Fall 2005 - The Greater Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce

Rick Urschel
Vice President of Operations/
Corporate Secretary
Urschel Laboratories
According to its website, Urschel Laboratories began “when
William Urschel designed the Gooseberry Snipper in 1910 to
remove the stem and blossom ends from gooseberries. The
Gooseberry Snipper was a grand mechanical triumph that
signaled the start of a small company in Valparaiso, Indiana
that would later become Urschel Laboratories, Inc., known
worldwide for precision-engineered size reduction equipment.
The company, to this day, is still owned
and operated by direct descendants of
William Urschel.” Rick Urschel is
pleased and proud to be a part of that
legacy.
“I used to work around the shop
even when I was a real little kid,” Rick
said. I used to sweep floors, and watch
guys run their machines and hand them
tools and things like that. As life went on it just seemed like it
was the right place for me to be.”
After attending Northview Elementary, Ben Franklin
Middle School and Valparaiso High School, Rick headed out of
town to Purdue. “I wanted to get away from the name,” he
said. “Otherwise I would have been saying I went to VU and
got my degree from the Urschel Hall of Business.” He
graduated from Purdue with a BS in Management and went to
work at Urschel Labs.
“This has always been my family,” Rick said. “There are
guys who worked in the shop when I was young and I worked
out there who have helped to raise me, too. I’ve always felt like
it just fit to be here. I could never see myself in any other role.”
Rick believes the company’s legendary commitment to
creating a business environment where everyone feels like
family is a crucial component of its success. “Most people who
come to work here hire in for life. And never in the company’s
history have we ever laid anybody off. Our philosophy has
always been that we will pay our employees a higher than
average wage with the expectation that they will continue to
perform in a higher than above average way. There are a lot of
people who have worked here 20, 30, 40 years. Some
companies have removed themselves from the thing that I
was always taught made the business the strongest, and that’s
the people.”
One hunded percent of Urschel’s employees are from
Northwest Indiana’s skilled labor pool. Growing up, Rick
learned lessons about retaining that employee base. “My
grandfather worked here for sixty-some years. He grew up in
this business. He never really retired and up until he died in
1996, every Friday he would walk around the shop and say
good morning to everyone. He knew every single person in the
plant by name, 200-220 people.”
One of the things the company does to promote that family
feeling is sponsor an employee Open House, which usually
coincides with the opening of a new plant operation. “We open
the doors and run limited machines so employees can show
their families what they do and feel proud about what they do.”
In other words, the Open House enables Urschel to extend its
family feeling beyond its walls and out into the community.
Rick believes that as a community, Valparaiso works hard
to promote that family atmosphere with a widespread
commitment to volunteerism. He is a Rotarian, has served on
the Board of Directors for the YMCA and currently helps out
with the Hilltop Neighborhood House annual campaign.
“There are many people in this community who are willing to
help out. And so when they call and ask you to help, it’s difficult
to say no because you know you’ll get such a great feeling of
fellowship. You look at the other people on their list and you say
‘I know them all. Of course I’ll do it.’”
This is also a community where the city government is
profoundly interested in helping
business grow. “They are very
agreeable to economic development.
We’ve approached the city council
before for tax breaks on construction
projects. They are always open to
hearing those ideas because they
realize this is the way the city grows.”
Available air transportation is
another strong business advantage.
“You can have people fly into Midway or O’Hare, spend the day
in Valpo and fly out. The Gary airport is so close. South Bend
isn’t very far away and that’s another big airport. Or, if people
have the means to do it, they can fly into the airport here which
is a fantastic facility.”
Rick has plenty of first-hand experience with Valparaiso’s
Porter County Airport. “I spend a huge amount of time flying
and it is actually one of the busiest non-towered airport in
Indiana. The runways and grounds are always in great
condition, they have a great training facility; this airport’s got
it all. It’s also very close to Chicago air space so you can still
train in this area but if you want to fly with the big boys you
don’t have to fly for an hour and a half to get there. It’s twenty
minutes away.
“We have a lot of people overseas who come to Valpo to
train and so I’ll take them for a plane ride. We’ll fly up along the
lakeshore, land at Schaumburg, have dinner and then I’ll fly
them back, and in 45 minutes we land here. The airport is a
vital component of the city and it should be a good draw for
some of those industries with corporate jets flying in and out.”
Rick looks forward to the day when his job is no longer, as
he puts it, “Vice President in Charge of Waiting for my Dad to
Retire.” He knows his family’s company, and his community,
hold a future full of promise and opportunity.
“People start to work here and they stay here, and that
creates a great feeling of community. It’s just a great place to live
and to work and to grow up.”
William Urschel,
at right with an
experimental
red beet and
carrot harvester.
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