Robert F. Yonash
Encyclopedia
Robert F. Yonash (February 7, 1919 – April 19, 1997) was an engineer in the early days of the aircraft industry
. He was a member of the start-up management team for the Texas Engineering & Manufacturing Company (TEMCO), which eventually became the "T" in the conglomerate Ling-Temco-Vought
(LTV). He was the co-founder, with Harold Silver, of the Intercontinental Manufacturing Company
(IMCO), which is currently owned by General Dynamics
.
Yonash made an important contribution to the aircraft industry after World War II
by finding ways to ease the transition from wartime production to a consumer-based economy, as well as from an aircraft industry to the military-industrial complex
that characterized the Cold War
.
Following his career in the aircraft industry, Yonash was an entrepreneur
in Sonoma County, California
for nearly forty years.
. His mother went to her mother’s home in Wadena, Minnesota
for his birth.
Yonash's father immigrated from Bohemia
, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, arriving at Ellis Island
on September 5, 1908. His mother descended from immigrants of Denmark
and Luxembourg
, who settled in Iowa
and later moved to Wadena.
In 1927, the Yonash family moved to the Los Angeles, California
area where they managaged an apartment house for several years before settling on a farm in Bellflower, California
.
where analytical and spherical geometry were among his favorite subjects. His least favorite topics were chemistry and physics labs.
Before he was 17 years old, he was skilled at welding aluminum, and used this expertise to repair the aluminum tail cones of racing cars
, which were powered by outboard motors. A frequent driver tactic created opportunity for him to practice his welding skills. Drivers would run a car onto the tail cone of the car ahead, rendering the lead car's steering inoperative and resulting in continuous damage to the aluminum tail cones. From race cars to aircraft was a logical step.
Following high school he attended college for a year.
and Zella Cox of Illinois
. The marriage ended in divorce after six years. He then married Virginia Doerr, the socialite daughter of R. Edward Blaney Doerr, president of the Murray Gin Company in Dallas, and Louise Nelms. They had a son Richard. This marriage lasted until his wife's death in 1975. His final marriage, to Jan Robbins, endured until his death.
, Bob moved to the Fircrest Convalescent Hospital in Sebastopol, California
where he died on April 19, 1997 at age 78.
just as the transition from fabric and wood frames to metal was in its early stages. When he started his first job, powered flight
had been a reality for less than 33 years.
"It was the middle of the Great Depression, and I had just unloaded a boxcar load of Borax
with a wheelbarrow and shovel. It took me three days and I was paid three dollars, which was a good wage for the time: one man, one day, one dollar.
"On my way home I noticed a line of men outside a factory, so I stopped and got in line as you did during the Depression. I asked one of the guys in line who was hiring and he said, “Vultee Aviation.” I thought, “What do I know about airplanes?” I did have a little experience with aluminum welding, although at the time I didn’t know I couldn’t have passed their certification test.
"The guy two in front of me, when asked what he was, said, “Aluminum welder.” Their response was, “Sorry, we have all the welders we need.” When they came to the guy in front of me, he said, “Sheet metal worker.” They asked, “Can you read a blueprint?” and when he said “no,” they dismissed him too.
"When they asked me, I said “I’m a sheet metal worker.” When they asked, “Can you read a blueprint?” I answered, “Of course,” which was true. After a quick test of my blueprint-reading skills, they hired me and said, “Show up Monday with your tools.” So I went home, took an empty fish tackle box, and filled it with everything that might be construed to be a sheet metal-working tool.
When I showed up for work the foreman asked me, “Can you run a nibbler?” I said, “Sure, where is it?” Luckily it was a fairly simple machine for blanking sheet metal parts, and it was relatively easy to master.
"Shortly thereafter, I moved into the drop hammer department."
operator at Vultee Airplane Development Corporation in Downey, California from May 26, 1936 to September 25, 1936. This was his first job outside of the family. In May 1936, he was 17 and the Great Depression was still going on.
He began work in the aluminum stamping department. Here he worked as a drop hammer operator's assistant, The parts produced in this department were pre-formed shapes for various sections of the fuselage and wings. These sections would then be combined with other sections to complete the whole assembly.
