Academic and Career Accomplishments
After graduating from Ravenna High school in the class of 1921, Harry Hutchison worked in the blueprint department of Byers Machine Company in Ravenna. Soon afterwards he was offered a draftsman job at White Rubber Company which made fountain pen sacks. Wishing to expand, White Rubber bought out a Kent facility struggling to make a usable rubber glove. Believing this was possible, Harry designed both the equipment and a special porcelain glove form for dipping. Until this time, rubber work gloves had straight fingers but Harry designed a glove curved like the human hand. A factory to produce the rubber gloves was necessary and, for fire protection, Harry insisted it had to be in Ravenna. He designed the new facility, plus all new production equipment. At that time electrical lines were being extended throughout the country, especially in rural areas. Power companies came to regard White Rubber as the premier manufacturer of protective gloves for linemen. The depression years brought no shut downs at White Rubber. Harry became sales manager introducing and selling his glove which allowed linemen to work high voltage lines and retain the natural dexterity of their fingers in safety. He traveled the United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba selling the curved hand glove for which he had developed the formula and form. In 1982, after 60 years with the company, this “genius of a man” retired but continued his interest in Ravenna’s progress until his death in 1989.