Joseph Sunnen (June 16, 1897–April 1979) was an American machinery manufacturer, and founder of the

Sunnen Foundation {{Notability, Companies, date=July 2020 The Sunnen Foundation is a charitable foundation which was established by machinery manufacturer Joseph Sunnen in 1953. The foundation is managed by a board of trustees made up of Sunnen family members and c ...

Biography

Sunnen was born in the coal mining town of

Thayer, Illinois Thayer is a village in Sangamon County, Illinois, United States. The population was 693 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Thayer is located at (39.539071, -89.761008). According ...

. He left school in the 7th grade to help on the family farm. At age 17, he purchased a

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

with family savings, however, this failed and his brother Gus offered him employment in his automobile garage in

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In 1923, at age 21, Sunnen applied for his first of nearly 100 patents, a

valve lifter A tappet is most commonly a component in an internal combustion engine which converts the rotating motion of the camshaft into linear motion of the valves, either directly or indirectly. An earlier use of the term was for part of the valve gear ...

tool, marking the beginnings of Sunnen Company. However that same year he was nearly killed in a work explosion which burnt most of his body, and spent a year recovering. He returned to his brother's garage for employment and while in Mexico, Missouri, met and married Miss Cornelia Mille

They moved to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

to pursue Sunnen's manufacturing ambitions in 1924. There Sunnen converted a 1916

Hupmobile Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1939 by the Hupp Motor Car Company of Detroit. The prototype was developed in 1908. History Founding In 1909, Bobby Hupp co-founded Hupp Motor Car Company, with Charles Hastings, for ...

into a camper and set out on the road to sell 500 of his new valve lifter tools. They sold two or three tools a day until they reached

Mankato, Minnesota Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, Blue Earth, Nicollet County, Minnesota, Nicollet, and Le Sueur County, Minnesota, Le Sueur counties in the state of Minnesota. The population was 44,488 according to the 2020 United States ...

where a large distributor of shop tools bought his remaining stock and placed an order for 1,000 additional tools. Following the trip, Sunnen returned home to build his manufacturing business around the auto engine rebuilding trad

The Sunnen Company grew to become a renowned global manufacturer of precision honing devices, and holds a position of global prominence to this day. In 1946, Joseph Sunnen made a generous donation to the

Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

, and subsequently formed the

for further charitable projects. Sunnen's children and grandchildren continue to use the Sunnen Foundation as a vehicle for charity, with a particular emphasis on

First Amendment rights The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the f ...

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows: Reproductive rights rest on t ...

, and youth services.

References

* Junior Achievement: St. Louis
Joseph Sunnen
* Manufacturing Centre: Last Cut
On the Road with the Founder: Joe Sunnen
* YMCA of the Ozarks: History
YMCA of Greater St. Louis Camping History
* St. Louis Business Journal

June 26, 1998, by Allyson Mccollum American manufacturing businesspeople 1897 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople People from Sangamon County, Illinois People from Mexico, Missouri 20th-century American inventors {{US-business-bio-1900s-stub