Haworth: Big Goals, Bigger Results
A teacher. A hobby. A goal. An unexpected fate.
West Michigan has a rich history of furniture building and woodworking. I grew up near the shores of Lake Michigan in a city called Muskegon. That town was known for lumbering for the last 50 years of the 1800's to the early 1900's. As many as 47 sawmills have been recorded as being in Muskegon during that time. It only makes sense that West Michigan, primarily the Grand Rapids area, became known for making wood furniture and other wood products through the 1900's.
G.W. Haworth was a high school teacher in Holland, Michigan in the 1940's. He taught Industrial Arts. Did you have "shop" class in school? I did in 8th grade and made all kinds of cool things - shelves, jewelry boxes, even a night stand that I just got rid of in the last year! I remember it being one of my favorite classes. Well, G.W. Haworth loved woodworking so much that he started a hobby shop in his garage making special order wood products to sell for money toward his daughter's college fund.
This small side business was so successful that Haworth ended up renting a large plant to work in and store products. By 1948 he left teaching to pursue his woodworking full time, borrowing $10,000 from his parents to launch his company, Modern Products.
The huge break came in 1951 when Modern Furniture won a contract to build movable floor-to-ceiling walls for the United Auto Workers headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. Because of this contract Haworth shifted his focus to office products and changed the company name to, "Modern Partitions," to reflect this new focus.
Business boomed through the 1950's and 1960's. When G.W.'s son, Dick Haworth, returned from service in the Army in 1969 he took over manufacturing and started a new department to develop new products focusing on modular office systems and, with his father, the pre-wired office partition. This was the age of computers and other technologies starting to take over business and all office environments. A new look and new design to office furniture was needed and the Haworth family was ready to fill that need.
What started as a hobby side gig for a teacher in order to help his family send his daughter to college turned into a hugely successful multi-million dollar company, employing many and filling a big need in the industry. Taking it back even a little more, G.W. got the initial investment, the $10,000, from his parents. That was quite a huge amount of money in the 1940's, so how did they have it? Again, it was because of hard work and values. G.W.'s father was a door to door salesman of cosmetics and spices. He worked hard and saved money over many years. Then he invested in his son and his hard work and that made all the difference.
Values. Hard Work. Continuing Innovation. Another West Michigan Success.
Biography Video of GW Haworth - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn67w4nSm8M
If you are looking to purchase a replacement Haworth furniture key, click here. If you don't find the key you need, please let us know, we can likely still make it for you !