During a discussion among workers in the Vultee stamping department a sign of Yonash's early ambition surfaced. The workers were discussing what their plans were for the future. He remained quiet for most of the conversation, When asked what his plans were, his reply was that he planned on running the place and that he would leave the company when he turned 35, This was met with laughs, and guffaws. His prediction came true. He was in his late twenties when he became a vice president. By the time he was 35 he did leave the employ of others and became a full-time entrepreneur for the rest of his life.
When he was laid off on September 25, 1936, Yonash was rated “very good” on ability, conduct, and production. He was “laid off because of lack of work,” but was marked “we would re-employ.”
at its Burbank
, California plant between his two stints for Vultee. Initially, he was a Junior Drop Hammer Operator, and was promoted to Senior Drop Hammer Operator on January 22, 1937. When he left, he was rated “very good” on ability and production, but only “good” on conduct.
At Lockheed, Yonash was involved with the development of the P-38 Lightning
double-tailed pursuit plane, which along with the North American P-51, was one of his proudest achievements. He designed the tooling for the P-38 wings.
, Inc. He started as a Sheet Metal – Production Worker on a Drill Press, then moved up to Inspector on December 4, 1939. On June 17, 1940 he became the Tool Design Night Liaison, and then the Tool Design Liaison on July 8, 1940.
plant of the Aircraft Division of American Central Manufacturing Corporation (AMC) from May 1, 1941 to January 31, 1944. AMC was one of many general manufacturing companies which switched their focus to subcontracting the production of materiel
during World War II
. He worked on the tooling for one of the wing sections of the B-24 Liberator
Bomber. His department's efforts rated an article in the company newsletter. Photos and drawing of some of the tooling his department produced still survive.
While he was nominally based in Indiana
, AMC was only one of several subcontractors whose products had to be assembled together. Thus Yonash spent a lot of his time traveling from one company to another making sure everything was working. In his later years, he used to tell how he would carry his dirty clothes from one airline stop to the next one, where he would drop them off for cleaning and pick up the clean ones from the last time he went through there.
During this time at AMC Yonash met Art Jairett, who remained a lifelong friend.
, Yonash worked in the Dallas, Texas
plant on the tooling for the P-51 Mustang
wings. The challenge here was that the wings attached to the fuselage of the plane at an angle. Prior to Yonash's involvement the manufacturing and assembly process was very time consuming. With his tooling design, productivity improved significantly. Yonash worked for North American from January 1944 to July 1945. He is shown at right with some of his coworkers.
At North American, Yonash first met Bob McCulloch, who was to remain instrumental in his career until he “retired” from working for others. Yonash and McCulloch remained friends until McCulloch's death in 1995.
Yonash was well-known for doing things his own way, and one day came into work to find this cartoon on the bulletin board.
from August 23, 1945 to January 25, 1946.
area. The letters in the company name stood for Research, Production, and Marketing. TEMCO was one of its clients.
Yonash was the Vice President for Production at R.P.M. from December 1947 to March 1948. He left to be a consultant on his own, listing himself with the Republic National Bank of Dallas, among others. This led directly to him becoming involved in the startup of the Intercontinental Manufacturing Company (IMCO).
(IMCO) came into being in April 1948, in space subleased from TEMCO in the former North American plant near Dallas, with Harold J. Silver as President and Yonash as Vice President with the intent of filling the order from Argentina for several thousand tractors due the end of the year. Because of the short delivery time, the tractor was built mostly from existing parts such as motors from the Continental Motors Company
and axles built by the Timken Company
. Yonash’s old company, TEMCO, was contracted to do the assembly.
Yonash shipped one of the IMCO tractors to his parents in Iowa Hill, California where it served a productive life on the Kings Hill Ranch before being moved again, this time to Sonoma County. In the 1990s he sold the tractor to a collector http://gasengine.farmcollector.com/Tractors/INTERCONTINENTAL-C-26-TRACTOR.aspx
By the early 1950s, IMCO bought the Southern Aircraft 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) manufacturing plant located on Amundsen Road in Garland, Texas
. Ray Shape, who had been a V.P. at Southern, moved to IMCO as Executive Vice President. Shape invited a friend of his, Ed Hancock, to interview for a position with IMCO, and Hancock was hired to be V.P of Production. The Shapes, Hancocks, and Yonashes became close friends, and the friendship continued even after Yonash moved back to California.
