REID, JAMES SIMS (22 Nov. 1894-29 Nov. 1981), inventor, manufacturer, and physician, was born in Yazoo County, Mississippi. He received an M.D. degree from the University of Louisville in 1916 and then served as a medical captain in Europe during WORLD WAR I. He came to Cleveland about 1920 where he worked for two years with the Cleveland Board of Health.
His entrepreneurial career began in 1920 when he invented a much-improved gas cap and radiator cap for automobiles and founded the Easy-On Cap Company to manufacture and market his inventions. That company was sold to a forerunner of the EATON CORP. in 1928.
"Doc" Reid then acquired the Standard Products Co. in 1930 to manufacture and market his other inventions, including a greatly improved, flexible window channel, within which automobile windows moved up and down, as well as a revolutionary rotary automobile lock. By 1954, from one to 50 parts developed by Reid could be found on every car. He also made several significant improvements to the M-1 Carbine rile, of which Standard Products was a major producer in World War II.
Standard Products early became, and still is, a world leader in the manufacture and production of automotive window channel and weatherstrip. By 1981, the year of Reid's death, the company had 21 plants, 4,000 employees, and sales of $228,984,000.
Reid and his wife, Felice Marjorie Crowl (1896-1967) had three children: James Sims, George McKay, and Margaret Crowl (Mrs. Werner D. Mueller). Reid died in Sarasota, Florida and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Twinsburg, Ohio.
Last Modified: 10 Jul 1997 05:11:38 PM- Related Article(s)