By Doug Glenn, Publisher of Heat Treat Today
One of the great privileges of being the publisher of an industry publication is meeting many outstanding people. Some are exceptionally wealthy, some not. Some have a deeper degree of “outstandingness” in that they are kind and others-centered; others not so much. Due to the kindness of Ginny Smith, daughter of Hank Rowan, both of Inductotherm fame, I had the great honor of meeting Hank Rowan, the founder and former CEO of the Inductotherm Group of Companies. This short article is mostly about Mr. Rowan, although it is also about the people Mr. Rowan, I’m sure, would have championed.
My brief encounters with Mr. Rowan were two and both very brief. I’ll tell you more about my experiences with Mr. Rowan and his daughter, Mrs. Smith, below, but for now, you should take some time to listen to the excellent podcast that Malcolm Gladwell did about Hank Rowan shortly after Mr. Rowan’s passing in 2015. Fascinating.
Click here to be taken to the podcast that Mr. Gladwell did about Hank Rowan.
Mr. Rowan
Encounter #1. Not long into my publishing career with BNP Media (I was the publisher of Industrial Heating magazine from 1994-2014), I heard about Mr. Rowan’s book The Fire Within. Wanting to get a little better acquainted with the induction industry, I searched for the book. This was pre-Amazon days…or at least before I knew how to use it! Being a rather forward person, and not having any luck finding the book elsewhere, I called Inductotherm in Rancocas, NJ, to see if I could obtain a copy of the book from them. They answered the phone.
Receptionist: “Hello, Inductotherm, how can I help you?
Me: “Hi, my name is Doug Glenn and I was wondering if I could get a copy of Hank Rowan’s book from you?”
Receptionist: “Hold please.”
Next Voice: “Hello. This is Hank Rowan, how can I help you?”
Me: (Stone-dead silent…….) “Mr. Rowan! Nice to meet you….”
I went on to explain why I was calling and we had a nice discussion. Needless to say, I was surprised and appropriately impressed that Mr. Rowan took calls of this nature. He was a genuinely nice person. I got two copies of the book several days later with a short, hand-written note from Mr. Rowan.
Encounter #2. Multiple years later when I was making a sales call on Ginny Smith, Mr. Rowan’s daughter, who I mentioned earlier, I was about ready to leave and Mrs. Smith asked me if I’d like to meet her father. I was a bit surprised but, of course, said “yes.” We commenced to walk up the steps and directly into Mr. Rowan’s office. He had just completed some sort of minor surgery on his face and was slightly bandaged up…but still at work…and if I remember correctly still coming into work nearly every day even at the advanced age of 80+. His reception was warm and the three of us had a brief and pleasant conversation. No pretension; just a normal guy…as was his daughter, Ginny. I, of course, recounted the book request incident to him (not knowing what else to talk about) and he didn’t act surprised.
Some exceptionally wealthy people are aloof. Not Mr. Rowan.
Other Industry Champions
I’m going to step out and speculate a bit here because I did not know Mr. Rowan well enough to say what I’m about to say emphatically…I could be wrong, but I think Mr. Rowan would probably champion the not-so-rich-and-famous people in the heat treat industry. People like Dan Reardon of Paulo Products with whom I’ve had the privilege of developing an online relationship (!). Dan and I have corresponded by LinkedIn only. I’ve never met him in person. Nonetheless, I consider Dan to be an industry (and life) champion. I think Mr. Rowan would as well.
If you’ve listened to the Malcolm Gladwell podcast (see above), you know that Mr. Rowan donated millions of dollars to educate the every-day engineers in and around his New Jersey home. It would be hard to say how many educational lives Mr. Rowan has impacted.
Mr. Reardon, on the other hand, father of five, is, as I am, struggling to get our kids (Dan has 5, I have 4) through college. Based on the LinkedIn exchanges Dan and I have had, it is easy to conclude that Dan is not independently wealthy. By his own admission, it is a “struggle” to know how he and his wife are going to do it — how are they going to put all the kids through college and still have a half decent retirement. My guess is that if Dan had to choose, he’d sacrifice his retirement for the benefit of his kids. Go Dan!
These are the types of people that make the heat treat industry tick. There are undoubtedly thousands of others that could be mentioned. Malcolm Gladwell doesn’t have time to profile them all; nor do I, but please know that each and every one of you that sacrifices himself for the good of others is a champion.
