Mark Charles Honeywell (December 29, 1874 – September 13, 1964) was an American electronics industrialist. He co-initiated the eponymous corporation
Honeywell
Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...
and was its first president and
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...
(1927–1933).
Early years and marriage
Honeywell spent his childhood growing up in
Wabash,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th st ...
and
Florida
Florida is a U.S. state, state located in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia (U.S. state), Geo ...
. He had various jobs during his younger years, including working in the citrus and bicycle businesses, and in his father's Wabash mill. He graduated from
Eastman Business College
The Eastman Business College was a business school located in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. It operated from 1859 until it closed in 1931. At the height of its success, the school was one of the largest commercial colleges in the United St ...
in
Poughkeepsie, New York
Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...
, in 1891.
Honeywell was married twice. His first wife, Olive May Lutz, whom he married in 1899, died in 1939 as the result of a fall while on a boating excursion in Florida. In 1942, he married Eugenia (née Hubbard) Nixon, the widow of Don Morrison Nixon, a newspaperman from Wabash, Indiana. Eugenia died on February 8, 1974 in a house fire. Though originally believed to have been a faulty thermostat, the Wabash fire investigator said that there had not been a valve malfunction. In the newspaper ''Wabash Plain Dealer'', fire chief Jack Saril said, "We have not been able to find any other possible causes in the area where we know it started."
Honeywell Corporation
Honeywell developed a hot water home heating system, and by 1905, had installed the system in his house. It was thought to be the first such system in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...
.
The idea of hot water heating came from England. Radiators first came from England, and molds were made from them in Wabash. His business, M.C. Honeywell Heating and Sanitary Work, became Honeywell Heating Specialties Company. By 1906, the company was making thermostats and automatic controls for heating systems.
By 1927, annual company sales were more than $1.5 million, and 450 people worked in the Wabash factory.
Honeywell's main competitor was
W.R. Sweatt and his Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company. The two companies had patents which blocked each other from further growth. They merged to form the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company,
with Sweatt as Chairman and Honeywell as President.
,
Honeywell International, Inc., the corporate descendant of Minneapolis-Honeywell, is a global business with more than 100,000 employees.
Further reading
*
References
External links
Honeywell Corporation webpage about company history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honeywell, Mark C.
Honeywell
American manufacturing businesspeople
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
Businesspeople from Florida
People from Wabash, Indiana
Eastman Business College alumni
1874 births
1964 deaths
Place of death missing
Businesspeople from Indiana
19th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American businesspeople