CLAMP-SWING - Key Persons

Al Ornellas was listed in the handwritten Company ledger books as a "temporary" employee in 1928. He retired 53 years later in 1981. Trained as a hardwood floor installer, he was a master craftsman who could do anything he was called to do in the factory and do it in half the time as anyone else. And it was always done right.

Austin Thurman grew up in Tennessee with only a grade school education but he was a 3-dimensional genius. Beginning in 1982, he headed up the Tool & Die Department for 15 years. He built most of the new stamping dies and assembly machines during this key period as we rapidly expanded with new products.

David Garfinkle "retired" in 1979, three years after his grandson, Ben, joined the family business. David had devoted 55 of his 87 years to Clamp-Swing. He only reduced his workload due to failing health, and remained active in the company business until his death on December 16, 1979.

Laura Martinelli was hired after she graduated from Alameda High School in 1948. Clamp-Swing was the only place she ever worked and she was the only employee to work in all three locations. She started in the factory and later moved into the office where she was the billing clerk for over 30 years. She retired in 2004 after 56 years with the Company.

Wil Garfinkle, David and Diana's eldest child, was the first of his generation to graduate from college. He picked up his father's torch and provided the guidance to keep us moving forward. His father's rough Eastern European temperament was replaced with his own easy going ways. He would do anything to take care of a customer, regardless of size or the potential payoff. His wife Wilma, besides raising four boys during the halcyon days of the post war period, became the Company bookkeeper until she retired in the 1980's.