Odorite International, Inc. (OII) was originally founded by Jack Kohler in Chicago, Illinois in 1934 and was initially named Monarch Laboratories.  In 1944, Earl Lewis joined Mr. Kohler at Monarch Laboratories with the intent of expanding the business and selling new territorial distributorships, across the U. S.   For the benefits of you old timers, the machine being used was the Lav-a-dor the first Fragrance Machine in the Jan San Industry.  See Picture #1 Below of Photo Galary. 

One of his early sales of Mr. Lewis was the Distributorship in Kansas City, MO to Mr. Bob Demming, who began operating Mid-States Odorite, Distributorship immediately thereafter.  Bob at this point in his life was a recent graduate and has continued to be a lifelong supporter of The University of Missouri, in Columbia, MO.  Bob’s father was a Pharmacist and owned a chain of Pharmacies around the Kansas City area and later operated the Plaza Royale, on the Plaza. (Bob still has the original Plaza Royale
Bar in his lodge See in background of picture #2.)

In 1956 Mr. Carl Boggs became employed by Mid-States Odorite, continuing until 1961 when he entered the Military Service.  After serving 2 years in the Military, Carl returned to Kansas City and was employed at the Allis Chalmers Manufacturing facility in Independence, MO until 1970.   In 1970, Carl returned to work for Mr. Demming and Mr. Lewis when they relocated the company to Kansas City, MO and changed the corporate name to Odorite of America in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1965, Jack Kohler passed away and in 1970, Mr. Kohler wife sold her ownership share in Odorite to Mr. Bob Demming and he became Earl Lewis’ partner.   During the period of 1973 and 1977 Mr. Demming decided to slow down a little bit and sold off his personally owned distributatorship territories, which numbered 10.   For the next several years, Mr. Carl Boggs for the most part functioned as the Manager of Odorite of America.  In 1986 Mr. Demming decided to completely retire and sold the company to Mr. Jim Summers.  Jim owned the company for 51/2 years until 1991, when the company was purchased by Dan Bunch the current owner of Odorite and the corporate name was changed to Odorite International, Inc.  Mr. Boggs continues to be employed today at Odorite; he is an integral part of the production/shipping department staff working every day and provides all our personnel with a great amount of history and prior knowledge of Odorite and the Jan-San Industry. 

For those of you who do not know, Mr. Demming has always been a big Hunter with emphasis on Duck Hunting.  For many years he has owned a Duck Lodge on the Grand River North of Clinton.  As has happened many times in the past, recently I was invited to hunt with Mr. Demming.  This year, however was different.  I decided to make it an opportunity for Mr. Boggs to go with me on this hunting trip.  Even though Mr. Boggs has been to the property many times over the years, he had never actually hunted.  I decided to change that and the 3 of us hunted Ducks.  Our success was not as we would have liked but the stories going back over 50 years of these very special people in Odorite’s history were a lifetime experience. (Picture #3 of the lodge)

Thanks Carl and Bob for sharing the memories. (Picture #4 of the 3 of us together)