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SMOOTH OPERATOR

Dr. Les Horve is the authority on shaft seal technology.

by Jim Morgan

Dr. Les Horve doesn't believe in love at first sight.

"The first time I saw a shaft seal," he recalls with a grin, "I wasn't swept off my feet. It seemed pretty mundane. But the more I learned about how it works, the more intriguing it became. A shaft seal covers multiple disciplines-fluid dynamics, materials, the static and dynamic behaviors of structures. A shaft seal is a technical challenge, and that challenge hooked me."

Over 35 years later, Les is still hooked. Having spent three decades with Chicago Rawhide, Les has seen it all in the way of shaft seals. He's sat on or chaired committees within the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA), the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, and the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He's authored two books and dozens of technical papers to share his knowledge with others in the sealing industry. And now, as an exclusive consultant to RL Hudson, he's sharing that expertise with our customers. Not bad for an Illinois farm boy.

FOLLOWING GOOD ADVICE "I grew up in the cornfields near Decatur," Les reflects. "Our high school class of 1956 only had 28 people in it. I had good teachers, though, and one of them-my mathematics instructor-really urged me to go to college."

Heeding the advice, Les applied for-and won-a Navy Fellowship that paid his tuition at the University of Illinois. Building on his knack for both math and science, Les earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering physics. He also came away with something more: a wife.

"I met Betty at a tennis court on campus," explains Les. "We weren't exactly the textbook doubles team. I was from the farm; she was from Chicago. My dad sold milk door-to-door; her father was from Greece. There were a few cultural differences we had to negotiate."

GROWING BY DEGREES But negotiate them they did, and quickly. Les graduated, was married, and was commissioned as an ensign into the Navy all in the same week. It wasn't long before he was traveling the globe while monitoring and managing his ship's electrical systems. His first child, a daughter, was born stateside in 1962 while Les was in Hong Kong on his first trip to the Orient. At that time, Les had no idea how important the Asia/Pacific region would become to his future career.

What was clear, however, was that he wanted to continue his education following completion of his Navy term. He nabbed another fellowship, this time from the Atomic Energy Commission, to study nuclear engineering back at Illinois. He earned a Master's Degree, then went to work for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in Connecticut designing fuel cell systems that provided electrical power for the Apollo space capsule.

"That Apollo project was as glamorous as design work gets," Les concedes, "so when I left a couple of years later to work as an application engineer for Chicago Rawhide, well, it seemed a little dull at first. But I wanted to be back in the Midwest, and, in retrospect, it was one of the best things I ever did. CR was where I first got involved with shaft seals."

FORGING NEW FRONTIERS And destiny thus arrived. After two years as an application engineer, Les was made a manager, first of research and development, then of product engineering. Along the way, he found time to earn a Doctor of Engineering degree, and still later, an M.B.A. At home, a son and two more daughters joined the Horve household. By the mid-70s, Les was CR's vice president of technology for their original equipment division. He directed 180 personnel in all aspects of shaft seal technology, including tool engineering, materials research, and product testing.

"For me, the most rewarding aspect of what I did during that time was helping to reinvent the way CR did business," notes Les. "Those of us in management had a choice to make: we could be content to stay regional, or we could do the hard work required to go global. Going global meant developing factories in the Orient, and dealing with the inherent language and cultural differences. I'm proud to say we didn't take the path of least resistance."

As the 1990s arrived, Les became vice president of CR's industrial and aerospace strategic business unit. He retired from CR in 1997 having served his last two years as the managing director for the company's Asia Pacific arm.

WRITING ANOTHER CHAPTER Neither retirement-nor relocation to Decatur's antithesis, Las Vegas-could assuage Les's interest in shaft seals. As president of his own consulting firm-SEALDOC Corporation-he continued to share his expertise. His first client was his former employer; he spent three more years providing technical assistance to CR's Asian factories. As word spread about his 1996 book, Shaft Seals for Dynamic Applications, teaching engagements further multiplied. Frank Horn, chief engineer for RL Hudson, attended one such seminar.

"Frank told Rick Hudson that the session was helpful," Les says, "so Rick asked me to speak to the RL Hudson territory managers at their 2002 sales meeting. My relationship with the company has since grown into an exclusive consultancy."

When not mentoring, Les still enjoys tennis, regularly playing in Vegas-area tournaments. He also builds model ships, and with the advent of the state quarters, he took up coin collecting. It all takes a back seat, however, to the time that he and Betty spend spoiling their six (soon to be eight) grandchildren. Which makes one wonder: Did Les's kids inherit his love of shaft seals?

"People often ask if any of my children are in the sealing industry," nods Les. "I tell them that one of my daughters works for a company devoted to leak prevention. They manufacture diapers."