4th of July and a Birthday Celebration

Ray Deppmann started the Company in 1927, and in 1971 turned control of the company over to 10 employees led by Zaven “Ziggy” Margossian.

Today a company’s employees may complain about not being able to wear shorts in the summer, but in 1961 at RLD, the parts counter people wore suits to work. Here is Dick Burke and Clarence Shoemaker in the parts department at Deppmann on Milwaukee street in Detroit.

“To Teach” is a core value of R.L. Deppmann. Here is a photo of consulting engineering attendees at one of the many “Hydronic Conferences” held in Lansing at MSU. Do you see anyone you know?

In the late 1950s the Bell and Gossett bus brought visitors to the plant. Standing left to right is Clarence Pullium, Chief Engineer at B&G, E.J. Gossett, Founder, and Ed Moore, President of B&G.

No historical blog about R.L. Deppmann would be complete without mentioning Gil Carlson, who wrote the engineering design manuals. I remember Gil when I started going to the Little Red Schoolhouse in 1975. At every class I attended there was one evening when he kept us from going down to Rush street. Instead, he would take a group of us to his room with a case of beer and a flipchart. He then began challenging us with various hydronic problems and scenarios, asking questions over and over like Socrates while he chain smoked.

Here is the Detroit office in the mid 1960s. Here is the sales management team at Deppmann. From front to back: Zig Margossian, engineering sales, Bill Olson, customer service sales, Mac Wallace, wholesaler & service sales, Andy Sturgeon, estimator and contractor sales.