April 1, 1996

Revised November 1, 2000

HISTORY OF PROCESS EQUIPMENT COMPANY

Process Equipment Company was established in April, 1944, as a partnership of Walter S. and Margaret C. Smith. Mr. Smith had been Chief Engineer of the Joe Coy Company.

Process Equipment Company took over the Tulsa office of The Marley Company, and became their sales representative for Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle and Northwest Arkansas.

Early orders of note were for the first Carrier absorption machines installed by ONG in The First National Bank Building in Oklahoma City. Richard Swan was the Carrier dealer who sold these units.

It became apparent in 1951 that Mr. Smith was in need of another sales engineer to help relieve his work load. J.T. McKinney, a graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, was employed. It was during this time that air conditioning was going in small businesses and residences, all water cooled until 1954, when air cooling came on the scene. We believe you may even see some of these old cooling towers still in operation in residential areas around Utica Square and Heritage Hills. Owners find that they are a little more economical to operate than air cooled, but when definite replacement is required they tend to go to air cooled.

Jim Chase joined the company in 1953, and served as President of Northeastern Oklahoma Chapter of ASHRAE in 1958. He left Process Equipment Company in 1966 to form his own company here in Tulsa.

In 1955, after serving the Northeastern Oklahoma Chapter of ASHRAE as Chapter President, Jim McKinney moved to Oklahoma City to open a sales office there for Process Equipment Company in order to better serve the Oklahoma City area as well as the southwestern part of the state. He was President of the Central Oklahoma Chapter in 1962.

After Jim Chase left in 1966, C.L. (Chick) Morse was employed. Chick’s responsibility was to handle the ever growing need of engineering and sales for Buffalo equipment of O.E.M.’s in our sales territory and cooling towers for the air conditioning industry. Mr. Morse served as President of the Northeastern Oklahoma Chapter of ASHRAE in 1985, and later went on to serve as Vice Chairman of the Research Promotion Committee.

Peggy Thorsen was employed in 1970 as secretary, and now handles inside sales of repair parts and small towers, as well as the accounting for the Company.

In 1973, Jim McKinney returned to Tulsa from Oklahoma City in preparation of becoming the President of Process Equipment Company when the Smiths retired. Mike Beda, a sales engineer for The Marley Company at the time, was employed to take over the Oklahoma City office.

Mike Beda was President of the Central Oklahoma Chapter of ASHRAE in 1981 and Vice Chairman of Membership Promotion at the Regional level in 1983.

The Smiths retired in 1975.

In 1987, Process Equipment Company became the American Air Filter Company sales representative, and Paul Mannas joined the company to handle the AAF equipment sales. In 1990, Mike Hughes was hired to assist Mike Beda in the Oklahoma City office, and became Office Manager in 1993.

In 1991, Jim McKinney retired.

In 1993, Mike Beda transferred to the Tulsa office, to serve as President of Process Equipment Company.

In 2000, Mike Beda became President of the Northeastern Oklahoma Chapter of ASHRAE, and in 2001, Mike Hughes will be President of the Central Oklahoma Chapter.

The only contractor remaining in Tulsa today, that we have done business with since our inception 52 years ago, is Shoemaker Air Conditioning Company.