When I saw the LCN digital calendar page for February I wondered about the LCN employee featured on it – Brad May, a Princeton, Illinois native who has been with LCN for his entire career. We asked Brad to answer some questions about his time with LCN, and he generously obliged:
Q: What made you want to apply to work at LCN?
A: Growing up in Princeton it was always known that LCN was a great place to work, and when I decided to take some responsibility for my future, I applied. At that time, knowing someone always helped get an interview and my break came from Wayne Bickett. He was the supervisor over the machine shop and recognized my name from knowing my father. I was called in for an interview in July 1988 and was hired on a temporary basis. After two weeks, I was hired on permanently.
Q: Tell us about how you started with LCN.
A: I started in 1988 working in the Heat Treat department, loading and unloading pistons and pinions from the heat treat furnace on second shift. I was 20 years old. I worked in the Heat Treat Department for about a year and put in for a transfer to the drill press department. I took this job because it was incentive-based, to make more money.
Q: Do you remember anything interesting about your early days at LCN?
A: One of my first memories came on my second day working at LCN. Tom Lasier, the president of the company at the time, came out to the shop and introduced himself and welcomed me to the company. From that point forward, I knew why LCN was a great place to work.
Q: Since joining LCN, what other positions have you held?
A: In 1991 I transfered from the drill press department to the shipping department, still on second shift. This job change allowed me to start going to our local community college during the day. My first class was a Saturday morning drafting class and absolutely loved it. I continued engineering-based studies until I graduated from the community college in 1994.
In 1994, I was asked to continue working second shift but in the Engineering Department, transferring pencil drawings to CAD. Once this project was complete, I was promoted into the Engineering Department as a CAD Technician, developing parts drawings and instruction sheets.
In 1995, I starting working in the engineering test lab and eventually managing the lab and all testing. At this time, I decided to continue my education at Bradley University on a part-time basis. I was allowed to flex my time to accommodate my class schedule and the hour-long commute to school.
In 1998, I moved out of the test lab and began supporting other engineers with designs and working with our suppliers regarding design intent.
In 2005, I graduated from Bradley University which allowed me to take on larger engineering design projects. My first big project was the 1261 closer design.
In 2009, I was promoted to an engineering lead role in which I continue to support current product designs but am also responsible for CAD & engineering change activities.
Q: How did LCN (and Ingersoll Rand) help you throughout your career?
A: LCN provided full support in my education endeavor by allowing me to flex my time along with full tuition reimbursement if adequate grade were achieved.
Many thanks to Brad for sharing his story with us. Download the February calendar page, and get ready for Promo Day on February 14th. The first 50 people to email a little door closer love to LCN (after 11 a.m.) will receive a Real Deal t-shirt!
Here are a few of the comments submitted in January about why people love LCN:
The best part about LCN is they will go above and beyond what other companies will do. I needed operators painted a custom color and LCN stepped up and accepted the order. Job went great. From customer service to tech support it is a pleasure dealing with LCN. We replace very few defective closers and LCN stands behind their product and in today’s world that is worth something.
I love LCN because it is all about the people behind the product. From the person on the line, to the person sending out the product, to the person in Tech Support or Customer Service or the Rep walking into our office. All those people, as well as the ones we don’t deal with daily, combine to make LCN the best possible closer in the industry.
What I love about LCN is their order accuracy. What I order from LCN is what they ship, no need for RGA’s & “do-overs.”
As WE know, LCN stands for: Last Closer Needed!!!!!
If you think it’s odd to use “love” and “door closer” in the same sentence, you need to get to know LCN! 😀
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Great Post Lori! Although, I guess I’m a little biased huh? I think most people would be pretty amazed to know how much history there is in Princeton, IL. And how many of our business leaders, similar to Brad, started their career at LCN.
A little more about the calendar… The smaller picture in the calendar is an image we shot of Brad and Terry in our test lab in Princeton. Terry is coming up on his 27th year at LCN! The test lab has over 50 functioning doors that are used for continual test inspection to ensure our products perform to code and customer expectations. Also, anyone who attends our LCN Factory Trainings get to spend time in the lab with Terry. It’s a great hands on look into the time and effort we put into quality.
Thanks again for the post. Keep at it!
hello Lori and Joseph, I agree with Joseph, another great post by Lori! 😀
Joseph, how I wish I lived “closer” to the factory, I would love to attend the factory training sessions and meet all the great people at the factory, appears in the photo they are both checking on one of the operators/closers that are on the test doors in the lab (both seem to be looking up and brad is reaching up at something. 27 years is quite a long time, it really shows (LCN’s old motto) “passion makes perfect” and still shows that all or most of the people that work for IRCO/LCN have a passion for what they do and do really good at it.
Princeton, IL seems to have alot of history with door controls and ingersoll rand security division.
Princeton, NJ has fame because it was the town that the famous Albert Einstein once lived, as well as alot of fame because of Princeton University.
-Jess the door closer doctor