Newsletter Volume 12, Issue 3 NCR RETIREE NEWS Official publication of NCR REA, Inc. www.ncr-rea.com 3rd Quarter 2008 WHAT’S INSIDE REA ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING September 11, 2008 Front Page Story 1 From the Editor 2 To the Editor On Thursday, September 11, 2008, the eleventh Annual Meeting of NCR REA will be held at The NCR Country Club in Dayton, Ohio. Did You Know 3 The meeting will include the regular business meeting and presentations by In Memoriam 4 special guests and members. The business meeting will last from 10 a.m. until noon. A continental breakfast, provided by NCR REA, will be available be- Welcome to New 4 ginning at 9 a.m. Members Directory Update 5 As we did in 2007, we are offering some new activities to provide more op- portunity for you to network with your former friends and associates at NCR. Annual Meeting 6 2007 An optional buffet luncheon will be served following the business meeting. NCR REA will share the cost of this luncheon with your share being $10.00 Registration for 7 2008 per person. You must be pre-registered to attend this activity. (NOTE: The Annual Meeting NCR Country Club requires a minimum of 25 guests to offer the buffet. If we From our mem- 8 do not register the minimum number required, your money will be promptly bers refunded. (You will be given a luncheon ticket when you check in on Sep- tember 11th.) Calendar of events 9 A putting contest will be held following the luncheon. We will award prizes F.Y.I. 11 for first, second, and third place. Please register now if you plan to partici- pate in this activity. (Putters will be provided.) The Tale End 12 A tour of the NCR Archive is offered at 1:30 p.m. in downtown Dayton. This tour is limited to 25 people, so get your registration in early—first come, first served. NCR will offer a tour of the NCR Solution Center at 1:30 p.m. at World Headquarters. Please indicate on your registration form if you wish to take either of these tours. The registration form on page 7 of this newsletter must be submitted by Sep- tember 1, 2008. Alternately, you may print out the form from the MEM- BERS ONLY section of the web site www.ncr-rea.org Please register as soon as possible. We hope to see many of you in Septem- ber. NCR Retiree News Page 2 FROM THE EDITOR Board of Trustees John Schikner, president You should have received your copy ONLY section. The online version is Dennis Neufarth, vice of the NCR REA Membership Di- updated at least every quarter. president rectory by now. I’m happy to report The letter to the editor below is an il- Lou Bordonaro, treasurer that many of you have looked lustration of one of the benefits of be- Ken Carr, secretary at/used it already. I’m sorry to say longing to the REA. How nice it is to Peg Butts you found many errors that I made hear from old friends with whom Jim Carroll in compiling it. Some of you also you’ve lost touch. Vern Henkener found that you had forgotten to pro- Gordon Meister vide us with your updated informa- This issue includes the registration Howard Reams tion. While we can’t afford to re- form for the Annual Meeting. We Bill West print, we are providing a list of cor- sure would like to see many of you rections as we know them so you there. NCR REA can update your hardcopy if you Happy reading. Hope to hear from Our mission is to keep wish. (See pages 5 and 11.) Remem- members informed on is- you. ber the directory is also online on sues related to NCR Cor- your web site in the MEMBERS poration and other mat- Dennis ters of interest. REA was started in 1996, and helps perpetuate the legacy of NCR Corporation and its TO THE EDITOR people. Membership in (LETTERS FROM YOU) NCR REA is a great way to stay connected to NCR and its people. In 1999, we purchased a 40' motor Hello Dennis, home and spent five years on the road. ___________________ … I try to remember when I saw It was a lot of fun, but my wife Wilma NCR Retiree News is pub- you last. [It] must have been in the wanted again a home and not getting lished four times per year, by: 70s. any younger helped in the decision. So NCR REA, Inc. we bought a small home in San Anto- P. O. Box 218 After 10 Years in Dayton, five years nio, Florida (27 miles north of Germantown, OH 45327 in the Far East, three years in Tampa)… Phone: (937) 285-0014 [email protected] Europe, and five years South and Helmut Haeuser [email protected] Central