Walter K. Bailey (1897-1996) was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where his father, L. A. Bailey (d. 1898) started the Bailey Company, a department store, in 1882. Walter Bailey was raised in East Cleveland, Ohio, attended Shaw High School, and graduated from Oberlin College in 1919. He married Marion Clark in 1925, and they had four sons. He worked for the Warner & Swasey Company of Cleveland from 1919 to 1967. He was active for many years with the Community Fund (United Way), and served as president of the United Appeal from 1960-1962. He served on the boards of the Cleveland Neighborhood Settlement Association and the Welfare Federation of Cleveland (Federation for Community Planning/Center for Community Solutions). He was a trustee of Oberlin College and of the Musical Arts Association, and a trustee and elder of Fairmount Presbyterian Church.
Bailey entered the special apprenticeship program at Warner & Swasey Company in 1919. Having learned the business on the shop floor, he joined the national sales force in 1921. He became Cleveland district manager in 1924, service manager in 1936, sales manager in 1939, and vice president of sales in 1942. During World War II he was in charge of manufacturing operations, and became vice president of the company in 1949. He was president an dchief executive officer from 1955 to 1962, chairman of the board and chief executive officer from 1962 to 1964, and chairman of the board until his retirement in 1967. Under Bailey's leadership, Warner & Swasey diversified and acquired several smaller companies, growing into a major international producer of machine tools and related products.
The Walter K. Bailey Papers, 1975-1991, consist of a Warner & Swasey Company history compiled in 1975 by Walter Bailey (president, 1955-1967), and supporting documents.
This collection is valuable to researchers interested in the history of Warner & Swasey Company and the role played by Walter K. Bailey in its development from 1919-1967.
The order established by the author has been maintained, and the illustrated typescript of the history is arranged chronologically, followed by supporting documents, reports, illustrations, publications, and newspaper clippings arranged by document type and then chronologically (folders 1-15). A corporate history file (folders 16-20) contains reports, newspaper clippings, photographs, and publications collected after completion of the written history, and these are arranged by document type and then chronologically.
All photographs in this collection have been replaced by photocopies and the originals have been removed to PG 463 Walter K. Bailey Photographs.
The researcher should consult PG 463 Walter K. Bailey Photographs and MS 4665 Walter K. Bailey Family Papers (microfilm edition).
Processed by Ann Ameling in 1993.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4657 Walter K. Bailey Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Walter K. Bailey, 1993.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.