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| The History of Harrop Industries |
| In 1919 Carl Harrop, a ceramic engineering professor at The Ohio State University, founded Carl B. Harrop Engineers in Columbus, Ohio. The previous year he had been granted a patent on a new type of car tunnel kiln, and the company's first project was to build two of these kilns to fire vitrified hotel ware for the Chelsea China Company in New Cumberland, West Virginia. Harrop's first tunnel kiln for brick was completed in 1923 for |
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the Ohio Clay Company in Cleveland.
 In 1927 the company incorporated as Harrop Ceramic Service Company, with Carl Harrop as president until his death in 1934. Leadership passed in 1936 to George D. Brush, a civil engineer who had been with Harrop since 1923. Brush retired as president in 1978, handing the reins to Dr. James E. Houseman, who continues to manage the company today. To reflect its growing diversification, the company name was changed to Harrop Industries, Inc. in 1981. That same year, the corporate headquarters moved into its present location on East Fifth Avenue in Columbus, the site of Harrop's fabricating shop and laboratories since 1950.
A distinctive feature of this privately held company has been the stability of its ownership and management. Over its 85-year history, Harrop has had only three CEO's, each of whom shared a continuity of purpose and a commitment to good neighbor business values.
As Professor Harrop was quoted in a 1930 brochure, the company "has been carefully built-up to tender a complete engineering, operating and technical service to the ceramic industry". Times may change, but successful business philosophies endure.
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