America, I knew it was 3rd Quarter 2008 printed and distributed by Think Patented, enough. So I left NCR in 1984 and Dayton, OH we headed for California where we started our own company which we Copyright© 2008 by NCR operated until 1998. After 15 years REA, Inc. No reproduction without written permission of of owning and operating the com- NCR REA, Inc. pany, we were able to generate in Printed in the USA the last year [$]164 Million in an- nual sales. Now it was time sell and Helmut retired from International happily we were able to do that very Technical Services after 28 years with NCR. He has been a member successfully. of NCR REA since 2005. NCR Retiree News Page 3 D ID YOU KNOW... S TORY SUBMITTED BY KEN CARR, REA SECRETARY. Y OU CAN CONTACT KEN AT KENC032@AOL. COM ...that one of NCR’s executives owned one of the was involved in many endeavors including chief most luxurious yachts of its day. More on the of airplane procurement for the Army during story of the yacht later. WWI, starting an airplane engine company with Orville Wright, redesigning Delco to manufacture This gentleman, who was with NCR three differ- airplanes during WWI, and selling Delco to the ent times, graduated college in 1897 and began his United Motor Company which was later sold to career with the Thresher Company in Dayton, OH, General Motors. Mr. Deeds was asked by New at $12 per month. It just so happened that the York bankers, who held much of the company Thresher Company shared the Callahan Building [NCR] debt, to take over leadership of NCR to at that time with a rapidly growing company by restore shareholders confidence as the country the name of NCR. emerged from the Great Depression. In 1931, he accepted the challenge and for the third time In 1899, Frank Patterson, John’s brother, who had joined NCR, this time as president and the execu- followed this man’s achievements, hired him away tive with a yacht. from Thresher with an offer of $30 a month. His job was to complete the electrification of the NCR Mr. Deeds commissioned the building of the Factory. He left NCR a couple of years later when yacht at the height of the depression in 1929 at a he accepted the challenge to build a manufacturing cost of one million dollars. It was christened the factory for a cereal company. Lotosland after a Greek mythological creature. The ship was 200 feet long, twice as long as the That job complete, in 1903, John Patterson rehired presidential yacht of the day and required a crew him as the assistant manger for development. of 30 for full operation. Each stateroom had its During this stay with the company, he had the own bathtub and shower and was air conditioned, foresight to hire an Ohio State graduate who later yes, air conditioning in 1929. All the wood was would prove to be a rather inventive person, teak and black walnut and the fireplaces were mar- Charles F. Kettering. Within three years, using ble. The music room contained a Steinway piano this man’s formative work on the project, Kette- and a full organ. It was the first private yacht to be ring had developed a working model of the first outfitted with a seaplane. As president of the electric powered cash register. Over the next few struggling NCR, Mr. Deeds had little time to enjoy years they perfected the electrification of the cash the ship and with the outbreak of WWII, the register as well as working on another electric Lotosland was purchased by the U. S. Navy in gadget in their spare time. Kettering left NCR in 1940 for $140,000. It was converted into a patrol 1908 to spend full time working on this new non- boat complete with guns and depth charge racks NCR product at a building referred to as Deeds and commissioned the USS Siren. It remained Barn. with the Navy until it was taken out of service in 1945. The NCR Archive has model of the Yes, our executive is Edward A. Deeds. Mr. Lotosland in its collection Deeds left NCR for a second time in 1915 to de- vote full time to the new company he and Mr. Ket- Mr. Deed remained president until 1940 and was tering had formed to manufacture and market their honorary chairman until his retirement in 1957. He new product, the electric starter for automobiles. passed away in 1960 at his beloved home, Mo- With an order from the Cadillac Company, the raine Farm, which at the time was owned by NCR Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company just as it is today.