The company’s first acquisition was made in 1979 when Environmental Technology, Inc. became a part of the Corbin operations. James Watkins was the owner of this small water and coal testing company who desired to join forces with Std Labs and stay on as the manager of the integrated organization. “Jimmy” was a very capable businessman with some technical skills. This was a very successful venture allowing the company to also expand its business into northern Tennessee. Also, under Jimmy, a satellite lab was placed in Middlesboro, Kentucky which lasted about 2 years. Jimmy was followed by his son, Andy, as manager and then Mike Weber became the final manager before the operation was combined with the Jacksboro, Tennessee operation in the early 90’s.
This acquisition of Environmental Technology, as mentioned before, permitted Jan DeMar to move to Henderson, Kentucky and open a lab to service the Mid-America coal fields, Std Labs was then participating in all three mining regions in the United States comprising Appalachian, Mid-American and Western coalfields. The Henderson lab also provided a springboard for the startup of several satellite labs in Indiana, Illinois and Western Kentucky.
Another important event took place in 1979. The joint venture, Precision Samplers, Inc. (PSI) was established . PSI entered the mechanical sampling business under the leadership of Israel Broome and its history is more fully presented in the “Partnership” Section.
This same year a coal lab was established in Toledo, Ohio to service the lake coal traffic and some utilities in the Detroit and Cleveland areas. Its first manager was Joe Halovanic from the Charleston lab and he was followed by Steve Lenhardt, Chuck Vidas, and Jolynn Schraeder over the course of several years.
The “Standard Statement” was created in 1979 to be a communications tool inside the company as the enterprise was becoming quite spread out in both geography and portfolio of services. The editor was Karen Gallagher, the secretary for Troy, who produced a newsletter that listed the company’s personnel moves, new opportunities, accomplishments and, at times, provided some humor regarding happenings in the company. The Standard Statement lasted a number of years until Karen’s responsibilities in other areas became too great to justify her time in this endeavor. See copies of the Standard Statement in Appendix – Article C.
A final activity in 1979 was the initiation of the Standard Labs Round Robin (SLRR) Program and is discussed in the Diversifications Section. The program was specifically designed to provide clients with routine quality control data and to furnish fresh, standard samples for routine in-house check determinations. This program grew over the years to include a water quality control program as well. Eventually, nearly 100 United States coal labs and many foreign coal labs participated in this quality program. The program became a part of the lnterlab program in Technical Services Division, a group that was formed later to market consulting services to coal laboratories.