Randolph Engineering
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| Industry | Eye-wear |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1972 |
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Key people
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Peter Waszkiewicz, CEO |
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Number of employees
|
50 |
| Website | http://www.randolphusa.com |
Randolph Engineering, Inc., located in Randolph, Massachusetts, manufactures and sells Made in the USA sunglasses, shooting eyewear, and prescription frames. Randolph Engineering, Inc. is also the prime contractor for aviator sunglasses to the United States military.
Jan Waszkiewicz and Stanley Zaleski formed the company in 1972 in Randolph, MA where the company remains to this day.
Jan Waszkiewicz was born in Poland but he and his family fled Poland on Christmas Eve 1939 after the Germans overran Poland. His long journey took him through Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy and into southern France. He joined the French Army but soon was captured and became a prisoner of war for three months.
He soon escaped and fled into Switzerland and then on to England where he joined the English Army and later became a Royal Air Force navigator flying 32 bomber missions. At the end of the war he had heard a lot of stories about America and settled in Boston because it was culturally similar to Europe.
After arriving in Boston he continued his education at Northeastern University and got a job as a tool and die maker. He later found employment at the American Optical Company and then Marine Optical.
Convinced that he could design and manufacture better eyeglass frame manufacturing equipment he and his partner Stanley Zaleski formed Randolph Engineering, Inc. in 1972.
The company originally focused on designing and manufacturing optical tools and machinery for the production of eyewear. Waszkiewicz and Zaleski designed and made most of the machinery in their plant, but over time the company turned its attention to making its own eyewear, using the tools and machinery designed and manufactured by the company itself.
In 1977, Randolph Engineering obtained its first government contract. By 1982, they had become the prime contractor for military-style aviation flight glasses for the U.S. Department of Defense. With 68 employees, 200,000 pairs of sunglasses were made for the Navy, Air Force, and Army that year.
Since that time they have provided eyewear for many government agencies ranging from sunglasses for air force pilots to eyewear for submarine personnel. In the early 1990s sales were expanded to offer their products to the consumer marketplace. By August 2008, the company had expanded its eyewear offerings to include other specialty lines of sunglasses for police, security personnel, outdoor sports enthusiasts and other sight critical occupations and outdoor enthusiasts.
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Wikipedia