Elkhart IN

Dave McLaughlin began his long career with Crown International as a part time employee in 1968. He later went to college and earned an electrical engineering degree and returned to Crown. He worked alongside famed engineer Gerry Stanley helping with the circuit boards for the DC300 Amps. He also...
Dominic Massaro has been learning each step of the process of making a mouthpiece in the Elkhart shop his great grandfather’s uncle started in 1919. jj Babbitt has been innovating the process and models of mouthpieces for a hundred years and Dominic is excited to carry on the tradition. His...
Dave Mount remembers working with his grandfather, Kurt Gemeinhardt, and learning first hand several important elements of the business including customer service and a focus on quality. Dave carried over these business principles when he and his father, George, formed MTS Products in 1971. They...
Steve Rorie landed a part time job the very same day he graduated high school at the Vincent Bach plant in Elkhart, Indiana. He later would accompany his grandfather and father at EK Blessings to observe them while they worked honing and de-burring trumpet valves . His passion for how musical...
Don Martin was 18 years old, in 1950, when he began working at CG Conn Musical Instruments in Elkhart, Indiana. His mother, who worked for the company for 26 years suggested Don interview for an opening in the bell making department. He stayed in that department, becoming a master craftsman, until...
Jim Green has been a fixture in the Elkhart band instrument industry since the 1960s.  He first worked for Armstrong Flute Company before joining jj Babbitt in 1974.  After a short absence from the mouthpiece maker, Jim returned in 1983 and has been a key part of the company ever since.  As the...
Richard Boynton has many fond memories of the music industry. His grandfather was once the owner of CG Conn Musical Instruments in Elkhart, Indiana.  In fact, Mr. Greenleaf purchased the company from Col. Conn in 1915 and developed many of the practices that allowed the company to endure the Great...
William Cordier remembered piling in the family car for a road trip to their favorite lake northwest of their home in Ohio.  Each and every trip included a detour into Elkhart, Indiana where his father would pull over and show off the large sign announcing the "World's Biggest Musical Instrument...
Carol Holtz was hired by the Martin Band Instrument Company in Elkhart during World War II.  She has many fond memories of working for the company and the family feeling it had.  Speaking of family, Carol married the son of the president, Frederick Holtz (1885-1965) and enjoyed being a part of the...
Mike Stoll has had a passion for electronics and music since before he can remember.  He pursued an education in electronics and began working with the famed Crown International in Elkhart, Indiana in the boom of home recordings of the 1960s.  The company produced reel to reel tape machines, which...

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