Lars Grisley was quick to recognize the fact that "you can make a helluva
good living as a machinist." Or as a supplier of tool- and parts-making
equipment to machinists.
So in August 2002, he became a salesman at
J.M. Grisley Machine Tools, Inc., the fourth generation of Grisley family
members to work at the Salt Lake City company his great-grandfather founded in
1927.
But the tight-knit family's roots in providing tools for building Utah's
mining, railroad, aerospace and medical products industries goes back even
further -- to 1878, when his great-great-grandfather, Edward Grisley, moved to
Park City from Cleveland and began applying his machinist skills to the ore cars
and bullwheels pulling rich silver from Summit County mines.
This old family photo shows J.M. Grisley, founder of the company that still
bears his name, with a cigar between his teeth, driving a vintage Harley
Davidson motorcycle down the streets of Park City. The family figures the
picture was taken around World War I. (Photo courtesy of Grisley family)
His son, James Marion Grisley, honed skills learned from his father in Butte,
Mont., repairing all sorts of equipment at Anaconda Copper Mining Co.'s vast
mining and smelting operation. A few years after returning to his Park City
birthplace, he began selling hydraulic drills for Cleveland Twist Drill Bit Co.
and later became the sales rep for LeBlond Lathes out of Cincinnati, Ohio.
J. M. Grisley Machine Tools was born, with original offices on West Temple,
in a long-gone building just north of what was Port O'Call. Union Pacific
Railroad, Kennecott Copper and the newly emerging mines in Nevada were major
clients.
Eighty one years later, the company is run by Lars's father, Jim Grisley, who
never ceases to be amazed "people don't really understand how things are built."
But with any two pieces of CNC ("computer numerical controlled") equipment
that his company sells -- lathes or mills or drills or grinders bearing the
brand names Doosan, GF AgieCharmilles, Southwestern Industries or United
Grinding Technologies -- "you can duplicate a part and you can make anything,"
Jim said.
And that's what the company continues to do today, to a customer line that
still includes Kennecott and railroads but has expanded markedly since the
mid-'90s when Jim took over after learning the business from the bottom up,
serving an apprenticeship with LeBlond Lathe (as did his brother, Peter) and
selling products throughout the Intermountain West. "I'd go out for two weeks at
time through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah," he said. "As long as you
had golf clubs, a fly rod and a pair of skis in the winter, you were OK."
With that experience, he took on some higher-tech products such as a high-end
grinding machine that he feared he might never sell. "But it ended up that one
aerospace company bought millions of dollars worth," Jim said, pointing proudly
to the fact that virtually every part on planes can be built with machines J.M.
Grisley sells.
Catheters and syringes, oil field drill rigs and power plants, too. Not to
mention teeth. "We were just trying to stay ahead of the curve, but we got into
all of these industries at the right time," Jim said. "We're just fortunate the
economy is pretty diversified out here in Utah."
And, brother Peter added, "at the end of the day, we all still need
manufactured products."
For Additional Information Contact:
John Ross
Doosan
Infracore
8 York Avenue
West Caldwell, NJ 07006
(973)
618-2500
john.ross@doosan.com
|
Home >
Industry News
