Adolf Schoepe (January 1, 1904, Berkenroth,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, - July 29, 2001, Fullerton, California) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unit ...

inventor and businessman. Schoepe, a master metalworker with no formal education, emigrated to the United States in 1927. At the time he did not speak English, and had only about $25. As a young man he worked for Curtis Aviation in

Saint Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...

then

Spartan Aircraft Company The Spartan Aircraft Company was an American aircraft manufacturing company, headquartered on Sheridan Avenue near the Tulsa Municipal Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Previously known as Mid-Continent Aircraft Company, the company had been reorga ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

. He later worked at Goodyear Rubber Company in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

, installing power systems in

dirigibles An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early d ...

for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, and at

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, building

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theate ...

bombers. He was a foreman at the San Diego Naval Air Station metals shop, and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

taught

welding Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as br ...

to women who were entering the work force. In 1946 Schoepe and a friend, Karl Rhinehart, founded Gateway Manufacturing Co, bought out a small defunct lock company in

South Gate, California South Gate is the 19th largest city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, with . South Gate is located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is part of the Gateway Cities region of southeastern Los Angeles County. The city was in ...

, and began manufacturing the

Kwikset Kwikset is an American lock and lockset manufacturer owned by Spectrum Brands Hardware and Home Improvement Group (HHI), a Division of Spectrum Brands, and is in the process of being acquired by Assa Abloy. Originally Gateway Manufacturing Company, ...

, a line of

doorlock Door lock may refer to: Automotive * an automobile's door lock, which may include a remote * Power door locks Film * ''Door Lock'' (film), a 2018 South Korean film directed by Lee Kwon Household and commercial uses * a deadbolt lock * a ...

s. Schoepe obtained patents on a number of important technical innovations on lock designs, some of which were the subject of patent litigation. Kwikset, which sold to American Hardware Corporation and ultimately to

Black and Decker Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was o ...

, became the most common brand of locks in the United States. In 1957 Schoepe founded Fluidmaster, Inc., an aftermarket toilet tank repair kit, based on a patent design Schoepe had found while working at Kwikset. He bought the patent, improved it, then spent ten years building the company until it was profitable. Sold directly to consumers, Fluidmaster kits worked more smoothly and were more durable than the original equipment and eventually became the most common toilet valves in the United States. Schoepe ran the company until 2000, when he was 96. As of Schoepe's death in 2001 the company had an 80% market share of toilet tank kits. Schoepe lived for most of his life in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, ...

. He was an aficionado of exotic cars, frequent donor and volunteer for conservative causes and the Republican Party, and for the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth partici ...

and other charities. In his later life he owned a citrus ranch in Pauma Valley, California. He was married for 53 years to wife, Virginia Sherrill Schoepe. As of 2009 his son, Robert Schoepe, remains as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of Fluidmaster.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoepe, Adolf 1904 births 2001 deaths American manufacturing businesspeople Businesspeople from California California Republicans German emigrants to the United States People from Fullerton, California 20th-century American inventors 20th-century American businesspeople