[Stitcher]

When Your Tape Measure Locks, Think Of Bob West

March 11, 2007
By ANNE M. HAMILTON, Special to The Courant
http://www.courant.com/features/life...tory?track=rss

Robert F. West, 88, formerly of West Simsbury, died Oct. 21, 2006.

Bob West was an imaginative engineer who held more than 40 patents, including one for the ubiquitous yellow power-lock measuring tape made by Stanley Tools. He was also an accomplished trombone player, hiker, camper and all-around Mr. Fixit.

He was one of four children born to Mabel and Joseph West and grew up in Millville, N.J., where his father worked as a self-taught mechanical engineer at the T.C. Wheaton glass factory. There, Joseph developed the technique that allowed silkscreen designs to be printed on glass containers (think of the ship on the Old Spice cologne bottle). He also designed a machine that silvered the inside of the glass doorknobs that were popular a century ago.

As a child, Bob West enjoyed hiking and fished in a nearby river. When he was 15, he and a friend spent weeks hitchhiking to Chicago to see the World's Fair. He also was an Eagle Scout.

West attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1939. As a student, he was president of the glee club and played a mean trombone in the school marching band.

Through mutual friends, he met Dorothy Nourse, a nursing student, and they were married in 1942 and had two children.

West spent the early war years working as a civilian for the Navy in Newport News, Va., where he developed an elevator to lift fighter planes onto the launching deck of an aircraft carrier. When the job was over, the Navy tried to persuade him to stay. He declined, enlisted in the Navy instead and was commissioned an officer.

After the war, West worked at several jobs, including at his dad's glass factory, where he developed a machine that circulated the molten glass to keep it at an even temperature so it could be blown easily. He also was awarded his first patent, for a machine that crimped caps onto glass bottles.

In 1957, West took a job as director of new products at Stanley Works in New Britain, where he worked until retiring in 1983.

He got the idea for the power-lock tape rule in the middle of the night, and it was the product that was the most popular of all his inventions.

"Before, you couldn't keep [the tape] open," said his son, Lee West. "He came up with the [locking] button and thought it up at night and went in the next day and made the prototype. ... It's something that seems obvious now but wasn't before. In that small way, he really touched a lot of people."

West also developed a button on a utility knife to retract the blade, and he thought up the fiberglass-handled hammer. But other products or techniques he developed were more obscure, like a method of attaching the head and handle of a hammer, or the manufacturing process for the Surform scraper. After working several years at Stanley, West became its director of new products and research, nurturing the creativity of other engineers. He was awarded more than 40 patents. Often his name appeared on the patent with those of other engineers, and for each patent the inventor was given a share of Stanley stock. By law, profits from the invention belonged to the company.

"Bob knew how to run a research group," said Bill Hildebrandt, a friend who worked for West at Stanley Works. He would approach a task saying, "We have a problem. Would you sit down and noodle it?"

The work was challenging and exciting. "The fun of it was solving the problem," Hildebrandt said. Imagining the power-lock mechanism exemplified the "eureka" aspect of an invention.

"It was such a natural function of the hand," said Hildebrandt, to have the thumb move the locking button on the measuring tape. "But no one had ever come up with that."

At home, West used his extensive collection of tools to finish the inside of his house, which he had designed himself. He made furniture for the family, including a canopy bed for his daughter.

"He had an unbelievable accumulation of tools," said Lee West, "everything Stanley ever made, and a lot more." West even collected the tools the Stanley company thought about making but discarded. Today, few people can discern the purpose of some of the obscure and obsolete tools.

"There was little he wouldn't tackle," said Lee West of his father. "By today's standards, you would call him a nerd. He was very scientific, dealing with numbers."

The family hiked and camped together every summer in the White Mountains and across the United States, and West loved climbing Mt. Washington and Mt. Monadnock. He carried a full pack for a three-day trip until he was 70.

West continued to play the trombone and, along with George Gaedeke, who played the saxophone, would entertain often at nursing homes and churches around Simsbury.

West taught himself how to play the organ, and he played anything from "fake books" that contained only the melody. He was the choir director at Kensington Baptist Church and frequently sang or played music around his house. He died of Parkinson's disease.

"He was a kind, gentle, thoughtful person," said his daughter Karen Campbell. "He accomplished a lot. ... But he didn't exalt his own accomplishments."

[vlhperry]

What an inspiring story. Almost all his inventions were meant to prevent injury to other persons, mostly blue collar. His wife and children must love him dearly and and have many fond memories of him. What a loss, not only for him family, but for all of us.

His life had so much meaning for people who never heard of him, including myself, who has used a retractable tape measure and a utility knife with a retractable blade. Alas, that was many years ago, when we had an older three level home that needed alot of updating, couldn't afford to pay a contractor, so did the work myself.

Am so fortunate to have a husband who loves me. Now live in a newer condominium that is one level and much easier to care for.

Thanks for posting such an inspiring storyl

Vicky

[GregD]

I met Robert West a several years ago at one of the woodworking shows. He was quite an interesting man to talk to. I'm sorry to hear he has passed on.

GregD