Frank Sanoica

Discussion in 'People I Have Known' started by Frank Sanoica, Apr 22, 2017.

  1. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Really existed! My co-worker Bruce and I had been officially designated to design and build a revolutionary type of machine to mold oil seals, in 1970. The concept for the machine had been proposed by our company's Divisional VP, Bob Brink. He squirreled me away from my former position in the Co. as Sr. Development Technician, Gasket Division, offering me the title of Project Engineer, Oil Seal Division. I went for it.

    Over the following several years, Bruce & I toiled, sometimes burning much midnight oil, to conceive of a way to meet Brink's concept in a production mode. Some of our Department's Engineers hated us, some acquiesced, but only Bruce and I had the conceptual abilities to pull the move off. Here's a pic of the machine we created, still under construction, located in the Dana Plant in Churubusco, IN.

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    The chick is my wife's sister, 15. The big silver hulk is an oven. The round turntable to her right allows processing of the molds while outside the oven. About halfway between our beginning work, about 2 years earlier, and when this pic was taken, Bruce's and my boss, Jack Brady, announced he was leaving the Victor Products Co. Bruce & Jack were close friends, having both built and raced Formula Cars which they built. This news stunned the Co., us even more so. Bruce was seriously distressed, me less so, wondering about Jack's successor.

    He turned out to be Frank Sanoica, a long-time employee from way before Dana had bought the Co. from the Victor brothers. Frank had been involved in Facilities Engineering, when the plant in Indiana was being built and equipped, about 10 years earlier. That plant was to be the place in which our machine would save the day. It took only days for Bruce & I to "meld" with this gentle, knowledgeable, as he called himself, Polack. He was only a few years older than I, Bruce was 2 years my junior, and soon the 3 of us were hustling back and forth between Chicago and Churubusco, often in Frank's big Buick, which Bruce despised (he drove a Corvette). I have only had one other boss in all my life whom I liked more than I did Frank........he was Fred DiNapoli during my final years working, for Sears District Maintenance. Frank
     
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  2. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Great story Frank and well done to you and your mate :)
     
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