In mid-1951, IMCO expanded to the Brady, Texas
area, starting up Brady Aviation at Curtis Field. Yonash was the driving force in the successful post-war conversion of the former aircraft plant in Brady. Brady Aviation, named for the town in which it resided, was a large part of the local industrial base. When the company choose to expand its plant with a $1.5 million addition, front page headlines were in order for the Brady Herald.
In another twist on Yonash’s former employment, IMCO had a contract to do sheet metal and machine work for Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (Convair
).
Yonash was Vice President, Production with IMCO from April 1948 to 1954. This was his last formal job before achieving his goal of "retirement" at 35.
In August, 1954, Yonash moved his family to the Iowa Hill, California property in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) foothills which he and his parents had purchased in 1949, near the site of the future Auburn Dam
. His parents had previously moved there with his daughter, Robin, to serve as custodians. Part of this property was one of the last private purchases of land from the Southern Pacific Company.
The ranch house, while large, was not big enough for two families, so Yonash, with his father, set about building his own house about ¼ mile east of the ranch house. He also realized a long time dream of building a log cabin, similar to what he and his parents had lived in on the Montana homestead.
In 1957, after a one-year ownership of the Forest House Hotel in Foresthill, California
, Yonash busied himself and the rest of the family with planting a walnut
orchard
while he was looking for other prospects.
.
and logged it. Shortly after this, Rural Estates bought property in Rural Canyon near Forestville, California
and logged it as well.
Yonash’s approach to logging was to leave enough trees so that the properly could later be subdivided and sold and still be attractive to potential buyers. After logging the Rural Canyon property, Yonash tried selling it at $1,500 per acre lot but with little success. Then he came up with a different approach. For many potential buyers the work of preparing a building site for a cabin was too difficult and the permitting process too complex. Yonash decided to complete most of the initial work by preparing the site and erecting a pre-fabricated shell which was no more than a one room cabin with the basic amenities installed: water, septic and electricity. The construction techniques were unique, in that conventional stud walls were not used. Instead, the walls and roof sheeting were 2X6 tongue-and-groove redwood. It was left to the owners to finish the interior. This approach greatly increased sales.
, and there was an ongoing demand for pallets as they were never shipped back but were taken apart in ‘Nam and used as local building materials. Pallets were also sold for domestic use in the US.
and sold the pallet factory. The Nulaid facility formerly belonged to the California Egg Producers Association. The facility had many separate sections, each used for a different part of the egg producing process. Additions of various construction styles were built at different times. This made the whole facility rather impractical for use by a plant needing open space. Rather than try to find one tenant who could use the entire facility, Yonash decided to make each section into an independent unit fitted with the proper amenities such as wash rooms, etc., thus having many smaller units to rent separately. The return from this scheme paid the properly off every three years.
About the same time, Yonash became involved with using a portable sawmill that could be “taken to the tree.” This allowed redwood trees that had been left as slash from logging to be cut into usable lumber. But the next question was, what to use it for? This led to the birth of Industrial Woodcraft in 1970, located in the old Nulaid property. The founding of Industrial Woodcraft was based on a business principle that Yonash had formulated which said “the smaller the piece the higher the price.” Industrial Woodcraft took “junk” wood and re-sawed it into items such as grape stakes, planter boxes, etc., as well as all manner of custom cut wood for various enterprises—whatever there was a market for.
The company operated as a custom cutting business, cutting and fabricating wood products to order. One of the secrets of the company was its unique production machinery. For instance, grape stakes seem very simple to cut, but one cut at a time to form the points is a difficult and costly task when thousands of stakes are being produced. To solve this problem, a special machine capable of cutting the complete point in one operation was designed by Yonash using his expertise as an Industrial Designer. Two saw blades operating in unison would cut both points of the stakes in one pass. The stakes could be fed in stacks of 5 per cycle. This worked out to a rate of 5,000 stakes per day. It wasn’t enough that the machine could cut both sides of the point in one pass, the machine operated on a cam mechanism which made it automatic as well. Innovations such as this made the company very competitive.
in the early 1980s. It was his son's business, but until just before his death Yonash stayed closely involved, contributing both his experience of business operation and his skills and knowledge as an Industrial Designer to make the molds required for the various products. Empire West, Inc. continues to thrive. Its latest product is Ceilume Smart Ceiling Tiles.
Aircraft industry
The aircraft industry is the industry supporting aviation by building aircraft and manufacturing aircraft parts for their maintenance. This includes aircraft and parts used for civil aviation and military aviation. Most production is done pursuant to type certificates and Defense Standards issued...
