Farewell to John "Jack" Meade, Owner of EFM, 2011

Jack Meade passed away on July 2. He was the most visible member (to us) of the Meade family, who owned Columbia Boiler and all the various heating-related companies in the system.

Here is a link to his obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/phoenixvillenews ... _shareobit

Jack was a genuinely nice guy. You'd never know he was the President of the corporation. He often visited the various companies and everyone was treated as part of the family. I remember the first time I saw him at efm. Dressed in his usual plaid shirt and ball cap, I thought he was an efm dealer coming in for a part to finish a boiler installation. I had no idea who he was.

He would stop by efm and sometimes ask if he could borrow a part from our inventory and I would respond "How shall I answer the owner of the company?" And his answer was that he didn't want to be treated any differently than anybody else who would ask the same thing.

Jack was probably responsible, behind the scenes, for keeping the efm stoker and wood/coal boiler from the scrapyard of history, in recent years. Although he wasn't overly enthusiastic about coal or wood burning, he knew that the products were still a source of income. Without him, I think there were others who would have deep-sixed both products. He took a personal interest in redesigning the wood/coal boiler. It had been out of production for at least 20 years and many of the blueprints were missing, but there were enough remaining to remake the product. I still use my 30-year-old WCB every day of the year.

Goodbye to Jack, a good workingman's friend.

His passing is unfortunate and he will be greatly missed.

An extra-ordinary man!

Sorry to hear the bad news. Does this impact EFM's future as a company?

He was a positive force behind efm. Time will tell.

My condolences go out to his family & friends.