Adolf Schoepe

Who was Adolf Schoepe?

Adolf Schoepe was a German-American inventor and businessman.

Schoepe, a master metalworker with no formal education, emigrated to the United States in 1927. At the time he did not speak English, and had only about $25. As a young man he worked for Curtis Aviation in Saint Louis, Missouri then Spartan Aircraft Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He later worked at Goodyear Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, installing power systems in dirigibles for the United States Navy, and at Boeing in Seattle, Washington, building B-17 bombers. He was a foreman at the San Diego Naval Air Station metals shop, and during World War II taught welding to women who were entering the work force.

In 1946 Schoepe and a friend, Karl Rhinehar, founded Gateway Manufacturing Co, bought out a small defunct lock company in South Gate, California, and began manufacturing the Kwikset, a line of doorlocks. Schoepe obtained patents on a number of important technical innovations on lock designs, some of which were the subject of patent litigation. Kwikset, which sold to American Hardware Corporation and ultimately to Black and Decker, became the most common brand of locks in the United States.