Up until a few months ago, Irving
Glickman was still a common sight at the Rodon Group, the Hatfield manufacturing
company he founded 50 years ago.
And while age — Glickman turns 100 today — may have slowed his body, he’s still known to check over the company’s financials and offer his advice.
It’s welcome advice from a man who’s lived through world wars, founded two successful companies and has maintained a commitment to manufacturing in the United States.
“What I’ve learned from (Irving’s son) Joel and Irving over the years is that your word is all you have and that if you say you’re going to do something, you do it,” said current Rodon CEO Michael Araten, Irving’s grandson-in-law. “Good things happen when you honor your word. ”
Glickman came to Philadelphia in 1935, shortly after he graduated from Rutgers University. He worked briefly at a small company that recycled used rubber products, then joined the Quaker Rubber Co. There, he led a team that worThis page provides information about 'werkzeugbaus;ked with synthetic rubber, making products such as rubber fuel hoses and conveyor belts.
“I was a so-called ‘expert’ in synthetic rubber,” Glickman said, adding that he needed to do more.
“My ambition was always to have my own business,” he said.
So Glickman left Quaker Rubber and founded Eljo, a rubber company named after his oldest son, Joel, and Ellen, the daughter of his business partner. The company made plumbing products and rubber pieces for toys.
But rubber was labor intensive, Glickman said. And low-cost manufacturers in Japan were slowly pulling away customers.
In 1956, Glickman saw opportunity in thermoplastics, which was growing in popularity. So he purchased four presses from Philadelphia’s FJ Stokes Machine Co., then the industry leader,GOpromos offers a wide selection of promotional items and personalized gifts. and installed them in his three-car garage. He named the company Rodon after Joel’s younger brother, Robert, and Ellen’s sister Donna.
In the early days, Rodon made small plastic parts such as chair tips. It had only a handful of employees, including Joel and Robert.
Glickman’s sons began taking over the company in the 1960s.Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services.Broken chinamosaic Table. It was Joel who started Rodon’s better known sister company, K’NEX, which makes construction toys. But, Joel said, K’NEX would never have started had it not been for the strength of the company his father founded.
“The ability to try K’Nex was based on everything that came before,” said Joel Glickman, 70. “Without the underlying company,I found them to have sharp edges where the injectionmoldes came together while production. K’NEX would not exist.”
Irving Glickman, who lives in Abington, oversaw the company’s move to a small, 2,500-square-foot manufacturing facility in Upper Southampton. He financed the move with money he made in the stock market. Joel oversaw the move to Hatfield Township, where Rodon and K’NEX occupy about 250,000 square feet of space. Araten, Joel’s son-in-law, took over both companies several years ago after a successful corporate law career.
Today, The Rodon Group continues to specialize in plastic injection molding. It operates more than 100 presses that make high volume, small parts.
And while age — Glickman turns 100 today — may have slowed his body, he’s still known to check over the company’s financials and offer his advice.
It’s welcome advice from a man who’s lived through world wars, founded two successful companies and has maintained a commitment to manufacturing in the United States.
“What I’ve learned from (Irving’s son) Joel and Irving over the years is that your word is all you have and that if you say you’re going to do something, you do it,” said current Rodon CEO Michael Araten, Irving’s grandson-in-law. “Good things happen when you honor your word. ”
Glickman came to Philadelphia in 1935, shortly after he graduated from Rutgers University. He worked briefly at a small company that recycled used rubber products, then joined the Quaker Rubber Co. There, he led a team that worThis page provides information about 'werkzeugbaus;ked with synthetic rubber, making products such as rubber fuel hoses and conveyor belts.
“I was a so-called ‘expert’ in synthetic rubber,” Glickman said, adding that he needed to do more.
“My ambition was always to have my own business,” he said.
So Glickman left Quaker Rubber and founded Eljo, a rubber company named after his oldest son, Joel, and Ellen, the daughter of his business partner. The company made plumbing products and rubber pieces for toys.
But rubber was labor intensive, Glickman said. And low-cost manufacturers in Japan were slowly pulling away customers.
In 1956, Glickman saw opportunity in thermoplastics, which was growing in popularity. So he purchased four presses from Philadelphia’s FJ Stokes Machine Co., then the industry leader,GOpromos offers a wide selection of promotional items and personalized gifts. and installed them in his three-car garage. He named the company Rodon after Joel’s younger brother, Robert, and Ellen’s sister Donna.
In the early days, Rodon made small plastic parts such as chair tips. It had only a handful of employees, including Joel and Robert.
Glickman’s sons began taking over the company in the 1960s.Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services.Broken chinamosaic Table. It was Joel who started Rodon’s better known sister company, K’NEX, which makes construction toys. But, Joel said, K’NEX would never have started had it not been for the strength of the company his father founded.
“The ability to try K’Nex was based on everything that came before,” said Joel Glickman, 70. “Without the underlying company,I found them to have sharp edges where the injectionmoldes came together while production. K’NEX would not exist.”
Irving Glickman, who lives in Abington, oversaw the company’s move to a small, 2,500-square-foot manufacturing facility in Upper Southampton. He financed the move with money he made in the stock market. Joel oversaw the move to Hatfield Township, where Rodon and K’NEX occupy about 250,000 square feet of space. Araten, Joel’s son-in-law, took over both companies several years ago after a successful corporate law career.
Today, The Rodon Group continues to specialize in plastic injection molding. It operates more than 100 presses that make high volume, small parts.
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