The Ledger Dispatch and Star
Norfolk-Portsmouth, Va.
Metro News
Wednesday, July 8, 1959
P. O. Sutton, Engineer, Also Interior Decorator
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photo was here, comment:"Armatures In the Making"-P.O. Sutton , Electrical Engineer and Designer, Examines Armature Made in His Plant for Sutton-Designed Motors."
"(This is one of a series of articles on how people in Tidewater earn a living. The stories embrace a wide area of trades, professions and skills to acquaint readers of The Ledger-Star with the manner in which some of their friend and neighbors are employed.)"
NORFOLK-
"Primarily an electrical engineer who designs electric motors, Porter Odry Sutton has expanded into designing furniture, his home, and doing interior decorating as a hobby.
Born in Athens, Ohio, a graduate of Ohio State, Sutton's first job was with General Electric. He was brought to Norfolk by the Virginia Electric and
Earning a Living |
A year later he founded the Sutton Electric Co., which manufactured automobile armatures, mainly. In 1945 he organized the Sutton Manufacturing Co., giving the electric firm to a son.
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The newest Sutton firm manufactures bilge pumps, water pumps, (a typo error here)( sump pumps, d.c. motors,),bilge indicators, electric windshield wipers and blowers for boats, pumps and blowers for the industry, averaging 2,000 units a month. Sutton gives credit for the design of these items to his son, R. W.(omitted word= Sutton), vice president and treasurer in charge of design and production, J. T. Sutton, another son, a sales manager. Emerson M. Sutton has the electric company.
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Sutton Sr., a tall, spare man, drew plans for the offices and plant on Wilson Avenue, just north of Olney Road, off Granby street in Norfolk, Virginia. He designed the officers' desks, tables and chests. He planned the corrogated glass panel room planter dividing the lobby from the clerks' desks. Executive desks were bi-colored wood and black enamel, with custom designed brass fittings.He had furniture in the offices and his home made to order, and used rather oriental colors and designs in both establishments.*
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In his manufacturing plant women run production lines, using such equipment as current lathes, and a number of special machines designed by the Suttons, to turn out their products. The firm is the largest manufacturer of its particular type of product in the country, maybe even in the world. Yet snugged away off the main streets, it is unknown to the majority of Norfolkians. Less than 10 percent of its business is with Virginians. Pleasure craft builders such as Cris Craft and Owens, buy most of their bilge pumps, wipers and blowers from this Norfolk company, and thousands of items are exported every year. hundreds of jobbers handled his products, with a large percentage going to the West Coast and Canada."
This article mistakenly states that Sutton Manufacturing Corporation was founded by Porter Odry Sutton, but it was actually founded by his son Robert William Sutton. Porter O. Sutton then moved from Sutton Electric Company and that firm was then headed by Emerson Milton Sutton. Porter Odry Sutton worked as a teenager under his mother Alvertie Queen Sutton, wife of James E. Sutton, and it was Alvertie who founded and ran The Electric Machine Company,manufacturing electric motors. It was in the same building on Granby Street, that Sutton Electric later occupied. This lot was approximately couner corner to the lot on which Sutton Manufacturing Corporation was built on 112 West Wilson Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia.
C. S.
Manufacturing for four generations of Sutton's: See below:
Alvertie Queen Sutton {Generation 1}, Porter Odry Sutton, {Genration 2}, Robert William Sutton {Generation 3}, and current Generation 4 is:
- CEO, Nancy Sutton Nowlan- SUTTON BLOWERS - Sutton
Manufacturing Company
- http://www.suttonblowers.com
BORN: June 22, 1896, in Johnstown, Harrison County, West Virginia, USA{as per birth certificate and information newly sent to me, from my sister, Nancy Townsend Sutton Nowlan. Updated January 6, 2007 )
DIED: 28, April, 1962, in Norfolk, Norfolk County, Virginia.
GRAVE, BURIED: May 1, 1962 in The Forest Lawn Cemetery, off Little Creek Road, Norfolk, Virginia, Lot No 428 West Center Lawn, Southwest Corner Back.Southwest Corner Back.
Manufacture of:
Marine Blowers, Industrial Blowers,Vaneaxeal
Blower, Can Blowers; All of our products are Custom Built in the
USA, PB Blowers, FB Compact Blowers, Flange Mount Blower, Mountable
and Overhead Fan, Pressure Blower, Portable Unit.
LINK
- SEE MY ART: