Frank J. Vlchek (1871-1947) was a Czech immigrant who became a Cleveland, Ohio, industrialist and built a corner blacksmith shop into the nation's largest producer of small tool kits. Born in Budyn, Czechoslovakia, Vlchek began his career as a blacksmith, eventually garnering experience in an armament firm, machine shop, and surgical instrument shop in Austria prior to his immigration to Cleveland in 1888. From his initial livelihood of horseshoeing he opened his own blacksmith shop on Central Avenue in 1895. He then began producing stone cutting tools, to which he added the manufacture of hardware and other tools. When his shop burned, he rebuilt at Quincy Avenue and Woodhill Road and specialized in complete tool kits for cars. During World War I he provided tool kits for the Liberty Motor Airplanes of the United States Army. Between world wars he established a new plant at East 87th Street, as well as a new plastics division with a molding plant in Middlefield. During World War II most of Vlchek's products were sold to the air corps or to manufacturers of half-tracks, tanks and military trucks. After the war the company expanded its service tools business and supplied customers with molded plastic articles. The Vlchek Tool Company celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1945, having become one of the largest drop forged tool manufacturing plants in the nation with 69 branches in various principal cities. In 1990 Vlchek Plastics was still a vital part of the Geauga County industrial community centered in Middlefield, Ohio.
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Frank J. Vlcheck
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for the Vlchek Tool Company