Briggs & Stratton Chief Dies. (1972, March 10). Milwaukee Journal, p. 1.

***Briggs Library does not hold the Milwaukee Journal***
***The complete text of this article is presented below.***

Charles L. Coughlin, 86, board chairman and chief executive officer of Briggs & Stratton Corp., died of a heart ailment Friday at his home, 2300 E. Kensington Blvd., Shorewood.

Coughlin was actively in charge of the gasoline engine manufacturing firm in Wauwatosa until two days before his death. He had been president and chief executive since 1935 and chairman of the board since 1970.

He had been associated with the company all of his career except for six years after he was graduated from college in 1909.

He came to his office every day and, colleagues said, vigorously directed the policies of the company.

During the time he was in charge of its operations, the company grew from a comparatively small firm to one of the largest in the Milwaukee area.

Won 16 Letters

He was known as a man who ran the company with a firm hand. Newspapermen who dealt with him found that announcements of company activities ordinarily came directly from him, or not at all.

He had his sentimental side, however, as students and faculty of his old school can attest. Born Nov. 10, 1885, in Carthage, S.D., he received an engineering degree from South Dakota State College, Brookings, in 1909.

During his four years there, he won 16 letters in several sports. When he came back 20 years later for a class reunion, he was reminiscing about his college days and decided he wanted to do something for the school.

"What do you want?" he asked faculty representatives bluntly.

They discussed the matter and brought back their answer.

"A campanile."

Coughlin decided that if the school wanted a bell tower, it should have one. When the 165 foot campanile was completed, it was the tallest structure in South Dakota. It had 180 steps leading to its top, an 8,000 candlepower aircraft beacon and a set of bells for playing campus concerts.

Was Engineering Instructor

The Milwaukee industrialist was a farm boy, of Irish stock. His father, besides farming, ran a store and a grain elevator.

After Coughlin's graduation from college, he spent a year as an engineering instructor at Purdue University, then came to Milwaukee and took a job with Briggs & Stratton. In 1918, he switched to the Ladish Drop Forge Co. here, but in 1923 went back to Briggs to become its vice president and general manager.

The firm was then on N. 13th St. It had been founded in 1909. During its early years, it made such items as gasoline engines for washing machines, used mainly in farm homes where there was no electricity, and a power unit for bicycles and scooters.

Bought Motor Plant

The Firm bought the Evinrude Motor Co. plant in 1928 and stepped up its business of supplying parts for automobiles and railroad cars. By the following year, it was the world's largest manufacturer of automobile locks.

It weathered the depression under Coughlin's leadership - he became its president in 1935. By 1940, its annual sales had climbed to $6,200,000 - a respectable figure, but only a fraction of its 1966 sales of more than $122,000,000.

Coughlin was credited with a large share of the responsibility for Briggs & Stratton's success. Friends said that the drive and energy he displayed in winning those 16 college letters were carried over into the business world.

Coughlin recognized the possibilities of using small gasoline engines in a variety of fields, and was ready for the do it yourself phenomenon that came with the growth of the suburbs. In the early 1950s, the firm had plants at 2711 N. 13th St. and at 2709-2742 N. 32nd St., with about 3.5 times as many employe[e]s as the 1,000 reported in 1940.

In 1952, Coughlin watched proudly as the one millionth single cycle, air cooled gasoline engine came off the assembly line in less than 12 month, a record for the industry. He was already busy with plans for expansion on an 81 acre site purchased the previous year at N. 124th and W. Burleigh Sts., Wauwatosa.

The new five million dollar plant was built in 1955 and more than doubled in size to 1,150,000 square feet in 1966.

The Marquette University chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and Executives chose him the outstanding Milwaukee industrialist of the year in 1949. Three years later, he received an honorary degree from Marquette, after serving on its board of governors since 1944.

The Milwaukee industrialist also received an honorary degree in engineering from South Dakota State in 1954.

For many years, he was an enthusiastic golfer and fisherman. He was a former trustee of the Citizens' Governmental Research Bureau and a former director of the Electric Co. In 1955, he became a director of the Jefferson Electric Co., Bellwood, Ill.

A Roman Catholic, Coughlin was active in church and civic affairs. He served on the sponsors' committee which raised funds for the new YMCA.

He was married on Oct. 23, 1915, to Miss Colet A. Fitzgerald of Madison, S.D.

She died in 1964.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Colet Coughlin (formerly Mrs. Albert S. Puelicher Jr.), Fox Point, and Mrs. Robert H. (Mary) Walter, Santa Rosa, Calif.; a son, James J. of Yarnell, Ariz., and two sisters, Miss Catherine Coughlin, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Mrs. Margaret Coughlin Weiland, Wauwatosa.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete. Feerick Funeral Home is in charge.

Note: Errors in grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, spelling and word usage have been retained from the original publication. Corrections have been inserted within brackets.