Donaldson Company, Inc.

Series

Donaldson Company, Inc.

• 1955‒ 2017 (Creation)

Quantity: 1 11 x 12 blue-gray box

Background Note: The Donaldson Company began as the Donaldson Engineering Company in 1916 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The company has widely expanded and operates production plants around the world. The Grinnell, Iowa plant was built in 1952 at 201 East Street South to produce mufflers and air cleaners. Grinnellians who worked at the plant included plant superintendent Jack Hillier; factory managers Ray Canfield, Preston Shaw, Charles Ziegenmeyer, and Donald Hansen; and Grinnell’s plant manager, Frank Funke. A 65,000 square-foot addition was built in 1965, and expanded to 130,000 square feet in 1969. A third expansion of 90,000 square-feet was completed in 1973, and the photographs in this collection are of the construction of that last addition. At the height of its production in Grinnell, the plant employed about 200 people. The closure of the Grinnell plant was announced by the company in November, 2014, and was phased towards permanent closure in 2016. At that time the plant was producing mufflers and exhaust products for off-road vehicles, and the closure affected 75 local employees.

Container List:
19 black & white photographs, including some from the Grinnell Expansion of 1973
The Donaldson Company, Inc.: A partner in the progress of power . . .
(1955 company publication sent to employees, with gift letter)
Toward a Cleaner, Quieter World: History of the Donaldson Company
1915-1985 (a company publication sent to employees, with gift letter)
Folder 1: Company holiday publications; publicity
Folder 2: Copies of newspaper articles from clippings, 1957-2017
Folder 3: Copies of company supplements to Grinnell Herald-Register,
1972, 1992, 2002.
Envelope 1: Original Grinnell Herald-Register Donaldson Co. supplements (1972, 1992, 2002)
Envelope 2: Original news clippings spanning the years 1957-2017, with an original Grinnell Herald-Register newspaper from Nov 20, 1972.

Donated by: Dan Ziegenmeyer (son of factory manager Charles Ziegenmeyer), June 6, 2017

See also Dan Kaiser blog Grinnell Stories
Link to blog post: https://grinnellstories.blogspot.com/2017/02/when-grinnell-college-built-foundry.html

Name of Preparer: L. Cabelli
Date of Preparation: 11/14/2017