Preston Fleet

Who was Preston Fleet?

Preston Mitchell Fleet, nicknamed Sandy, was the founder of Fotomat. Fotomat was a once-widespread retail chain of photo development drive-thru kiosks located in shopping center parking lots. He was a son of aerospace pioneer Reuben H. Fleet.

Fleet founded Fotomat in San Diego, California in the 1960s; the first kiosk was opened in Point Loma in 1965. The company went public in 1971 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1977. At its peak around 1980 there were over 4,000 Fotomats throughout the United States, primarily in suburban areas. Fotomats were distinctive for their pyramid-shaped gold-colored roofs and signs with red-lettering, usually positioned in a large parking area such as a supermarket or strip mall, as the Fotomat huts required a minimal amount of land and were able to accommodate cars driving up to drop off or pick up film.

He was a co-founder of San Diego's Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and Space Museum He helped design the Science Center to have a special movie projector, Omnimax, housed in a dome wall and ceiling that makes the audience feel as if there are moving like the camera did when filming. A decade earlier he had been a founding director of the San Diego Air and Space Museum.