Elsner a Duncan vice president
Ralph B. Elsner: 1923 - 2008
Duncan Industries in Chicago became famous for manufacturing the "world's #1 yo-yo," but another subsidiary company achieved just as much fame for a more functional product: the parking meter.
For years, Duncan-Miller parking meters dominated the market, earning the exclusive contract for Chicago, New York and Miami, to name just a few.
One of the employees to work his way through the ranks, earning more and more responsibility as the product grew, was Ralph B. Elsner, who worked for the company for 40 years, and retired in 1990 as vice president of marketing.
Mr. Elsner died Wednesday. The former 27-year Arlington Heights resident, most recently of Schaumburg, was 84.
"Although the parking meter came to be fairly controversial, the whole idea was to regulate parking," says his son, Bill Elsner of Palatine. It was meant to get a turnover in customers so merchants would have more people entering their stores, he said.
Mr. Elsner started with Duncan Industries after World War II, when he served as a second lieutenant P47 Thunderbolt Fighter Pilot, flying missions over France and Germany.
He began in the maintenance department, going with crews out on the street to maintain the meters. Mr. Elsner eventually worked his way up to earn the title of vice president of manufacturing and culminated his career in California as vice president of marketing.
Family members credit Mr. Elsner with facilitating Duncan's major growth in the 1960s when he supervised the building of the new manufacturing plant in Harrison, Ark., and oversaw the building of the new headquarters and manufacturing plant in Elk Grove Village.
He also worked with regional distributors in major cities across the country as they helped develop parking strategies for communities.
"They would hold these parking seminars, and the company always called in my dad to speak," his son, Bill says, "because he knew so much about the industry, literally having worked his way from the ground up."
Mr. Elsner saw the evolution of the parking meters from manual models with a wound mechanism, to electronic models used today.
Mr. Elsner also was involved in church activities, including serving as a church elder for the First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights.
His first wife, Marie, died in 2000. Besides his son, he is survived by his second wife, Olga Elsner-Pogorzelski; children, Shirley (Jim) Wirth of Hollister, Mo.; Kathy Elsner-Kerch of Washington, D.C.; Rich (Carmen) Elsner of Phoenix; and Chuck (Linda) Elsner of Itasca; as well as seven grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Funeral services will take place at 10 a.m. today at the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, 800 E. Palatine Road.