Biographical Sketch of
Harold W. Gegenheimer
(BME 1933)
Harold
W. Gegenheimer has been associated with the printing industry all his
life: As a machinist, machine design engineer, inventor, product
develop-ment manager, and corporate chief executive. He is the Chairman
Emeritus of the Baldwin Technology Company, an international
manu-facturer of material handling, press accessory, and prepress
equipment for offset printing.
His father,
William, started the Baldwin Company in 1918 in a small building next to
their house in Baldwin (Long Island), New York. He invented the Baldwin
Press Washer and the company emerged as a manufacturer of printing press
accessories and controls.
Harold
always took an interest in things mechanical, so it was natural that he
came to Georgia Tech, where he received his bachelor’s degree in
mechanical engineering in 1933. Later, he invented the Convertible
Offset Perfecting Press, a feature used by most press manufacturers,
that allows for one or more colors to be printed on both sides of the
paper with just one pass through the press. His inventions, for which
many United States and foreign patents have been obtained, were keys to
the great growth of the offset printing process after World War II.
Mr.
Gegenheimer was President of the National Printing Equipment and Supply
Association from 1977 to 1979. He has been an officer or director of
other industry associations and the recipient of numerous technical and
educational awards. In 1983 he was elected Graphic Arts Man of the Year.
Mr.
Gegenheimer is a long-time contributor to Georgia Tech’s Thousand
Club, served as co-chair of his 50th Reunion Committee,
and was the recipient of the 1996 Woodruff School Distinguished Alumnus
Award.
An
endowment given to the Woodruff School in 1995 by Mr. Gegenheimer
established the Harold W. Gegenheimer Lecture Series on Innovation to
support student programs that encourage creativity, innovation, and
design. Through the lecture series and support of capstone design
projects, students are exposed to processes that stimulate creativity
and lead to inventions and patents. As an inventor, Mr. Gegenheimer
continues to express an interest in the great advances made at his alma
mater through innovative programs that link industry with graduate and
undergraduate studies. In 2001, his endowment supported the School's new
display, Patents of the Woodruff School Faculty.
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Georgia Institute
of Technology
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0405 |
