Machine Tool Industry loses icon with passing of J. Kenneth "Ken" Carse

J. Kenneth Carse
September 8,1930 - April 28, 2006

The machine tool industry lost a true icon of marketing leadership with the recent passing of J. Kenneth "Ken" Carse, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Doosan Machinery America, Inc., Sterling Heights, MI. Ken began his career in 1949 at Detroit's Siarto Machine & Tool, honing his skills as a toolmaker. Following service in the United States Coast Guard during the Korean War, he returned to Siarto and balanced his priorities between work and education while earning certificates in mechanical drafting, tool design and die & machine design at Detroit College of Applied Science. Although he enjoyed the design aspects of the metalworking business, he soon realized his penchant for selling into this industry and signed on with R.A.Simmons Co. as a sales representative. During the next 15 years, he held positions in sales engineering at Elox Corporation, Ellison Machinery, Moog Hydropoint and at Volkart Brothers, where he was appointed Vice President, Marketing & National Sales Manager.

Ken joined Bridgeport Machines in 1971, advancing from Director of Marketing to Senior Vice President, Marketing, during the next 8 years and helping strengthen Bridgeport's market place position both here and overseas. He gained special recognition for the marketing success of the company's Series I CNC milling machine, which opened countless shop doors to the productivity advances of CNC machining. He left Bridgeport in 1979 to become Executive Vice President of Gosiger Machinery Co.

In 1981, Ken was asked to oversee the establishment of the North American base for Maho Machine Tool Corporation, now part of DMG. He served first as Executive Vice President and then as President of the new entity, introducing the concept of true Universal Machining to captive and independent plants of all sizes. His mission statements became a hallmark of objective-oriented machine tool marketing. He left Maho after 4 years to serve as marketing consultant to Niigata/G&W, followed by marketing executive positions at Creative Manufacturing Technologies (CMT), Lay Machinery Systems and Haas.

Ken joined Doosan Machinery America, Inc. in 2002 with the task of establishing a strong distributor network, which he did throughout North America, that resulted in a sales performance that exceeded the company's goal each year, reaching more than $20 million in 2005.

Ken traveled extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia for the machine tool industry, was a Senior Member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers for more than 40 years and a proud member of the Oriental Order of Groundhogs since 1980. Ken was a passionate golfer and enjoyed relating stories of his best "lies" at some of the most prestigious courses in the United States. He is survived by his wife, Connie, his sister, Lorraine Gormley, his son, Jim and daughter-in-law Kim and their children Lauren and Kyle, and his daughter, Melanie Last and son-in-law Gary Last and their children Dan, Samantha and Carson.

Ken Carse often referred to his peers in the machine tool business as "the ladies and gentlemen of industry." We have just lost one of the finest of these gentlemen.