Louis Bettcher

Early years

Louis Andrew Bettcher, Jr. was born May 7, 1914 in Electra, Texas. His father, Louis A. Bettcher, Sr., who died when Louis was 8 years old, was a Church of Christ preacher who had studied engineering before switching to the ministry. His mother, Cora Lee Hall Bettcher, who lived to the age of 93, was a school teacher and lecturer. From the age of eight through his high school years, he was raised in the town of Elyria, Ohio.

He worked on truck farms doing general farming, butchering and blacksmithing until he graduated from high school in 1931. In 1932, Bettcher hitchhiked to the state of Arizona where he worked as a cowboy. He was also a woodcutter, a hard rock miner, and a laborer building mule trains used at the Grand Canyon.

Returning to Elyria in 1936, Bettcher was employed as an apprentice tool and die maker. He also started taking night courses at Fenn College (now Cleveland State University). During 12 years of night school, he studied machine tool design, metallurgy and business. Throughout his life, he had a fascination with how things work and how they could work better, which led him to design, engineer and manufacture machinery and tools that became commercial successes. In a 1988 newspaper interview, Bettcher stated, “Even as a child, everyone called me an inventor.”

First years in business

At the age of 29, Bettcher established Bettcher Dieweld Company with a starting capital investment of $800. Founded in 1944, the business was a small machine shop located in the meatpacking district on Cleveland’s West Side. The company’s first products were jigs, fixtures, tools, dies and special machinery. “I made $883 profit my first week, but there were also tough times. I believed in myself, so I didn’t give up when times got rough,” he would later recall.

During World War II, it was nearly impossible for the meat processing plants operating in the area to purchase new equipment. Because the company was located near several meat processing plants, Bettcher Dieweld was called upon to keep the old machinery running through repairs and maintenance.

During one of these repair visits, Bettcher was told that if just a few ounces of meat on a carcass could be saved instead of lost to scrap, it could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of increased yield and profits each year. With this knowledge as his inspiration, Bettcher invented and began to manufacture new machinery as World War II ended. One such tool was the Bettcher Carcass Splitter, a highly efficient band saw.

Invention of handheld powered meat trimmers

In 1954, Bettcher invented a handheld powered circular knife and introduced it to meat processing plants. Originally called the “Dumbutcher,” this name was quickly dropped in favor of the more appealing “Whizard” brand name. Today there are thousands of Whizard trimmers in use throughout the world, and the company, today named Bettcher Industries, Inc., is a leading worldwide manufacturer of precision cutting and trimming tools for the meat processing industry and industrial applications.

Bettcher’s inquisitive mind and innovative approach to precision equipment design resulted in more than 400 patents to his name.

Later years

Bettcher led Bettcher Industries until 1986 and retired as chairman of the board in 1987. He remained on the company’s board of directors until his death in 1999. In addition to his business activities, he was involved in the community. He was an active supporter of the Boy Scouts and received the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen Award in 1988. He and his family also endowed the Bettcher Convocation Center at Lake Ridge Academy in North Ridgeville, Ohio, established as a center for educators, religious leaders and philosophers to study complex ethical and moral issues.

In a 1969 newspaper interview, Bettcher spoke of how his own father had advised him “not to work or try to create things solely for the love of money. Do it with the thought in mind of how much good you can do for the most people. This opens up the creative channels.”

Louis Bettcher died on December 14, 1999 at the age of 85.