Amatuer musician J. Calvin Jureit is an engineer
by trade - and the inventor of a device that revolutionized the building industry
Amatuer musician J. Calvin Jureit is an engineer
by trade - and the inventor of a device that revolutionized the building industryA 1949 civil engineering graduate of Georgia Tech, Jureit took piano lessons from age 6 to 14 and organ lessons from 16 to 18. "I didn't hate lessons terribly, but I wasn't real eager. I'm not a natural musician," he said.
Jureit, now 79, and his wife, Mildred have shared their home with Miamians for years, hosting groups of 60 at a time to enjoy performances by the best theatre organists from around the country Until November 1996, when Jureit was inducted into Georgia Tech's College of Engineering Hall of Fame, few Miamiain knew he was responsible for an invention that revolutionized the building industry worldwide.
He invented the Gang-Nail Connect Plate in 1955, one of 60 inventions he has patented. John A. White, former dean of engineering at Georgia Tech, compared Jureit's invention to Henry Ford's automobile assembly line.
"The whole notion about affordable housing and productivity increases came about because of his invention," White said. "This was one of those things that made people think about building a house in a different way, such as prefab manufactured housing. Because of Henry Ford, cars evolved from being crafted on at a time to assembly-line construction, which made the automobile affordable. Jureit has been widely recognized for doing this for housing. We're fortunate to count him among our alumni."
The Gang-Nail Connector is a galvanized steel plate from which prong-like nails are formed. These plates are used primarily to connect the joints of wood roof trusses. The connections are machine-pressed into the wood at high speed, eliminating hand-nailing, bolting or gluing. Jureit's invention enabled builders to build faster.
"The trusses were made in the factory and delivered to the site just before the builder put the roof on," Jureit said. "It cut $200 off the price of building a house in those days. People were getting a stronger, better roof and some money saved as well. The timing was right because framing carpenters were dying out."
Today, Gang-Nail roof and floor trusses are a common sight around the world. "What gives me satisfaction about thetr Gang-Nail Connector Plate is that it survived Hurricane Andrew (in August 1992)," said Jureit, who toured the damaged area. Homes with the Gang-Nail invention survived.
"I was in a relaxed, meditative mood when this unique idea came to me," he said. "He was supposed to be listening to the sermon," counters his wife of 51 years.
Nothing in Jureit's early life hinted that he would become an inventor as well as a talented civil engineer and businessman. He was born in Baltimore to Lillian and William Frederick Jureit. His father, a baker, had immigrated from Germany.
In 1922, when Jureit was 4 years old, the family moved to Miami. By 1940, the family had 10 bakeries and 25 delivery trucks. J. Calvin and his younger brother, William, worked in the bakeries but didn't like the hours.
"It's a drudgery type of business," Jureit said. "We had to get up at 4 a.m. or earlier, depending upon the job. But I learned the trade, including running the business."
After graduation from Miami Senior High School in 1935, Jureit studied art for a while, then enrolled at the University of Miami to study accounting and chemistry.
"At the time, I didn't have the faintest idea of what an engineer was," he said. "I thought maybe those guys doing surveying on the highway were engineers.
In 1942, Jureit joined the Navy Seabees and was stationed at Camp Perry near Williamsburg, Va. He met Mildred, then a Richmond, Va., resident working as a secretary at the USO.
"She was leaning against a piano in a red dress," he remembers. "I spent the rest of the afternoon talking to her."
After training as a cartographer, Jureit was shipped to Australia, where he became part of a team that made relief maps out of plywood and clay so that pilots could study the terrain they woudl be flying over. After six months in Australia, Jureit was sent to New Guinea for six months. "I never saw action," he said.
He got home in 1945 and was married in March 1946. The couple moved to Miami, and he returned to UM to take the courses he needed to get into Georgia Tech as a sophomore.
"The school was loaded with GIs, and the freshman class was full," he said.
While at UM, Jureit took a test that indicated he should become an architect but he thought civil engineering would be more to his liking. "Overseas, I saw lot of construction (by the Seabees), so I knew what building was about," he said.
By the fall of 1946, he was enrolled in Georgia Tech on the GI Bill. The Jureits were the first couple to live in married housing at the Institute. Mildred Jureit remembers that the GI Bill paid them (only about $110 a month, so she worked in an office at Tech while her husband fell back on his bakery trade making birthday and wedding cakes for $2.50 an hour. Despite a heavy academic load and working, he made the dean's list.
The first of their three sons, Glenn, was born in 1947 and was a hit with their student friends. "We placed him in a playpen at the entrance of our apartment and he was entertained all day long by passing students," Mildred recalls.
The couple's twin sons, Robert and Kenneth, were born in 1954.
After Jureit earned his bachelor's degree, the family moved to Toledo, Ohio, where he began his career with a consulting engineering firm. It usually takes four years of training to become a registered engineer, but Jureit took the test and got a score of 91, the top score among the civil engineers taking it.
"Ohio is one of the toughest states to get registration," Jureit said. "I never had to take another test."
After a year in Toledo, the Jureits turned their backs on cold weather and returned to Miami, where there was a building boom under way. Jureit got a job testing building materials in a laboratory, later joining a company that manufactured heavy-duty trusses. He left after two years to start a consulting business. A builder needing a registered civil engineer hired him to inspect building sites. Over time, he certified 40,000 home sites from Palm Beach to Key West.
His company, Automated Building Components, had 20 employees after the first year and grew to 1,000 employees worldwide. His main plant was in Miami, but he also had plants in Canada, Australia, England, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, South Africa and Argentina. His company went public in 1961 and was listed on the American Stock Exchange a few years later.