John F. Schulte

John was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended St. Marks Elementary School and Purcell High School in Cincinnati.

John married his wife Trudy in 1959 and together they had four sons: John (Jay), Glen, Doug, and David. He also has 12 grandkids.

John was a voracious reader, regular golfer, and wood craftsman. He was very generous with his time and his good nature. Volunteering at Good Samaritan Ministry and Good Shepherd Church where he was also a 4th degree Knight of Columbus.

It was typical of John that, when he joined an organization, whether it was a neighborhood association or church parish council, it was only a matter of time before he would be elected president.

He began his nearly 50-year career in the machine tool business with the R.K. LeBlond Machine Tool Co. in Cincinnati. He started in their co-op program in 1953 sweeping the shop floor, then moved on to machine service, supporting open houses and shows, as well as service supporting installations and repairs across the USA and Canada. After mastering service, in 1962 he wanted to turn his talents to sales, ending his 32 years at (by then) LeBlond-Makino Machine Tool, as Vice President of Sales. From there he joined the R.O. Deaderick Co. as a Partner, which in 1988 was purchased by the Robert E. Morris Company. There he served as Vice President and ultimately President until his retirement in 2001. He was also a “social member” of the Oriental Order of Groundhogs for 27 years.

During his time as National Sales Manager at LeBlond, John was instrumental in the launch of the LeBlond Baron Series CNC lathes that were manufactured in Cincinnati and in 1981, he led the charge of integrating the Makino Milling Machine Company, culture and products, to the LeBlond family.

At the R.O. Deaderick Company (RODCO), the 1988 change in ownership at RODCO coincided with the change in representation of the company’s primary machine tool supplier. So, after working at LeBlond and LeBlond Makino for 32 years and then representing their products for 4 more years, he made the difficult decision to cancel LeBlond Makino and begin the representation of Okuma Machinery.

Under John’s leadership, RODCO grew from a struggling company of 9 employees to a market share leader in the Southeast US with over 30 employees. John had a gift of seeing unique characteristics in very talented, young people and quickly built a service department, application engineering department and parts support, that was highly regarded by their customers.

John also had a gift for exceeding expectations of company owners and customers.