. He was a member of the start-up management team for the Texas Engineering & Manufacturing Company (TEMCO), which eventually became the "T" in the conglomerate Ling-Temco-Vought
Ling-Temco-Vought
Ling-Temco-Vought was a large U.S. conglomerate which existed from 1969 to 2000. At its peak, its component parts were involved in the aerospace industry, electronics, steel manufacturing, sporting goods, the airline industry, meat packing, car rentals and pharmaceuticals, among other...
(LTV). He was the co-founder, with Harold Silver, of the Intercontinental Manufacturing Company
Intercontinental Manufacturing Company
The Intercontinental Manufacturing Company was formed in the Dallas, Texas area in 1948 by Harold J. Silver and Robert F. Yonash, initially to fulfill an order from Argentina for tractors. IMCO soon changed focus to defense subcontracting, where it remains today.-Intercontinental C-26 tractor:In...
(IMCO), which is currently owned by General Dynamics
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...
.
Yonash made an important contribution to the aircraft industry after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by finding ways to ease the transition from wartime production to a consumer-based economy, as well as from an aircraft industry to the military-industrial complex
Military-industrial complex
Military–industrial complex , or Military–industrial-congressional complex is a concept commonly used to refer to policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the industrial sector that supports them...
that characterized the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
Following his career in the aircraft industry, Yonash was an entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
in Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....
for nearly forty years.
Early years
Bob Yonash was the firstborn child and only son of Frank Yonash and Esther Mary Jacobsen. At the time of his birth on February 7, 1919, his parents resided on a homestead near Plevna, MontanaPlevna, Montana
As of the census of 2000, there were 138 people, 63 households, and 40 families residing in the town. The population density was 301.4 people per square mile . There were 81 housing units at an average density of 176.9 per square mile . The racial makeup of the town was 97.83% White and 2.17% Asian...
. His mother went to her mother’s home in Wadena, Minnesota
Wadena, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 4,294 people, 1,871 households, and 1,062 families residing in the city. The population density was 818.4 people per square mile . There were 1,964 housing units at an average density of 374.3 per square mile...
for his birth.
Yonash's father immigrated from Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, arriving at Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
on September 5, 1908. His mother descended from immigrants of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, who settled in Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
and later moved to Wadena.
In 1927, the Yonash family moved to the Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
area where they managaged an apartment house for several years before settling on a farm in Bellflower, California
Bellflower, California
Bellflower is a city in Los Angeles County, California, and is a suburb of Los Angeles. It was incorporated on September 3, 1957. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 76,616, up from 72,878 at the 2000 census....
.
Education
Yonash attended Downey high schoolDowney High School
Downey High School is one of two senior high schools located in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California, and within the Downey Unified School District. It is located at 11040 Brookshire Ave. At the present time the school has an enrollment of about 3719 students, of a variety of racial and...
where analytical and spherical geometry were among his favorite subjects. His least favorite topics were chemistry and physics labs.
Before he was 17 years old, he was skilled at welding aluminum, and used this expertise to repair the aluminum tail cones of racing cars
Racing Cars
Racing Cars are a Welsh pop band, formed in the Rhondda Valley, Wales in 1973.-Career:They were signed to one of the biggest British record labels of the time, Chrysalis Records. Racing Cars's debut album yielded their only hit single with "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"...
, which were powered by outboard motors. A frequent driver tactic created opportunity for him to practice his welding skills. Drivers would run a car onto the tail cone of the car ahead, rendering the lead car's steering inoperative and resulting in continuous damage to the aluminum tail cones. From race cars to aircraft was a logical step.
Following high school he attended college for a year.
Marriage and family
Yonash married three times. His first wife was Gwendolyn Tull, mother of his daughter Robin. She was the daughter of Frank Tull of KansasKansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
and Zella Cox of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. The marriage ended in divorce after six years. He then married Virginia Doerr, the socialite daughter of R. Edward Blaney Doerr, president of the Murray Gin Company in Dallas, and Louise Nelms. They had a son Richard. This marriage lasted until his wife's death in 1975. His final marriage, to Jan Robbins, endured until his death.
