Leon Albert "Jake" "The Bullfrog" Swirbul (March 18, 1898 – June 28, 1960), was an aviation pioneer and co-founder of

Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

Biography

Swirbul was born in the Yorkville section of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. His parents Frederiks Zvirbulis and Lena (Dannenberga) Zvirbule were immigrants from Latvia. His family moved to Long Island when he was a child. He grew up in

Sag Harbor Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on eastern Long Island. The village developed as a working port on Gardiner's Bay. The population was 2,772 at the 2 ...

and graduated from Pierson High School. He attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

until 1917 when he left school to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. Jake Swirbul and

Leroy Grumman Leroy Randle "Roy" Grumman (4 January 1895 – 4 October 1982) was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and industrialist. In 1929, he co-founded Grumman Aircraft Engineering Co., later renamed Grumman Aerospace Corporation, and now ...

met in 1924 at Loening Aeronautical Engineering Co. in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, one of the many small aircraft firms that sprang up after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. When the firm's Manhattan factory was closed after its sale to

Keystone Aircraft Keystone Aircraft Corporation was an early American airplane manufacturer. History Headquartered in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the company was formed as "Ogdensburg Aeroway Corp" in 1920 by Thomas Huff and Elliot Daland, but its name was quickly ...

in 1929, Swirbul and Grumman decided to form their own company. Grumman mortgaged his house to contribute $16,875, and Swirbul contributed $8,125. Two other Loening employees, William Schwendler and Edmund Ward Poor, contributed a little and former Wall Street banker E. Clinton Towl made up the fifth employee of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, formed January 2, 1930. Swirbul was the production manager, who understood the dynamics of mass production. He was responsible for the huge output of World War II and was equally adept in ramping down production at the end of the war to ensure the company's survival. Jake found his solutions on a personal, rather than an abstract level. He was always known as a hands on manager who could get the most out of his workers while treating them with friendship and respect. While Roy Grumman was always referred to as "Mr. Grumman", Jake was always Jake and could be seen out on the shop floor conversing with his men, while checking progress. Grumman was the only manufacturer to start the 1950s in the black. Jake Swirbul died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

while ill with colon cancer on June 28, 1960, shortly after Grumman began work on the Gemini program and one month after the roll-out ceremony for the

A-6 Intruder The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was designed in response to a 1957 r ...

. The Swirbul Library at

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

is named in his honor.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* The Grumman Story, by Richard Thruelsen. 1976, Praeger Publishers.

External links

Raising Grumman: How Leroy Grumman and Jake Swirbul built a high-flying company from the ground up.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swirbul, Jake 1898 births 1960 deaths People from Yorkville, Manhattan American people of Latvian descent People from Sag Harbor, New York Cornell University alumni United States Marines Aviation pioneers Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from colorectal cancer Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)