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GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 35 co-op students,” former Vernay chemist Paul Graham wrote in a 1998 Yellow Springs News article. A graduate of the Pratt Institute, Vernet had worked for 15 years in Philadelphia as an automobile engineer and was already in his mid-30s, the holder of more than 30 patents when he arrived and heralded by the Antiochian as a “Noted Scientist.” Soon after his arrival, Vernet began working on an auto - motive thermostat because, according to the Antiochian, “the work he was doing at the time necessitated the use of a thermostat which would do a considerable amount of work with minute changes in temperature. There was none obtainable, and he turned his attention to making one himself.” Vernet invented the Verno- therm, a thermostat based on wax expansion, for which he received a patent in 1938. Initially used in cars, the thermostat went on to bigger things and, during World War II, it regulated engine tem - peratures in most U.S. tanks, landing craft and planes, the Dayton Journal-Herald reported in October 1944. For its contribution to the war effort, the Vernay Patents Company, as it was then called, received the coveted Army- Navy “E” award for excellence in war production, an award received by only three percent of the nation’s war industries. In presenting the award, an Air Force major lauded the company “not merely in recog- nition of a product rolling off an assembly line .. but for bril- liant harnessing of science and technology and for remarkable labor relations and personnel policies,” the Antiochian said. An employer of people of color and women long before the civil rights movement, Vernet “felt strongly that the company should have union affiliation, and invited a union to be part of the organization when Vernay was established,” Graham said in the News article. “Labor troubles? Employee turnover? Plant protection? The Vernay Laboratories have none of them,” said the 1944 Antio - chian article. “All employees are members of the CIO United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers Local 768, and have won some renown for their model union contract. There’s a suggestion box, a shop steward, a labor-management committee. Employee turnover, except for the three-month co-op shift, doesn’t exist. One person had quit in two years, Vernet reports.” In 1946, Vernet closed up his little basement shop and moved his growing company to new headquarters, at 120 East South College Street. Vernay Laboratories, Inc. as the newly incorporated business was classed, employed 18 workers. When trouble threatened the young company because the laboratory couldn’t locate sufficiently precise molded rubber parts for use in the Vernotherm, Vernay addressed the problem by producing rubber parts, Graham said. The company’s molded rubber part sales increased from 5% of the business to 95% in the mid- ʾ50s, Graham wrote. The transition to a post-war economy “proved to be a highly profitable time for Vernay,” wrote Graham, since the use of Vernotherm thermostats expanded into appliances, especially the new “automatic” washing machine. In 1953, the Vernay Foundation was established with assets in the form of Vernay stock contributed by Sergius and Suzanne Vernet, for the purpose of provid- ing grants and resources to Yellow Springs. A year later, the Community Children’s Center began, funded largely by the Vernay Foundation. In 1963, the Foundation contributed LOVE THE EXPERIENCE PROUDLY SERVING YELLOW SPRINGS AND THE SURROUNDING COMMUNITY SINCE 1966 6 TH OLDEST SUBARU DEALER IN THE U.S. 5470 Intrastate Dr. | Fairborn | 937.878.2171 www.WagnerSubaru.com