Death
In early 1997, following an nearly forty years as a Sonoma County entrepreneurEntrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, Bob moved to the Fircrest Convalescent Hospital in Sebastopol, California
Sebastopol, California
Sebastopol is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, approximately north of San Francisco. The population was 7,379 at the 2010 census, but its businesses also serve surrounding rural portions of Sonoma County, totaling about 50,000 people...
where he died on April 19, 1997 at age 78.
Aircraft Industry
Yonash got involved in the aircraft industryAircraft industry
The aircraft industry is the industry supporting aviation by building aircraft and manufacturing aircraft parts for their maintenance. This includes aircraft and parts used for civil aviation and military aviation. Most production is done pursuant to type certificates and Defense Standards issued...
just as the transition from fabric and wood frames to metal was in its early stages. When he started his first job, powered flight
Powered flight
Powered flight is flight achieved using onboard power to generate propulsive thrust and/or lift. Birds and insects use wings, in a variety of ways, to achieve powered flight. Man has developed several forms of powered aircraft. The term powered flight is also sometimes used excluding the natural...
had been a reality for less than 33 years.
Yonash Recalled His Start in the Aircraft Industry
In an oral history shortly before his death, Yonash recalled how he got his start in the aircraft industry."It was the middle of the Great Depression, and I had just unloaded a boxcar load of Borax
Borax
Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.Borax has a wide variety of uses...
with a wheelbarrow and shovel. It took me three days and I was paid three dollars, which was a good wage for the time: one man, one day, one dollar.
"On my way home I noticed a line of men outside a factory, so I stopped and got in line as you did during the Depression. I asked one of the guys in line who was hiring and he said, “Vultee Aviation.” I thought, “What do I know about airplanes?” I did have a little experience with aluminum welding, although at the time I didn’t know I couldn’t have passed their certification test.
"The guy two in front of me, when asked what he was, said, “Aluminum welder.” Their response was, “Sorry, we have all the welders we need.” When they came to the guy in front of me, he said, “Sheet metal worker.” They asked, “Can you read a blueprint?” and when he said “no,” they dismissed him too.
"When they asked me, I said “I’m a sheet metal worker.” When they asked, “Can you read a blueprint?” I answered, “Of course,” which was true. After a quick test of my blueprint-reading skills, they hired me and said, “Show up Monday with your tools.” So I went home, took an empty fish tackle box, and filled it with everything that might be construed to be a sheet metal-working tool.
When I showed up for work the foreman asked me, “Can you run a nibbler?” I said, “Sure, where is it?” Luckily it was a fairly simple machine for blanking sheet metal parts, and it was relatively easy to master.
"Shortly thereafter, I moved into the drop hammer department."
Vultee Airplane Development Corporation
Yonash was a drop hammerSteam hammer
A steam hammer is a power-driven hammer used to shape forgings. It consists of a hammer-like piston located within a cylinder. The hammer is raised by the pressure of steam injected into the lower part of a cylinder and falls down with a force by removing the steam. Usually, the hammer is made to...
operator at Vultee Airplane Development Corporation in Downey, California from May 26, 1936 to September 25, 1936. This was his first job outside of the family. In May 1936, he was 17 and the Great Depression was still going on.
He began work in the aluminum stamping department. Here he worked as a drop hammer operator's assistant, The parts produced in this department were pre-formed shapes for various sections of the fuselage and wings. These sections would then be combined with other sections to complete the whole assembly.
During a discussion among workers in the Vultee stamping department a sign of Yonash's early ambition surfaced. The workers were discussing what their plans were for the future. He remained quiet for most of the conversation, When asked what his plans were, his reply was that he planned on running the place and that he would leave the company when he turned 35, This was met with laughs, and guffaws. His prediction came true. He was in his late twenties when he became a vice president. By the time he was 35 he did leave the employ of others and became a full-time entrepreneur for the rest of his life.
When he was laid off on September 25, 1936, Yonash was rated “very good” on ability, conduct, and production. He was “laid off because of lack of work,” but was marked “we would re-employ.”
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
From October 26, 1936 to March 3, 1939, Yonash worked for LockheedLockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace company. Lockheed was founded in 1912 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995.-Origins:...
at its Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, California plant between his two stints for Vultee. Initially, he was a Junior Drop Hammer Operator, and was promoted to Senior Drop Hammer Operator on January 22, 1937. When he left, he was rated “very good” on ability and production, but only “good” on conduct.
At Lockheed, Yonash was involved with the development of the P-38 Lightning
P-38 Lightning
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament...
double-tailed pursuit plane, which along with the North American P-51, was one of his proudest achievements. He designed the tooling for the P-38 wings.
