FORT ATKINSON
Theodore Batterman, who grew a small shelving line into an international company that has anchored Fort Atkinson’s industrial base for nearly 50 years, is being remembered as a visionary who treated employees like family.
Batterman, the force behind Spacesaver Corp., died July 29 at Angels Grace Hospice in Oconomowoc. He was 92.
“You could say he was a pioneer in the high-density mobile (shelving) industry,” said Mark Haubenschild, who was hired by Batterman in 1982 and is now Spacesaver’s president and CEO. “He was a very pioneering leader. He was an absolute legend in our industry, but he had an unbelievable vision for the company and what it could do.”
Batterman, who raised his family in Janesville, also was a faith-filled family man who gave from his heart.
“Basically, he considered Spacesaver his family, too, and he treated us that way,” Haubenschild said. “That was the biggest thing for Ted, obviously. He was incredible.”
Born Nov. 27, 1927, in Hinsdale, Illinois, Batterman was an entrepreneur most of his life. As a boy, his parents set up a roadside stand so he could sell produce from his garden. He immediately caught the business bug.
Batterman enlisted in the U.S. Air Force for three years as a way to go to college. He attended Kerio University in Kyoto while stationed in Japan and graduated from the American Television Institute of Technology in Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in TV and communications engineering, which he used to get an engineering job at WMAQ radio in Chicago.
He also lent his engineering skills to Motorola, which was developing the first color television set. From there, Batterman founded Electronic Systems in 1959 and developed an automatic shutter mechanism that won him and his associates an Academy Award for technical achievement.
The company was acquired by Hurletron Inc. of Danville, Illinois, where Batterman became vice president and division manager.
In 1966, Batterman joined Warner Electric Brake & Clutch Co. in South Beloit, Illinois, to launch the Motion Control Systems Division. After building it into a leading manufacturer of stepping motors and controls, he was named corporate vice president of industrial sales and marketing.
He left Warner Electric in 1972 to become a major stockholder in Spacesaver Corp., a company started by brothers Ronald and Marvin Staller in a 10,000-square-foot barn south of Fort Atkinson.
Batterman saw potential in a little-noticed product feature: shelving mounted on tracks. Its mobility reduced storage space by eliminating aisles. Batterman knew that space, energy conservation and productivity were important to many industries.
“I looked at my opportunity,” he recalled in 1985. “It wasn’t the … company. It was this concept in the back room.”
After becoming sole owner in 1977, he spearheaded development of high-density mobile storage and shelving.
Spacesaver started with seven employees and today has more than 400 full-time workers. Sales-wise, it is three times larger than its closest competitor.
Batterman also conceived the “area contractor” marketing system, which lets independent small businesses provide direct sales, field application engineering, installation and service as if they were factory-owned offices. Spacesaver in Fort Atkinson, which provides the design, engineering, manufacturing and marketing support, acquired a Canadian subsidiary with area contractors in 1982.
Today, Spacesaver markets its products through 40 area contractors in North America and several others internationally.
In 1998, Spacesaver became part of KI, an employee-owned global company headquartered in Green Bay. The company is approaching $700 million in sales and ranks as the sixth-largest contract furniture manufacturer in the industry.
Spacesaver’s mobile storage systems can be found in many places, including hospitals, financial institutions, libraries and industrial plants. Among its customers are numerous Fortune 500 companies, the Chicago and New York public libraries, several universities and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration’s Archives II in College Park, Maryland, the largest archival storage system in the world.
Two decades ago, the U.S. Marine Corps was challenged to store weapons of different sizes, shapes and models. The Spacesaver Universal Weapon Rack was born in 2000 and has become the standard in weapons storage.
Such success was not automatic. Rather, it grew from Batterman’s conviction that “when you really believe in something, and the answer is ‘no,’ that’s the time to buckle down and go to work.”
That philosophy was tested when Spacesaver bid on its first university installation. Georgetown could not justify awarding a major contract to an unknown company, but Batterman persisted. Not only did he win the contract, but the Georgetown librarian later wrote a bylined article in Library Journal, paving the way for Spacesaver’s growth in the university library market.
Theodore Batterman, the longtime owner of Spacesaver Corp. in Fort Atkinson, displays a message for graduating high school seniors from a salon chair at Shorehaven retirement community in Oconomowoc. Batterman died July 29.
