Gem City Jewels: Famous Ex-NCR Employees

By Curt Dalton (Author and Dayton, Ohio Historian)

Many Former NCR Employees Went On to Achieve Personal Fame

For various reasons, intelligent men sometimes found it difficult to work for John H. Patterson, the president of the National Cash Register Co. In the end, many of them quit or were fired. But some used what they learned at NCR and later became top men in other companies.

Among them are:

• Thomas J Watson - Founder, IBM
• Charles F. Kettering - Established DELCO, then became Vice-President of research at General Motors
• Hugh Chalmers - President, Chalmers' Motor Company
• Richard H. Grant - President, DELCO Lighting and also Vice-President and General Manager of Chevrolet
• William F. Bockhoff - President, National Automatic Tool Co.
• Henry Theobald - Founder, Toledo Computing Scale Co.
• Edward S. Jordan - Founder, Jordan Automobile Co.
• Alvan Macauley - President, Packard Motor Car Co.
• Joseph A. Fields - Vice-President, Chrysler Corporation
• Jacob Oswald - President, Roto-Speed Co.
• Joseph Rogers - President, Addressograph-Multigraph
• C. E. Steffey - Vice President, General Motors
• Andrew J. Lauver - General Manager, Burroughs Adding Machine Co.
• William Benton - Founder, Benton & Bowles Advertising

Editors Note: This "Gem City Jewels" series highlights a wide variety of little known facts about the Dayton Region. To see many other valuable resources please visit www.daytonhistorybooks.com.