Vultee Aircraft, Inc.
In 1939 Yonash returned to Vultee in Downey, now known as Vultee AircraftVultee Aircraft
The Vultee Aircraft Corporation became an independent company in 1939 and had limited success before merging with the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in 1943 to form the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, or Convair.-History:...
, Inc. He started as a Sheet Metal – Production Worker on a Drill Press, then moved up to Inspector on December 4, 1939. On June 17, 1940 he became the Tool Design Night Liaison, and then the Tool Design Liaison on July 8, 1940.
American Central Manufacturing Corporation
Yonash was the Chief Tool Engineer, in charge of the Tooling Department, in the Connersville, IndianaConnersville, Indiana
At the 2000 census, there were 15,411 people, 6,382 households and 4,135 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,894.5 per square mile . There were 6,974 housing units at an average density of 857.3 per square mile...
plant of the Aircraft Division of American Central Manufacturing Corporation (AMC) from May 1, 1941 to January 31, 1944. AMC was one of many general manufacturing companies which switched their focus to subcontracting the production of materiel
Materiel
Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He worked on the tooling for one of the wing sections of the B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...
Bomber. His department's efforts rated an article in the company newsletter. Photos and drawing of some of the tooling his department produced still survive.
While he was nominally based in Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, AMC was only one of several subcontractors whose products had to be assembled together. Thus Yonash spent a lot of his time traveling from one company to another making sure everything was working. In his later years, he used to tell how he would carry his dirty clothes from one airline stop to the next one, where he would drop them off for cleaning and pick up the clean ones from the last time he went through there.
During this time at AMC Yonash met Art Jairett, who remained a lifelong friend.
North American Aviation, Inc.
At North American AviationNorth American Aviation
North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...
, Yonash worked in the Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
plant on the tooling for the P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
wings. The challenge here was that the wings attached to the fuselage of the plane at an angle. Prior to Yonash's involvement the manufacturing and assembly process was very time consuming. With his tooling design, productivity improved significantly. Yonash worked for North American from January 1944 to July 1945. He is shown at right with some of his coworkers.
At North American, Yonash first met Bob McCulloch, who was to remain instrumental in his career until he “retired” from working for others. Yonash and McCulloch remained friends until McCulloch's death in 1995.
Yonash was well-known for doing things his own way, and one day came into work to find this cartoon on the bulletin board.
Menasco Manufacturing Company
Yonash was a Department Manager for the Menasco Manufacturing Company in Burbank, CaliforniaBurbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
from August 23, 1945 to January 25, 1946.
Texas Engineering & Manufacturing Company (TEMCO)
Yonash was a member of the start-up management team for Texas Engineering & Manufacturing Company (TEMCO) in Dallas, Texas, which was created as part of an effort to ease the transition from wartime production. He was Chief Production Engineer from January 16, 1946 to November 30, 1947. On June 17, 1946, Yonash was appointed the head of the new Department 25, known as “General Products.” This department produced an automated popcorn machine, Venetian blind clips, and other consumer-oriented products. Later on, it also assembled the tractors for the Intercontinental Manufacturing Company (IMCO).R.P.M.
R.P.M. was a manufacturing consulting company in the Dallas, TexasDallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
area. The letters in the company name stood for Research, Production, and Marketing. TEMCO was one of its clients.
Yonash was the Vice President for Production at R.P.M. from December 1947 to March 1948. He left to be a consultant on his own, listing himself with the Republic National Bank of Dallas, among others. This led directly to him becoming involved in the startup of the Intercontinental Manufacturing Company (IMCO).
Intercontinental Manufacturing Company (IMCO)/Brady Aviation
The Intercontinental Manufacturing CompanyIntercontinental Manufacturing Company
The Intercontinental Manufacturing Company was formed in the Dallas, Texas area in 1948 by Harold J. Silver and Robert F. Yonash, initially to fulfill an order from Argentina for tractors. IMCO soon changed focus to defense subcontracting, where it remains today.-Intercontinental C-26 tractor:In...
