Gordon E. Hines

Who was Gordon E. Hines?

Gordon Eugene Hines was an inventor of hard-bearing balancing machines and other balancing technologies.

Gordon Eugene Hines was born in Chicago, Illinois to Mabel and Rufus Hines who were originally from Nova Scotia, Canada. His father and his uncle, Robert Hines, emigrated to the United States when jobs became scarce in Canada. His mother and sister both died when he was four, and his father later married Margaret Morrison who helped raise him.

Following graduation from William Howard Taft High School in 1948, he enlisted in the United States Army. He continued serving in the Army Reserve while attending the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he completed a B.S. in Liberal Arts & Sciences in 1956. While in Chicago he was secretary of the Wilson YMCA, bike raced in Chicago’s Kenosha Park, sang professionally with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and was active in Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. He married Mavis Offner on November 15, 1958.

Hines began his career working for Al Bagge and Ralph T. Buscarello at Electronic Dynamic Balancing Company, selling Stewart-Warner driveshaft balancing machines to the automotive industry. Based on feedback from customers, Hines made requests to Stewart-Warner for modifications to the machine design, but the company did not respond quickly enough so he started modifying the machines on his own before selling them. In November, 1965 Hines and Al Bagge were co-awarded a patent for automatic centering of parts.