Honesty, Integrity, and Resourcefulness Since 1924

The John R. Wald Company has a long, proud history of making it work since 1924, but the story really begins well before that, with the productive union of the Wald and Rodli families that continues still today. In 1910, John Royal Harry Wald, a mechanical engineer, married Emma Luella Gulbrandson. Emma’s sister, Nora, had been married for ten years to a man named Olaf Erling Rodli, and their eldest son, Gilbert E. Rodli, would one day become the second president of the John R. Wald Company. Upon Gilbert’s death, his son Bob continued the family tradition of leading the company. Today, his grandson, Michael Rodli has the honor of holding the sixth presidency of the John R. Wald Company.

When John R. Wald was barely more than twenty years old, in 1918, he became superintendent of the Prison Labor Division of the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, in charge of correctional industries and a champion of prison labor reform. He also patented a special die capable of stamping different numbers and letters on automobile license plates, and later struck out on his own to start a Prison Consulting Service.

Correctional industries prospered throughout the twenties, but recognizing the need to diversify, Wald took advantage of the burgeoning highway systems to open the Prismo Safety Corp that produced beaded reflective paint for road signs and traffic markings. Prismo was later supplemented by another company, Wald Industries, which manufactured highway striping equipment. Within twenty years, highway departments were using the Prismo process all over the nation and in fifty overseas countries.

During the turmoil of World War II, Wald gathered his trained group of industrial supervisors and mobilized their skills for the war effort. He established five ordnance plants, staffed by “Wald’s Girls,” who made bomb and grenade components to contribute to the war effort. In 1943 and 1945 the company was awarded the Army-Navy Production Award for Excellence in War Production for its outstanding service to the United States of America. Thanks to John R. Wald’s initiative and his staff’s impeccable customer service the John R. Wald Company survived during this difficult economic time.

In 1952, one of the original partners since the company’s 1924 inception, Gilbert Rodli became the company president, branding his tenure with the motto, “Easy is for others-our strength is in difficult situations.” Thanks to him, the Wald character of resourcefulness and ingenuity carried on with the strong focus on first-rate customer service. The tireless dedication of successive presidents, Robert Rodli, Glenn Corbin, and Ronald Rinker, saw the John R. Wald Company and its satellite operations continuing to turn difficult situations into workable solutions. The success of the company shows that the proud and valuable one-hundred-year-old connection between the Wald and Rodli families persists to this day.

Making It Work Today and Tomorrow

Today our president, Michael Rodli (pictured left), continues the Wald tradition of expert service and effective problem-solving in numerous industries. We have been involved with over ninety-five percent of all license plate manufacturing operations in America, as well as several foreign countries, but we also are involved in much, much more.

Talented researchers and go-getters, our professional engineers head straight to our vast resources of information and then to the drawing table when they’re presented with a new business venture. One way or another, we make it work.

We have been involved in an extraordinarily broad array of industrial systems, involving: metalworking, woodworking, graphics, textiles, chemicals, vehicles, and service industries. We upgrade, enhance, and devise better systems and processes. At John R. Wald, no matter what your industry may be, our professional engineers dedicate their broad experience, excellent service, and expert problem-solving to making it work for you.

In the future, we will continue this proud tradition of making it work for you. Wald has embarked on a high-tech marriage of traditional and digital technologies. Every day, our company personnel and partners are brainstorming and acting on great ideas, like finding applications for computer technology in industrial systems and in energy production, or mastering environmentally sound waste disposal.

We have always been-and will continue to be-a hardworking, creative firm with the resourcefulness and the know-how to make a great idea work for you. And we’ll do it all with common sense, straightforwardness and good cheer. We care about what we do, and in the end, what it’s all about is giving our customers the best service they could possibly imagine.