T. Jack Cahill, who climbed from company salesman to preside over major growth in Kaman Corp.’s roster of technology businesses, is retiring Aug. 31 after 35 years with the Bloomfield aerospace manufacturing and technology firm.
Steven J. Smidler, who is chief operating officer of Kaman Industrial Technologies (KIT), will succeed Cahill as KIT president.
“There is no one in the industry more respected than Jack, his integrity is second to none and he has served as a role model for all of us across Kaman,” said Kaman Chairman, President and CEO Neal J. Keating.
Cahill and his wife, Joyce, are settling in Longwood, Fla.
“I have very much enjoyed my career with Kaman,” Cahill said in a statement. “It is an outstanding organization at every level of the operating units and the parent corporation.”
Cahill joined Kaman in 1975 as a salesman in Denver and eventually ran Kaman’s western region as vice president. He was named KIT president in 1993.
KIT is the third largest industrial distributor of bearings, power transmission, fluid power, motion control and automation products in North America.
In February, Cahill helmed a pair of KIT acquisitions: Allied Bearings Supply Co. in Tulsa, Okla., marking Kaman’s entry into the Southwest oilpatch;and Fawick de Mexico, S.A. de C. V. of Mexico City, deepening its presence in that country’s market for distribution of hydraulics and lubrication components.
Smidler, 50, joined KIT last Dec. 1 from the North American arm of German industrial manufacturer Lenze Group, where he was an executive vice president in charge of marketing, sales, finance, business systems and product technology.
Separately, Kaman Corp. announced a dividend of 14 cents a share to be paid on July 6 to common shareholders of record as of June 21.
