[Collins] Re: black beauty

[Glen Zook]

Art was a technical genius but a lousey businessman. 
Back in the mid-1960s the Wall Street Journal did a
piece on Collins Radio.  Therein they stated that
Collins Radio survived "in spite of Art Collins, not
because of him".

I only worked at the "new" corporate headquarters in
Richardson, Texas, for two years.  However, my job was
such that I was exposed to several of his "quirks" on
a regular basis.

He would keep trying to perfect a product so that it
would never make it beyond the prototype stage even
though it was definitely capable of doing the job for
which it was designed.  He would stop the shipment of
equipment to add the "latest and greatest"
modification.  Then, before it got out the door, he
would order more modifications.  That is why you had
to get him interested in a different project so you
could actually ship the products to the customers.

Myself and a lot of other former Collins employees can
tell a lot of "tall" tales about Art (that are really
true!).  As I said before, he was a technical genius,
but if it hadn't been for other, more business minded
individuals, Collins Radio would have folded a long
time before Art sold out to Rockwell International.

His "downfall" was trying to produce a computer that
was "better than IBM".  He had buildings 406 and 408
constructed just to produce the computer line.  One
summer (when it was near, or even above, 100 degrees
outside), the computer buildings started getting
pretty warm.  Art had all of the chilled water
diverted from building 402 (which was connected to 406
and 408) to cool those two buildings.  Those of us in
building 402 really "sweated out" those days! 
Fortunately, I had excuses to go to the other
buildings on the campus, but most of the employees in
building 402 couldn't get away!  When the computer
line basically failed, Art sold out to Rockwell
International at a substantially lower per share than
the company was really worth.  However, he got enough
money that he never worried until the day he died.

The vast majority of Collins equipment, both amateur
and commercial, is of the utmost superior quality. 
But, it was not always the result of Art's personal
involvement.

Glen, K9STH


--- kwylow zinjanthropus <catman351@yahoo.com> wrote:
 
Whatever the endstate Mr. Collins might have taken, it
comes as a surprise when we desire the history quality
that Collins equipment is known for and these little
tidbits of information comes up to us on our flank. 

=====
Glen, K9STH

Web sites

http://home.attbi.com/~k9sth
http://home.attbi.com/~zcomco

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