BOSWORTH COMPANY HISTORY

The Bosworth Company, located in East Providence, Rhode Island, was founded in 1982 by Ken and Nancy Bosworth. They have created a successful, family-owned business through their twin focus on offering a high-quality product backed by first-rate customer service.

In the late 1950’s, Ken Bosworth began his career as a young design engineer at the G. W. Dahl Company in Bristol, Rhode Island. At G. W. Dahl, Ken collaborated in R&D initiatives to develop new products for process control in the defense, nuclear power, oil production and water purification industries. He recalls his most challenging assignment as one involving the design of an advanced valve control system to pressurize and exhaust submarine missile tubes under any maneuvering conditions. The valve that he and his team designed operated pneumatically and electrically, as well as manually. Ken regards his work at G. W. Dahl as some of the most rewarding engineering work of his career.

In 1962, Ken was recruited to join the Dart Union Company, a long-established Providence-based manufacturer of pipe fittings and unions. Dart Union’s President was George Champlin, a successful businessman whose extensive interests and holdings included manufacturing plants and foundries in the US and Canada. At Dart Union, Champlin had just approved the development and marketing of a new product very different for the noted manufacturer of pipe unions: a manually-operated diaphragm pump. The pump had been designed by Dart Union’s John Collamore, an avid sailor who was frustrated by the heavy and awkward pumps then in use for bilge pumps on boats. Collamore sketched a design for a light weight, plastic, hand-operated diaphragm pump. He presented the idea to Champlin and was able to win his backing for a new commercial effort at Dart Union. Collamore suggested his friend from his days at G. W. Dahl, Ken Bosworth, to help with manufacturing and marketing of the pump that came to be known as The Guzzler. The Guzzler was an instant success with boaters and boat-builders.

By the time George Champlin died in 1981, John had left Dart Union to start his own boat-building business with his son, and Ken Bosworth had become General Manager of all the Dart Union businesses, which included the Guzzler product line. With Champlin’s passing, Ken had an opportunity to buy Dart Union, but decided instead to create a company focused on The Guzzler. In 1982, he and his wife Nancy bought the rights to the Guzzler product line and launched The Bosworth Company.

From the outset, Ken’s goal was to make the Guzzler name synonymous with product quality and excellent customer service. He recruited a young woman, Ms. Joan Landry, to manage the manufacturing operations of the company, and he offered a number of former Dart Union employees the chance to join him in this new venture, including Ms. Vincenza Wilson, who became Manager of Customer Service and Derwood Ormerod, a machinist/assembly engineer. Twenty-five years later, these key contributors are still with him at the Bosworth Company, and they have dedicated themselves to fulfilling Ken’s vision of a company with a reputation for pre-eminent product quality and top-flight customer service.

Over time, interest in the Guzzler came from OEM’s and individuals outside the marine industry. The Bosworth Company has evolved its basic Guzzler line by satisfying customer requirements for fluid transfer in a growing array of markets and applications. Ken’s focus on making customers successful has led to a family of Guzzler products with a dazzling array of product families and product options, unequaled in breadth in the market. Along the way, Ken developed complementary products to the Guzzler, like the Sea-lect series of Y-Valves (also known as diverter valves) and the Guzzler series of foot/check valves to assist in keeping pumps primed and to extend pump lift capabilities.

Nearly forty years after the first Guzzler^® was delivered to the market, the Guzzler has grown into an extensive family of customizable pumps. The Bosworth Company has grown as well, selling into new markets, and adapting to new ways of doing business, including marketing over the Internet and designing its products with the latest in CAD technologies. What has not changed is the company’s focus: a commitment to delivering quality product and service. This commitment is reflected in The Bosworth Company’s ISO 9001 certification, as well as its earning the right to display the prestigious CE for acceptance in the European market. The names Bosworth, Guzzler^® and Sea-lect^® continue to be synonymous with quality, innovation and customer satisfaction.