San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Thursday, January 29, 1981, p. B9
Private services will be held for Rollie B. Nawman, chairman of Benner-Nawman Inc. and a tireless inventor who found a way to provide inexpensive privacy on any crowded street--the aluminum and glass telephone booth. He died Tuesday night at the age of 91.
He was a native of Maimiesburg, O. and got through fourth grade before he had to begin earning a living. Mr. Nawman did his best work on paper napkins, says his grandson, Mel Kientz, director of marketing for the firm that now sells phone booths in every state in the nation and 16 foreign countries.
He helped found the firm in Oakland in 1925 as a specialty sheetmetal shop. It designed and fabricated some of the first cabinets for International Business Machines electronics and, some years ago, fielded the first practical tomato picking machine.
But the project that would become Benner-Nawman's consuming endeavor came in a request from Pacific Telephone Co. in 1953 to find some alternative to the old, wooden phone booths, which required replacement every year.
Mr. Nawman brought the first models of the new aluminum booths off the line that year. Some are still in use in downtown Oakland.
Mr. Nawman is survived by his wife, Marion, of Danville; a son, Robert, of Danville; daughters Barbara Kientz, of Orinda, and Annalee Poole, of Rossmoor; 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
[Courtesy: San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco, California]
Thursday, January 29, 1981, p. B9
Private services will be held for Rollie B. Nawman, chairman of Benner-Nawman Inc. and a tireless inventor who found a way to provide inexpensive privacy on any crowded street--the aluminum and glass telephone booth. He died Tuesday night at the age of 91.
He was a native of Maimiesburg, O. and got through fourth grade before he had to begin earning a living. Mr. Nawman did his best work on paper napkins, says his grandson, Mel Kientz, director of marketing for the firm that now sells phone booths in every state in the nation and 16 foreign countries.
He helped found the firm in Oakland in 1925 as a specialty sheetmetal shop. It designed and fabricated some of the first cabinets for International Business Machines electronics and, some years ago, fielded the first practical tomato picking machine.
But the project that would become Benner-Nawman's consuming endeavor came in a request from Pacific Telephone Co. in 1953 to find some alternative to the old, wooden phone booths, which required replacement every year.
Mr. Nawman brought the first models of the new aluminum booths off the line that year. Some are still in use in downtown Oakland.
Mr. Nawman is survived by his wife, Marion, of Danville; a son, Robert, of Danville; daughters Barbara Kientz, of Orinda, and Annalee Poole, of Rossmoor; 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
[Courtesy: San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco, California]
San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Thursday, January 29, 1981, p. B9
Private services will be held for Rollie B. Nawman, chairman of Benner-Nawman Inc. and a tireless inventor who found a way to provide inexpensive privacy on any crowded street--the aluminum and glass telephone booth. He died Tuesday night at the age of 91.
He was a native of Maimiesburg, O. and got through fourth grade before he had to begin earning a living. Mr. Nawman did his best work on paper napkins, says his grandson, Mel Kientz, director of marketing for the firm that now sells phone booths in every state in the nation and 16 foreign countries.
He helped found the firm in Oakland in 1925 as a specialty sheetmetal shop. It designed and fabricated some of the first cabinets for International Business Machines electronics and, some years ago, fielded the first practical tomato picking machine.
But the project that would become Benner-Nawman's consuming endeavor came in a request from Pacific Telephone Co. in 1953 to find some alternative to the old, wooden phone booths, which required replacement every year.
Mr. Nawman brought the first models of the new aluminum booths off the line that year. Some are still in use in downtown Oakland.
Mr. Nawman is survived by his wife, Marion, of Danville; a son, Robert, of Danville; daughters Barbara Kientz, of Orinda, and Annalee Poole, of Rossmoor; 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
[Courtesy: San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco, California]
Thursday, January 29, 1981, p. B9
Private services will be held for Rollie B. Nawman, chairman of Benner-Nawman Inc. and a tireless inventor who found a way to provide inexpensive privacy on any crowded street--the aluminum and glass telephone booth. He died Tuesday night at the age of 91.
He was a native of Maimiesburg, O. and got through fourth grade before he had to begin earning a living. Mr. Nawman did his best work on paper napkins, says his grandson, Mel Kientz, director of marketing for the firm that now sells phone booths in every state in the nation and 16 foreign countries.
He helped found the firm in Oakland in 1925 as a specialty sheetmetal shop. It designed and fabricated some of the first cabinets for International Business Machines electronics and, some years ago, fielded the first practical tomato picking machine.
But the project that would become Benner-Nawman's consuming endeavor came in a request from Pacific Telephone Co. in 1953 to find some alternative to the old, wooden phone booths, which required replacement every year.
Mr. Nawman brought the first models of the new aluminum booths off the line that year. Some are still in use in downtown Oakland.
Mr. Nawman is survived by his wife, Marion, of Danville; a son, Robert, of Danville; daughters Barbara Kientz, of Orinda, and Annalee Poole, of Rossmoor; 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
[Courtesy: San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco, California]
Gravesite Details
He is not buried with his wife at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA, according to cemetery records
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