The Day & Zimmermann is a privately held company in the fields of construction, engineering, staffing and ammunition manufacture, operating out of 150 locations worldwide. Its corporate office is at 1500 Spring Garden Street in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania. Day & Zimmermann has an annual revenue of $2.5 billion, and is ranked by Forbes as one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

History

Early years

The company was founded in 1901 by Charles Day and Kern Dodge, son of

James Mapes Dodge James Mapes Dodge (Manhattan, June 30, 1852 – Germantown, Philadelphia, December 4, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, industrialist and president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1903–04. He is kno ...

, as Dodge & Day, specializing in engineering, shop equipment and management. Later, the scope of the organization was enlarged to include a great deal of engineering and construction work in both the industrial and public-service fields.Engineering magazine,
Charles Day
" Engineering magazine. v.39 1910 Apr-Sep. p. 7; Section: The publisher's announcement, Authors and papers for september 1910. In 1907 another former classmate John Zimmerman joined the firm as partner, and they renamed the firm Dodge, Day & Zimmermann. After Kern Dodge withdrew as partner in 1911 the firm became Day & Zimmermann, incorporated in 1916, In its early years the company came into prominence with the design of the construction of the Gatun Lock System, one of the

Panama Canal locks The Panama Canal locks ( es, Esclusas del Canal de Panamá) are a lock system that lifts ships up to the main elevation of the Panama Canal and down again. The original canal had a total of six steps (three up, three down) for a ship's passage. ...

in 1907. The construction of the Gatun Lock began with the first concrete laid at Gatun, on August 24, 1909, by Day & Zimmermann. In 1914, the company was contracted by the Hershey chocolate company to produce the foil wrapping machines for

Hershey's Kisses Hershey's Kisses is a brand of chocolate first produced by the Hershey Company in 1907. The bite-sized pieces of chocolate have a distinctive conical shape, sometimes described as flat-bottomed teardrops. Hershey's Kisses chocolates are wrapped i ...

Merger with Yoh Services and later years

In 1961, Day & Zimmermann and Yoh Company merged, with Harold L. Yoh becoming president of Day & Zimmerman. In the early 1970s it assisted in the construction of

Veteran's Stadium Veterans Stadium (full name Veterans Memorial Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in New Britain, Connecticut. Opened in 1982, it is dedicated to the soldiers of the city who died in various U.S. wars, particularly Vietnam. The stadium now House ...

in Philadelphia. In 1976, Spike Yoh bought the company from his father and was the CEO for twenty-two years. He graduated from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and one of Duke's facilities is named Duke's Yoh Football Center. In 1998, his son, Hal Yoh, became the company's leader. In that year Day & Zimmermann was the recipient of the National Family Business of the Year award.Bob Brooke, ''The Business Journal'
(1 Jun 1998) Day & Zimmermann's enduring dynasty
One of America's leading producers of ammunition, the company operates several government-owned facilities. In the 2011 financial year, it worked on 351 US Army contracts worth 151.8 million dollars.

Selected publications

* Jeffrey L. Rodengen, Jon VanZile, Sandy Cruz, ''The Legend of Day & Zimmermann,'' 2001. * H. Birchard Taylor, ''Charles Day (1879-1931) Symbol of American Industrial Genius.'' Newcomen Society of North America, 1953. * Harold L. Yoh, ''Day & Zimmermann, Inc: Dedicated to Excellence for Eighty Years, 1901-1981,'' Newcomen Society in North America, 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Day and Zimmermann Ammunition manufacturers Defense companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania Privately held companies based in Pennsylvania Companies based in Philadelphia Manufacturing companies established in 1901 1901 establishments in the United States