(IMCO) came into being in April 1948, in space subleased from TEMCO in the former North American plant near Dallas, with Harold J. Silver as President and Yonash as Vice President with the intent of filling the order from Argentina for several thousand tractors due the end of the year. Because of the short delivery time, the tractor was built mostly from existing parts such as motors from the Continental Motors Company
Continental Motors Company
Continental Motors Company was an American engine and automobile manufacturer. The company produced engines for various independent manufacturers of automobiles, tractors, and stationary equipment from the 1900s through the 1960s. Continental Motors also produced Continental-branded automobiles in...
and axles built by the Timken Company
Timken Company
The Timken Company is a global manufacturer of bearings, alloy steels, and related components and assemblies.- History :The company was founded by Henry Timken in St. Louis, Missouri in 1899 and incorporated as The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company. A year earlier, in 1898, Timken got a patent...
. Yonash’s old company, TEMCO, was contracted to do the assembly.
Yonash shipped one of the IMCO tractors to his parents in Iowa Hill, California where it served a productive life on the Kings Hill Ranch before being moved again, this time to Sonoma County. In the 1990s he sold the tractor to a collector http://gasengine.farmcollector.com/Tractors/INTERCONTINENTAL-C-26-TRACTOR.aspx
By the early 1950s, IMCO bought the Southern Aircraft 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) manufacturing plant located on Amundsen Road in Garland, Texas
Garland, Texas
-Climate:* The average warmest month is July.* The highest recorded temperature was in 2000.* On average, the coolest month is January.* The lowest recorded temperature was in 1989.* The maximum average precipitation occurs in May....
. Ray Shape, who had been a V.P. at Southern, moved to IMCO as Executive Vice President. Shape invited a friend of his, Ed Hancock, to interview for a position with IMCO, and Hancock was hired to be V.P of Production. The Shapes, Hancocks, and Yonashes became close friends, and the friendship continued even after Yonash moved back to California.
In mid-1951, IMCO expanded to the Brady, Texas
Brady, Texas
Brady is a city in McCulloch County, Texas, United States. Brady refers to itself as "The Heart of Texas", as it is the closest city to the geographical center of the state. The population was 5,523 at the 2000 census...
area, starting up Brady Aviation at Curtis Field. Yonash was the driving force in the successful post-war conversion of the former aircraft plant in Brady. Brady Aviation, named for the town in which it resided, was a large part of the local industrial base. When the company choose to expand its plant with a $1.5 million addition, front page headlines were in order for the Brady Herald.
In another twist on Yonash’s former employment, IMCO had a contract to do sheet metal and machine work for Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (Convair
Convair
Convair was an American aircraft manufacturing company which later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Vultee Aircraft and Consolidated Aircraft, and went on to produce a number of pioneering aircraft, such as the Convair B-36 bomber, and the F-102...
).
Yonash was Vice President, Production with IMCO from April 1948 to 1954. This was his last formal job before achieving his goal of "retirement" at 35.
Years of Transition--Iowa Hill and Foresthill
In 1954, Yonash met his long time goal of “retirement” at age 35 and quit working for other people. For the rest of his life, he was a self-employed entrepreneur.In August, 1954, Yonash moved his family to the Iowa Hill, California property in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) foothills which he and his parents had purchased in 1949, near the site of the future Auburn Dam
Auburn Dam
Auburn Dam was a proposed dam on the North Fork of the American River east of the town of Auburn, California in the United States, on the border of Placer and El Dorado Counties. Slated to be completed in the 1970s by the U.S...
. His parents had previously moved there with his daughter, Robin, to serve as custodians. Part of this property was one of the last private purchases of land from the Southern Pacific Company.
The ranch house, while large, was not big enough for two families, so Yonash, with his father, set about building his own house about ¼ mile east of the ranch house. He also realized a long time dream of building a log cabin, similar to what he and his parents had lived in on the Montana homestead.
In 1957, after a one-year ownership of the Forest House Hotel in Foresthill, California
Foresthill, California
Foresthill is a census-designated place in Placer County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Yonash busied himself and the rest of the family with planting a walnut
Walnut
Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...
orchard
Orchard
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...
while he was looking for other prospects.
Sonoma County Entrepreneur
In 1959 Yonash began exploring opportunities in Sonoma County, CaliforniaSonoma County, California
Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....
.
Rural Estates, Inc.
