Craig Stahl, who passed away in 1996, cut the lettering for this sign using the water-jet technology he invented. He also designed the font. And the humor is classic Craig.
Earlier this week I traveled to Grayling, Michigan, to our late parents’ home that is now a family retreat. We have many fantastic memories from this place, and when I ran across this sign that our brother Craig made years ago, I couldn’t help but smile and appreciate him. Many of the people that work at GroupeSTAHL today never had the opportunity to meet Craig, who passed away in 1996. (Or brother Brian for that matter, since he retired in 2001 and lives with his wife Jan in North Carolina!)
Our brother Craig was the inventor of Water-Jet custom cutting technology in 1984. He had the vision and brilliance to find a way to successfully cut twill and other materials using a computerized, water-driven cutter. And this was during a time when the high-speed computers and all the programs we have at our fingertips today simply didn’t exist. It was a breakthrough technological achievement, one that helped put Stahls’ on the map as a supplier of custom cutting services.
We know he would be so proud to see how far we’ve come, but we couldn’t have done it without him.
An old family photo taken up in Grayling, Michigan. Brother Craig, who passed away in 1996, is on the far left. Brother Brian and his wife Jan (in yellow) are in the middle.