The Gasser Chair Company and the Gasser
Family have been long-time supporters of both Youngstown State
University and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
For their generosity, the Gasser Family is being
recognized as the 2015 Penguin of the Year.
The family annually supports all of our Penguin
Club events in many ways. In addition, for over two decades they
have supported YSU’s football team as a game program
advertiser. The Gasser’s are one of the select
companies and families that are members of the Scholarship Loge
Family – cheering on the football team from atop Stambaugh
Stadium in the Scholarship Loge complex.
In November, the family and YSU announced the
creation of the George E. Gasser Scholarship as part of the YSU
Athletics Scholarship Endowment fund. The scholarship will be
awarded annually to a student-athlete who is enrolled in the
Williamson College of Business Administration.
Many of YSU’s athletic facilities,
including the Jermaine Hopkins Academic Center, the Watson Family
Sports Media Center and the football conference rooms, are
furnished with chairs from the Gasser Chair company. They have
always been willing to provide YSU student-athletes, coaches and
staff with first-class furnishings as part of the athletic
facilities on campus.
Accepting the award on behalf of the Gasser
family is Mark Eugene Gasser, the sixth of George and Janet’s
eight children.
Mark and his wife, Jennifer Lam-Gasser, reside
in Hubbard. They have three beautiful daughters: Alison – a
sales agent in Los Angeles, Calif.; Taylor – a graduate
student at the University of Cincinnati; and Marquette – a
student at Miami (Ohio) University.
Mark, President and member of the Board of
Directors of the Gasser Chair Company, is actively involved in
other family business interests: Gasser Associates, Chestnut Ridge
Park and Mastercraft Industries. He also finds time to serve on the
Stambaugh Auditorium Board of Directors and is currently Chairman
for their Capital Campaign; he serves on the Board of Directors of
Compass, formerly the Burdman Group, having twice served as Board
President; and he’s the incoming President of the Board of
Directors for Goodwill Industries.
The Gasser Family’s success and work ethic
dates back to the early 1900’s.
Eugene and Bertha Gasser were parents of the
Gasser Chair Company’s three founders: Louis, Roger and
George.
Bertha Labbé was born and raised in
Paris, France; Eugene Gasser was from a small town near Basel,
Switzerland. They were married in a small town in eastern France,
just across the border from Basel, Switzerland, where Eugene worked
as a machinist. The company he worked for was purchased by a
company in New York, and Eugene transferred to the U.S.
company’s operation in 1907. Soon thereafter the New York
company was purchased by Commercial Shearing and Stamping Company
in Youngstown, Ohio, and Eugene and Bertha moved to Youngstown.
Bertha managed the family finances; she bought
and managed several rental properties to increase their family
income. After living in town for a few years, close enough to the
factory that Eugene could walk to work, they bought a small farm in
Liberty Township and with the help of a neighbor built a two-story
house. To support the growing family, they had several cows, pigs
and chickens, as well as a small garden, apple orchard and several
other fruit trees.
They had six children; Roger was the first in
1912, followed by Louis, Marcel, Nathalie, John and finally George
in 1929.
Early in 1946, the Gasser brothers set up a
small business, in a two-story barn owned by their mother, to
provide fabricating services for local companies, such as
fabricating steel window sashes, assembling aluminum window frames
for house trailers, and welding parts together to make aluminum
beer kegs. At one time their technical skills and reputation
for quality work earned them a contract to fabricate custom parts
and assemble a prototype one-man helicopter.
Driven to develop their own product line, the
brothers began manufacturing aluminum-frame tables and chairs,
selling these locally as residential dinette sets. This led
to the development of a line of commercial chairs for hotels and
restaurants that was marketed successfully for years under the tag
line: ‘Dura Line… a chair for every situation’.
As the second generation of family became more involved in business
operations, a new tag line was introduced: ‘Comfort Zone
Seating… Only if you want the finest’. Currently, with
Mark Gasser as President, it is: ‘Gasser chairs don’t
merely perform, they dazzle.’
In the mid-1950’s, George happened upon a
unique and fortuitous opportunity on a sales trip to the West
coast. In a casino in Reno, Nevada, he noticed that some players
were constantly taking barstools away from the bar to sit at a slot
machine. He noticed that those players who were seated would tend
to play longer than those who were standing. But he also noticed
that the barstools were too tall to sit comfortably at a slot
machine. So he took a few measurements, returned to Ohio and
designed the first backless stool specifically engineered to use at
slot machines.
However, this was not easy to sell the concept
of seating at slot machines because adding this required floor
space, not to mention the additional cost for the seating. George
offered to provide a few stools to the casino to ‘test
drive’ and after a short period of time, the casino placed an
order for several more of what became known as ‘slot
stools’. That ultimately led to the development of a complete
line of seating specifically designed and engineered for the gaming
industry (when the gaming business was limited to Nevada).
Subsequently, as the gaming industry grew and expanded beyond
Nevada, this provided a great opportunity for the company to grow.
And as Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the
story.”
Gasser Chair Company remains a family owned
business, managed by second and third generation family members
along with highly skilled people in all aspects of the business
that proudly continue the founders’ philosophy of developing
innovative solutions for customer seating requirements, skillfully
manufacturing the finest quality product and providing service
above expectations.
The Company’s Mission Statement is:
“To be the first choice for quality commercial seating by
providing products and services that exceed customer
expectations.”; its Vision Statement: “Gasser Chair
Company will be a trustworthy organization attentive to the needs
of all stakeholders; a team of motivated, passionate people who
encourage personal growth while promoting a safe, pleasant and
productive workplace.”; and its Principles Statement:
“At all times we will be professional with honesty and
integrity above reproach; treating everyone with dignity and
respect.”
These philosophies guide the company and the
family as each continues to grow.
