TigerStop founder dies

TigerStop, a manufacturer of automated stop gauge positioners and fully automated sawing systems with factories in Vancouver, Wash., and the Netherlands, has announced that its founder, Spencer Dick, died June 11, 2020. Over his lifetime, Dick accumulated more than 100 patents for ideas in manufacturing, automation, and lineal positioning.

After attending London College of Furniture and Harvard Business School, he began the Oak Street Furniture Group, then Benchmark, a high-end custom cabinetry company. He noticed that few employees could read a tape measure very well, resulting in miscut material and wasted labor hours. So in 1994 he invented a machine for automated lineal processing that could be adapted to nearly any tool to position material accurately for cutting, drilling, and punching, and that same year he and his wife, Mary, founded TigerStop.