Page 14 - CEMS Summer 2022 Newsletter

GIVING MATTERS
An enduring legacy of entrepreneurship and excellence
New undergraduate scholarship celebrates the life and career of Gil Overson (ChE ’65).
In recognition of the scholarship, dedicated teaching, and professional contributions of the CEMS faculty,
Gil Overson (ChE ’65) has established the Gilbert and Sandra Overson/TMC Industries, Inc. Scholarship for CEMS undergraduate students. This new fund is a legacy intended to promote the educational and entrepreneurial opportunities of undergraduates from Minnesota and
the upper Midwest region who will shape the future profession of chemical engineering and materials science.
Gil began his career with UNIVAC in 1965, where he worked as a materials process engineer, developing and testing the materials used in the first multi-layer circuit boards. In his own words, he started his engineering career “at the dawn of the computer age,” and his professional life has been intertwined with the computer industry.
He then moved to Control Data Corporation in 1970, where he continued working as a materials process engineer in Ferrite Operations, developing and testing materials for linear and square loop ferrites. These ferrites were the building blocks of transformers and small memory cores in computers—the very beginning of computer memory. In 1977, Gil launched his new business, from his family dinner table, which would later become TMC Industries, Inc. His wife, Sandra, supported his new venture by working full-time outside the home while raising their two daughters. Later, she worked for TMC Industries as the company’s human resources and payroll administrator. She continued to serve in those roles for more than 30 years.
He first worked as an independent manufacturer’s representative, selling low pressure vacuum pumps and blowers for Consolidated Vacuum Corporation. He then leased warehouse space and expanded his company’s product offering to include DuPont’s Krytox products, a
family of nonflammable, high- performance lubricants and oils used in manufacturing processes that generate high temperatures. These are used in critical manufacturing applications in a variety
of industries, including semiconductor and chip fabrication, aerospace, and defense. In the process, he discovered his love
for entrepreneurship: he
was energized by being
independent, but he liked working with and around people and being part of a team. While selling
vacuum systems and lubricants, Gil recognized a new opportunity: that he could offer more efficient vacuum distillation services than his customers and suppliers were providing. Based on his research, he decided to launch a new line of services and took an “all-in” risk: he reinvested the full $105,000 commission that he earned from his largest sale to date, to purchase eight used centrifugal molecular stills—all the stills that he could afford, from Kodak, when Kodak phased out of its vacuum systems business. This investment launched TMC Industries’ reclamation and short path thin film distillation services line.
For the next forty years, he continued to research and develop more advanced thin film distillation processes. Today, TMC Industries is one of the longest-serving distributors of DuPont’s Krytox materials worldwide and continues to distribute other high-performance lubricants and solvents in the same and expanding markets. In addition, through investment, research, and development, TMC Industries continues to
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Gil Overson
14 www.cems.umn.edu