Employees
Listed here are the names of people that were associated with Optigan in some way or another. Some of these people I’ve talked to, some I haven’t, and some are dead or otherwise MIA. Note that not all of these folks were official employees of either Mattel/Optigan or Miner/Opsonar. Some were either contracted to work on a freelance basis or were employees of other companies which were contracted by Optigan. Also listed here are a few folks from the related companies of Chilton and Vako. This page will be under construction for a long time, I imagine, as more of these people surface and tell their stories!
| Barczak | Edward Barczak | Designer | Optigan |
| Chang | Richard Chang | Engineer | Optigan |
| Chilton, F | F. Roy Chilton | President | Optigan/Chilton Corp. |
| Chilton | Ken Chilton | Optigan/Chilton Corp. | |
| Cutler | Stan Cutler | Vice President of Engineering | Optigan |
| Daniels | Charles Daniels | Engineer | Optigan |
| Dion | Steve Dion | Administrative | Optigan |
| Ellison | Bruce Ellison | Recording Engineer | Optigan |
| Flynn | Ted Flynn | Vice President- Sales | Optigan |
| Fromander | Art Fromander | Midwest Sales Manager | Optigan |
| Garvin | Mark Garvin | Engineer | Opsonar |
| Jacobson | Rich Jacobson | Head of Technical Services | Optigan |
| Jones | Eugene Jones | Engineer | Optigan |
| La Branche | Harvey La Branche | Engineer | Optigan |
| Lambach | Adolph Lambach | Designer | Optigan |
| Largo | Johnny Largo | Music Director | Optigan |
| LeDoux | Mike LeDoux | Software Engineer/Music Director | Optigan/Opsonar |
| Mellette | Gary Mellette | Engineer | Optigan |
| Merendino | Salvatore Merendino | Designer | Optigan |
| Nelson | Carl Nelson | Engineer | Optigan |
| Northrop | John Northrop | Engineer | Optigan |
| Parnell | Chic Parnell | Sheet Music Arranger | Optigan/Opsonar |
| Perlmann | Marshall Pearlmann | Optigan | |
| Peterson | Robert Peterson | Engineer | Optigan |
| Radin | Bill Radin | CEO | Optigan |
| Reese | Jodi Reese | Optigan/Opsonar | |
| Ryan | John “Jack” Ryan | Engineer (“Inventor”) | Mattel |
| Sioles | George Sioles | Engineer | Optigan |
| Spaights | Jim Spaights | Engineer | Opsonar |
| Swee | Gene Swee | President | Miner Industries (Opsonar) |
| Toy | Raymond Toy | Engineer | Optigan |
| VanKoevering | Dave VanKoevering | President | Vako |
| Waltzer | Bernie Waltzer | Vice-President | Miner Industries (Opsonar) |
| Wieman | Paul Wieman | Engineer | Optigan |
| Woodraska | Joann Woodraska | Secretary to Mike LeDoux | Opsonar |
| Wylde | Gus Wylde | Engineer | Optigan |
I actually don’t know anything about Ross Clark or what he did at Optigan, but one day while searching the net I came across this web page. You’ll notice that he lists Optigan as one of his former employers… unfortunately there’s no email link for him on that page so I was never able to ask him about it!!
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:52 pm
I was there too. I worked with george sioles and richard chang. Also there was ed landsinger, a protype machinist/modelmaker. I am an MIT engineer, using d’ Alembert approach to systems analysis.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:07 pm
hi tom, thanks for getting in touch!! i definitely need to do more work on this section of the website. maybe you can write up a short account of your experience at optigan?
April 18th, 2010 at 9:44 am
You miss many employees who worked at the new kensington plant, I worked in the service dept and were responsible for setting up and training many of the service centers througout the usa, I worked with Jim Rice and I replace Jack Smith who quit and returned to California. I know many other employees at the plant, Jack Oxman ran Miner industries. It seems most of your list are from the west. I believe Ross Clark replace me when I quit because the plant was planning to move to NY around 1975.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:59 am
My Dad was an employee but, I don’t see him listed. His name was Joe Findeis, came from Mattel toys division, between the years 1971 to 1973-ish, and I think was a Chief Tool Engineer.
August 18th, 2010 at 11:27 am
I worked at Estey as a draftsman under Don Bergstrom in New Kensington until the move to New York. I continued to
do drawings for them as a consultant for another year. I still have some documentation when I work on the designs
of the vaco orchestron and improvements to the Optigan and Estey lines as well as manuals and sales brochures.