things within the facilities fell to the team in Troy, MI.  Many things that were important and valuable to people in Columbus meant little or nothing to members of the team that was suddenly in charge.  After it was determined that the facilities on 13th Street in Columbus (QGN Plaza and the 13th Street Office and Plant) were to go to the school corporation and United Way respectively, a massive "clean-up" was undertaken that focused on some 73 years of "occupation" and 85 years of activity.  Much was lost in the process as scores of dumpsters were filled and removed chock full of articles of historical significance.  As yours truly was usually out-of-town at least three weeks each month, many items made their way to the landfill.  Two employees still working at 13th Street, Bud Tompkins and Tony Gillespie, were often tasked with removing selected items to the dumpsters.  I would often go into my office on the weekend between weeks at other facilities during this busy time and find piles of "possibly interesting" items that Tony and Bud had placed there during the week.  While much was lost, much was saved due to their help!  Just one example is a folder that contained the original articles of incorporation and stock certificate #1 for the Arvin Heater Company!  Truly one-of-a-kind!  These, and other items like them, were often just minutes from destruction.  Thanks, Tony and Bud!

Doug Otto (after whom the 13th Street facility was named when it became the Doug Otto United Way Center) kindly lent me storage space for artifacts until they could be moved to places off their site.

Ultimate thanks to my wife, Connie, for putting up with this process!!  She's the best!!