Tinkham Veale

Tinkham "Tink" Veale II, who was the founder and driving force behind the highly diversified 1960's conglomerate Alco Standard Corporation and a major area philanthropist, died peacefully at his home in Gates Mills of natural causes on September 18 at age 97. Veale is best known in business for founding the Pennsylvania-based Alco Standard Corporation. Alco Standard was the result of a merger of Alco Oil and Chemical Company with V&V Associates, a company he founded in 1960 with his younger brother George and classmate John Vaughan , to invent, manufacture, and sell industrial appliances and equipment. Though an engineer, Mr. Veale always gave credit in his companies to practicing engineers, like his father and John Vaughan, stating that he himself was a salesman. The merger set into motion a partnership strategy fostered by Veale, who prided himself on the many entrepreneurs and employees made successful by Alco. The success of Alco was based on buying small, privately owned companies with cash and Alco stock, and introducing employee ownership plans that reached deep into these companies making the proprietors and many key staff his "partners." By 1968, 52 separate companies had been acquired in this manner expanding Alco's interests into four distinct areas: chemical, electrical, metallurgical, and distribution. By 1983, Alco Standard had grown to over $8 billion in revenue. Following this success, Alco Standard was split in 1996 to form two public companies, IKON Office Solutions and Unisource Worldwide Inc. Veale was born in Topeka, KA. When he was six, his family moved to the Cleveland area where his father, also an engineer, joined Eaton Corporation. Veale returned to Kansas for his first job at age sixteen, working in the oil business. He later followed his father's educational path, graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering from Case Institute of Technology in 1937. In 1941, after working for General Motors, Avery Engineering, and Reliance Electric, he bought a stake in an engineered goods manufacturer, which prospered during and after World War II. He married Harriett Ernst in 1941. In a position to retire at a young age, Veale took a break from corporate America to own and race thoroughbred horses, a love that continued throughout his life. He sold his horses to avoid the appearance of conflict when he acquired Ellis Race Course, one of Kentucky's four thoroughbred tracks, in 1989. Veale, with visiting friends and grandchildren, could often be seen enthusiastically supporting Ellis during its annual racing season every summer until 1998 when Churchill Downs acquired both Ellis and Veale's training facility, the Kentucky Horse Center in Lexington. Veale was most recently the Chairman and principal shareholder of HTV Industries, Inc., a private holding company he founded in 1978 with his wife, to hold their venture capital and other private investments. Characteristic of his fascination with innovative ideas and the broad range of his interests, those investments over time included biotech, high tech, and a computer system payment delivery company as well as manufacturing and the Kentucky Horse Center. Headed by its president Daniel P. Harrington, HTV is headquartered in Pepper Pike, OH, and, consists of diversified business holdings that include manufacturing and technology companies. Over the course of his life, Veale was a constant supporter of his friends, family and alma mater. His transformative leadership gifts to Case Western Reserve University have been utilized to build, enhance, and maintain the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center and the Veale Natatorium. In 2010, Veale led the gift financing for the construction of the Tinkham Veale University Center, which students have prospectively nicknamed "The Tink". The 82, 000 square-foot student center will include meeting spaces, classrooms, dining areas and a 9, 000 square-foot ballroom. Together with his wife until her death, Veale funded and personally managed, The Veale Foundation, which provides financial assistance to many organizations in which they believed, primarily in Greater Cleveland. In addition to notable gifts to Case, The Veale Foundation was the lead donor for the Veale Wellness and Aquatic Center at Breckenridge Village, a not-for-profit retirement community in Willoughby, OH. In 2012, The Veale Foundation awarded grants to eight Greater Cleveland private high schools as part of its Veale Youth Entrepreneurship Forum, which was established to inspire entrepreneurship through exceptional education opportunities. Mr. Veale received the Silver Bowl Award from the Case Institute of Technology in 1980, the Gold Medal Award from the Case Alumni Association in 1982, and the President's Award for Distinguished Alumni in 1998. He was a lifetime member of the Case Reserve Athletic Club, which presented him with its first-ever Olympian Award in 1997. In 2003, he received the University Medal, the university's highest honor. Mr. Veale was a member of The Chagrin Valley Hunt Club and The Union Club. Veale was preceded in death in 1998 by Harriett, his wife of 51 years. He is survived by his three children, Harriett Veale Leedy of St. Louis, Tinkham Veale III of Villanova, Pennsylvania, and Helen Veale Gelbach of Gates Mills, and by seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Private family services will be Saturday at Fair Elm. A memorial service is planned for a future date. Memorial contributions may be made to the Gates Mills Historical Society, P.O. Box 191, Gates Mills, OH 44040 or to The Memorial Fund of Fairmount Presbyterian Church, 2757 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Hts., OH 44118. Arrangements are by Brown-Forward Funeral Home in Shaker Heights.


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