Rooted in faith and mining, forged a path of his own

The story of how Kenton McElhattan started Industrial Scientific 32 years ago is legendary, if chiseled for maximum effect by generations of employees and admirers.

No doubt it was told again and again in recent days in remembrance of this Pittsburgh titan who died Nov. 23 at Providence Point, an assisted living facility in Scott. He was 95.

The year was 1984 and Mr. McElhattan, then head of National Mine Service Co., a mining machinery supplier, was in Scotland to meet with the firm’s majority owner. Mr. McElhattan wanted to buy a $600 used microscope, but the chief financial officer of the Scottish parent company pushed back. There was a lively debate before Mr. McElhattan reached into his briefcase, pulled out his checkbook and asked to whom he should make out the check to buy the microscope himself.

He returned home not only with the microscope but with a deal to buy, with his son Kent, the industrial safety division of National Mine Service. They built it into the successful firm Industrial Scientific. Earlier this year, the Robinsonbased gas-detection business was sold to Fortive Corp.

It was such a good story, Kent McElhattan said, that people just ran with it. One of the company’s lead trainersstarted adding embellishments. Someone found an old microscope and crowned it as the microscope that launched it all. It still stands in a glass trophy case inscribed with the legend.

The real story, according to Kent, has all the same ingredients but in a slightly different soup.

He may not have arrived home from Scotland with a deal to buy the company, but the seed was already there. Mr. McElhattan knew that his son wanted to start his own business and he, after a successful career as an engineer and executive in the mining manufacturing business, wanted to step back from direct management.

He said if Kent could find another investor, BAKER Mr. McElhattan would BRIAN fund PAUL the rest.

“I thought that was a really good lesson for me,” Kent McElhattan said.

Those lessons trickled down through the generations — Mr. McElhattan’s grandson, Justin McElhattan, took over as president of Industrial Scientific in 2010.

Kenton McElhattan, or K.E. as he was known, grew up in Knox, Clarion County. His father managed the glass factory there and his mother, a homemaker and church pianist, often led her five children in singalongs. Mr. McElhattan inherited her easy warmth, his son said, and his father’s business sense.

“He always said his father was the smartest man he ever knew. And I would say that, too — my father was the smartest man I ever knew,” Kent McElhattan said.

In high school, Mr. McElhattan met Florence Ditty, and getting her interested in him “was his first big sales job,” his son said. After Mr. McElhattan returned from the Army Air Corps after World War II, he landed the deal and the couple married. They had two children, Kent, who lives in Pittsburgh, and Elaine Bonoma, of Concord, Mass.; seven grandchildren; and 14 greatgrandchildren. This year they marked their 71st anniversary. Sharp until the end, Mr. McElhattan remained curious and forward-looking.

When Thomas Sturgeon was installed in 2009 as the Right Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania — the largest Masonic organization in the world — promising an agenda of change that made many old-timers bristle, he invoked in his opening speech the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, Niccolo Machiavelli and his “dear friend,” Kenton McElhattan.

“The next generation must always be the greatest generation,” Mr. McElhattan wrote in his book, “Hurry Up, Son!” It delved into his search for a divine truth. “Knowing how to use the future requires an understanding of the past. We should learn from the mistakes of our ancestors.”

“The next generation must always be the greatest generation,” Mr. McElhattan wrote in his book “Hurry Up, Son!”, which delved into his search for a divine truth. “Knowing how to use the future requires an understanding of the past. We should learn from the mistakes of our ancestors.”

Faith was a huge part of Mr. McElhattan’s life, but it wasn’t a full surrender.

In fact, it “came really hard to him,” his son said. “He was raised in the Christian faith and always went to church, but I felt that he never really bought it. A lot of his life was spent seeking the truth.

“We all felt sure that he’d found it,” he added.

His pastor, Leslie Holmes, now provost at Erskine Theological Seminary in South Carolina, said Mr. McElhattan found it particularly hard to accept the idea of salvation by grace.

“Scientific types, super intellectual types and selfmade men often struggle with that,” he said. “They think, ‘To be saved I need to do good works.’ The problem with that is, you never end up feeling that you’ve done enough good work.”

Mr. McElhattan despised disorder. He once grew so irritated passing by a messy employee’s desk after hours that he felt compelled to swipe all loose papers into the trash.

“The next day, everybody’s desk got remarkably cleaner,” Kent McElhattan said.

Mr. Sturgeon first met Mr. McElhattan when Mr. Sturgeon was police chief in North Fayette. He had sent letters to township business leaders to see whether they’d consider starting a fund for police officers’ education. Mr. McElhattan took to the idea right away but suggested that he be the one to solicit donations.

“You shouldn’t be sending letters out asking for money. Let me do that,” he told Mr. Sturgeon. Their friendship grew from there.

One day, when the fund was getting low, Mr. Sturgeon asked his friend to see about shoring up the fund.

“Any police officer that wants to go to college, I’ll take care of it personally,” Mr. McElhattan said.

After Mr. McElhattan’s death last week, Mr. Sturgeon, 74, who now lives in Florida, dug up a souvenir of Mr. McElhattan’s friendship and wisdom. It’s a term paper Mr. Sturgeon wrote when he went back to school in his 60s. Mr. McElhattan asked if he could read it and then it returned it with dozens of notes covering the pages. Some are nitpicky word-use quips and others are grand ideas.

All are treasured, Mr. Sturgeon said.