Yonash's first corporation in the Sonoma County area was Rural Estates, Inc. which owned the Joy Woods property near Occidental, CaliforniaOccidental, California
Occidental is a census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,115 at the 2010 census, down from 1,272 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Occidental is located at...
and logged it. Shortly after this, Rural Estates bought property in Rural Canyon near Forestville, California
Forestville, California
Forestville is a census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The town came into existence during the late 1860s and was originally named Forrestville, after one its founders, but the spelling long ago became standardized with one "r". The population was 3,293 at the 2010...
and logged it as well.
Yonash’s approach to logging was to leave enough trees so that the properly could later be subdivided and sold and still be attractive to potential buyers. After logging the Rural Canyon property, Yonash tried selling it at $1,500 per acre lot but with little success. Then he came up with a different approach. For many potential buyers the work of preparing a building site for a cabin was too difficult and the permitting process too complex. Yonash decided to complete most of the initial work by preparing the site and erecting a pre-fabricated shell which was no more than a one room cabin with the basic amenities installed: water, septic and electricity. The construction techniques were unique, in that conventional stud walls were not used. Instead, the walls and roof sheeting were 2X6 tongue-and-groove redwood. It was left to the owners to finish the interior. This approach greatly increased sales.
Pallets
In 1967, Yonash leased the old Santa Rosa airport property and started building pallets from re-sawn lumber. This was during the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, and there was an ongoing demand for pallets as they were never shipped back but were taken apart in ‘Nam and used as local building materials. Pallets were also sold for domestic use in the US.
Industrial Woodcraft, Inc.
In 1968, Yonash purchased the Nulaid property in Petaluma, CaliforniaPetaluma, California
Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. In the 2010 Census the population was 57,941.Located in Petaluma is the Rancho Petaluma Adobe, a National Historic Landmark. It was built beginning in 1836 by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then Commandant of the San...
and sold the pallet factory. The Nulaid facility formerly belonged to the California Egg Producers Association. The facility had many separate sections, each used for a different part of the egg producing process. Additions of various construction styles were built at different times. This made the whole facility rather impractical for use by a plant needing open space. Rather than try to find one tenant who could use the entire facility, Yonash decided to make each section into an independent unit fitted with the proper amenities such as wash rooms, etc., thus having many smaller units to rent separately. The return from this scheme paid the properly off every three years.
About the same time, Yonash became involved with using a portable sawmill that could be “taken to the tree.” This allowed redwood trees that had been left as slash from logging to be cut into usable lumber. But the next question was, what to use it for? This led to the birth of Industrial Woodcraft in 1970, located in the old Nulaid property. The founding of Industrial Woodcraft was based on a business principle that Yonash had formulated which said “the smaller the piece the higher the price.” Industrial Woodcraft took “junk” wood and re-sawed it into items such as grape stakes, planter boxes, etc., as well as all manner of custom cut wood for various enterprises—whatever there was a market for.
The company operated as a custom cutting business, cutting and fabricating wood products to order. One of the secrets of the company was its unique production machinery. For instance, grape stakes seem very simple to cut, but one cut at a time to form the points is a difficult and costly task when thousands of stakes are being produced. To solve this problem, a special machine capable of cutting the complete point in one operation was designed by Yonash using his expertise as an Industrial Designer. Two saw blades operating in unison would cut both points of the stakes in one pass. The stakes could be fed in stacks of 5 per cycle. This worked out to a rate of 5,000 stakes per day. It wasn’t enough that the machine could cut both sides of the point in one pass, the machine operated on a cam mechanism which made it automatic as well. Innovations such as this made the company very competitive.
Empire West, Inc.
Empire West, Inc., a plastics vacuum-forming business, was the final company with which Yonash was involved. Originally located in the old Nulaid properly, it moved to Graton, CaliforniaGraton, California
Graton is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in west Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,707 at the 2010 census. Graton's ZIP code is 95444.-Geography:...
in the early 1980s. It was his son's business, but until just before his death Yonash stayed closely involved, contributing both his experience of business operation and his skills and knowledge as an Industrial Designer to make the molds required for the various products. Empire West, Inc. continues to thrive. Its latest product is Ceilume Smart Ceiling Tiles.
External links
- Empire West, Inc.
- Ceilume Smart Ceiling Tiles
- Intercontinental Manufacturing Company brochure, ~1951
- Intercontinental C-26 Tractor (based on personal memories of Bob Yonash)
- Intercontiental C26 (Spanish article)
- Brochure for 'Pop' Corn Vending Machine Manufactured by TEMCO for T. & C. Company, retrieved on February 22, 2010