Batterman and his wife, Marilyn, lived in Janesville for many years but were dedicated to Fort Atkinson and their Spacesaver family.
Batterman served on numerous community boards, and in 2005, he and his wife helped establish the Fort Atkinson Boys and Girls Club, which continues to operate as the Badgerland After-School Enrichment program, or BASE.
The couple provided goals at the Luther Elementary School soccer fields for the Youth Soccer Association; goalposts, blocking sleds and helmets at the Rock River Kiwanis Fields for the tackle football teams; and a batting cage for Fort Youth Baseball. They also funded a yearly team sponsorship for Youth Tackle Football.
The Battermans also supported quality-of-life projects in Fort Atkinson, including creating the family aquatic center and Glacial River Trail and expanding Fort Memorial Hospital, Madison Area Technical College-Fort Atkinson, the Hoard Historical Museum and the Jones Park concession stand.
The Battermans supported the Fort Arts Council, Fort Atkinson High School Archery Club, United Way of Jefferson and North Walworth Counties and the renovation of the St. Vincent De Paul Store, as well.
When the Dwight Foster Public Library was undergoing one of its expansion and renovation projects, the Battermans’ donation of mobile storage units allowed the library to reuse an old room for a new purpose, helped preserve a valuable periodical collection, and provided space for computers, a kitchen and staff lounge.
The children’s area was renamed the Batterman Children’s Library because of their generous financial support.
In 1990, the Battermans established the Theodore W. Batterman Family Foundation to support primarily Christian faith advancement, education and organizations in Rock and Jefferson counties.
That foundation and the Spacesaver Grant Program provided financial support for emergency service vehicles for the police and fire departments without using tax dollars.
In 1998, the Batterman foundation began working with the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation to award five four-year scholarships each year to graduating seniors at Fort Atkinson High School. Some 115 scholarships have been presented over 23 years. Similar scholarships are awarded to seniors at Janesville’s Parker and Craig high schools.
Batterman also served on the board of directors for the Johnson Heritage Rock County National Bank and BankCorp, both in Janesville, and the Wisconsin Foundation of Independent Colleges. He was involved in the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Independent Business Association of Wisconsin, Sinnissippi Council of Boys Scouts of America and the Badger State Games.
Batterman was active in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Janesville and, later, Divine Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hartland.
Not surprisingly, appreciative communities have saluted the Battermans for their leadership and philanthropy.
The Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce named Batterman its small businessperson of the year in 1984.
A year later, he was recognized as Wisconsin’s small businessperson of the year in the Midwest by the U.S. Small Business Administration and was second runner-up for the national title.
In 1986, Batterman was a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business, and in 1989, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce feted him as manufacturer of the year in the job-creation category.
The U.S. State Department, UNESCO and the Smithsonian Institution invited Batterman to address the International Conference on Museums on solving space problems in the storage of collectibles.
In 1992, the Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce presented Batterman with its Economic Contribution Award.
Then in 2007, Ted and Marilyn Batterman were given the Fort Atkinson Lions Club’s Distinguished Community Service Award.
Upon receiving the Lions honor, Batterman said, “This is such a marvelous community, and it’s been such a joy to be here and be part of it through the years.
“Each one of you in the community itself has been a major part in Fort Atkinson’s growth of the Spacesaver Corp. It’s been very meaningful to us and the employees of Spacesaver.”
In 2016, Concordia University in Mequon renamed its School of Business Administration the Batterman School of Business in honor of Theodore Batterman, who had served on Concordia’s Board of Regents.
A private service was held Tuesday for Batterman. Survivors include his children Linda (Mark) Johnson, Christopher (Angela) Batterman and Laura (John) Wilkins.
Haubenschild, the company president, said he sits in the same office that his mentor once had.
“And whenever I have to make a decision, I think: ‘What would Ted do?’” he said. “I miss most the day-to-day interaction with him because after he left us (Spacesaver), he started his philanthropy. But I sure miss the interactions with him.”
Anyone who ever met Batterman would never forget him, Haubenschild said. “He had the firmest handshake you’ll ever know.”
August 05, 2020 at 04:00PM
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