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Founded 1912, Duluth — Fort Wayne from 1931
Founded: Zollner Machine Works was founded in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1912 by Theodore Zollner, a machinist who had apprenticed at Twin City Iron Works. In 1931 the firm — a twelve-man force — moved to Fort Wayne's east side.
Founders: Theodore Zollner (died 1952) and his son Fred Zollner (22 January 1901 – 21 June 1982), who ran the company with his sister Janet and built it into a Tier-1 automotive supplier.
What it did: Pistons — first cast iron, then the lightweight aluminium-alloy pistons Fred Zollner championed. The company became supplier of some seventy percent of the world's heavy-duty aluminium-alloy pistons for internal-combustion engines, selling to Ford, General Motors, International Harvester, John Deere and Outboard Marine; at its peak the Fort Wayne foundry employed more than 1,200 people.
Course: The plant doubled in size in the 1930s on war-preparation contracts. Zollner Machine Works became the Zollner Corporation in 1956 and remained family-owned until 1990. Fred Zollner's company teams made the firm famous a second way: the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons basketball team (from 1941) were founding members of the NBA in the 1949 merger Zollner helped broker, and moved to Detroit in 1957 as the Detroit Pistons.
Fate: The company was acquired in 1999 — Wikipedia's Fred Zollner biography gives the buyer as Kolbenschmidt Pierburg AG, with 230 employees at the time; one secondary web history instead names Dana Corporation in 1999. The two accounts are in conflict and are both carried. Piston manufacture continued at the Fort Wayne site under successor owners.
Sources:
- Rodger Nelson, The Zollner Piston Story (Allen County Public Library Foundation, 1995) — Duluth founding; the 1931 move with twelve men; the 1956 Zollner Corporation name; family ownership to 1990; the seventy-percent figure.
- Fred Zollner, Wikipedia — Zollner Corporation formed 1912; Tier-1 customers; 1,200 peak employment; the 1999 Kolbenschmidt Pierburg acquisition.
- Congressional Record, 12 July 1999 — tribute to Fred Zollner (the 1931 move; wartime growth).