From Curious Kid to Head Sprocket

BY KAROLYN BOLAY

WHEN A YOUNG BOY BEGAN TINKERING WITH THE TOOLS IN HIS FATHER’S BLACKSMITH AND MACHINE SHOP IN A RURAL OKLAHOMA TOWN, IT SPARKED A LIFELONG JOURNEY INTO ENGINEERING.

Gus Edwin George “Ed” Malzahn was always known for his inquisitive personality and questioning mind. He even caught the eye of the FBI — which resulted in two visits from the organization to his home for inventions he had developed at the ages of 14 and 17.

“He was just very creative and innovative — even at a young age,” says Tiffany Sewell-Howard, Ed’s granddaughter and executive chair of Charles Machine Works. “He was just so curious. From the time he was able to as a young child, he tinkered.”

After graduating from Perry High School in Perry, Okla., in 1939, Ed went on to attend Oklahoma A&M College, now Oklahoma State University. He completed his degree in mechanical engineering and began to turn the “tinkering” into a successful career.

Ed can also credit OAMC for leading him to the love of his life, Mary Corneil. Ed and Mary were wed May 22, 1943. The two were inseparable and provided an example of the importance of family to all who knew them as a couple.

With the start of a family, Ed began to take the vision of his father, Charles, and develop it into Charles Machine Works. The company began when he noticed residential utility lines had to be laid by hand, the trenches dug slowly with shovels and picks. He set out to change this in 1949 with the Ditch Witch Model DWP Service Line Trencher — his first mechanical trenching machine.

Charles Machine Works went on to produce and sell more than half of the world’s trenching machines today. In fact, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated that first machine a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 2002.

Ed never planned to take his shop worldwide. But that first machine changed the way utility infrastructure was built globally — Charles Machine Works now provides products in 195 countries.

“We always think about Perry, but there is a big impact worldwide by the number of dealerships and the people that work there,” says Sewell-Howard. “We employ close to 4,000 people within the family of companies and the dealer organization. That is a lot of people that this little company that started in Perry touches and impacts on a daily basis.”

Charles Machine Works is well known for its fun and family-like work environment. With family days that bring together employees and their families for food and fellowship to a celebration of Ed’s birthday every year, the company policy remains to have fun.

“The last line of our mission statement is, ‘It’s OK to have fun here,’” says SewellHoward. “He took that to heart. He really fostered that type of environment. He had as much if not more reverence and appreciation for the machinist and the welder on the factory floor to the highest-producing engineer or sales person. He was very relatable and people admired him, looked up to him and loved him.”

Ed was also famous for his spontaneous trips around the halls of Ditch Witch — spreading fun and smiles along the way.

“People would celebrate their birthdays, and he would go blow bubbles as part of their birthday celebration,” says his granddaughter. “I was cleaning out his desk last week, and the bottom drawer of his desk was full of bubbles.”

Ed was recognized throughout his life with awards and left behind an engineering legacy when he passed Dec. 11, 2015. He will continue to influence lives of passion, generosity and innovation. While the business grew to a global scale, Ed never forgot his roots. Charles Machine Works’ global headquarters are based in Perry, and the local community was always important to him.

“He set up a foundation for the benefit of Perry, so we can continue to support all the things that he loved and had a specific interest in,” says Sewell-Howard. “We will continue to support what he wanted to happen here.”

Ed’s generosity helped local organizations, citizens and institutions and extended to his alma mater, as he provided scholarships to students in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at OSU.

“He just wanted to be in service to everything and everyone that helped him achieve what he achieved in his lifetime,” says Sewell-Howard. “He gave to OSU; he gave to Perry; those were the people who supported him through his ups and downs.”

Paige Cloud, graduate assistant for CEAT prospective students, says because of generous donors like Ed, she and other students can pursue college.

“It helps students who can’t afford college and give them scholarships,” says Cloud. “Ed also gave a lot of students the opportunity to work in his company to gain experience.”

“The world will remember him as an innovator but he was so humble and unassuming. He was just a common man who had some great ideas,” says SewellHoward. “Everybody called him — very lovingly — Head Sprocket. It shows he is innovative, but it is still fun.”