1966

You know those stories about the guy that starts a company in his garage,builds it into a thriving business, then sells it to a world class enterprise for millions. Fiction,you say? Capitalist propaganda? Maybe in the good old days, but not now?

Now.Dean Spatz and his wife, Carol, took his engineering degree from Dartmouth into his garage in 1969 in an attempt to commercialize a technique he studied in college that used reverse osmosis to clean water. Thirty-four years later Osmonics is one of the largest water filter and purification products companies, having grown through both internal product innovation and acquisition to more than $200 million in annual sales.

And since March the international company with 1,300 employees—600 in hometown Minnetonka, Minnesota—is part of General Electronic, housed in the GE Betz unit, which primarily sells water-treatment chemicals.

Spatz, with a good chunk of GE stock and a continuing role with the organization, is optimistic about the future. "If GE is interested in carrying forward the vision of being a one-stop shop for water purification, then I'm certainly prepared to work with them to accomplish that." With the addition of Osmonics, and Dean, GE sees its water treatment business growing from $1.4 billion today to $2.5 billion in two years.

Jim Dorr, a partner with the Chicago law firm of Wildman, Harold, Allen & Dixon, was one of 93 lawyers nationwide named to BTI Consulting Groups client service all-star team. Since joining the firm in 1969, Jim has concentrated on civil trial work, currently serving as lead counsel in litigation brought against the firearms industry by various municipalities and counties. Between 1990 and 1992 he was chairman of the management committee of the firm.

Dr. Walter Harrison has had a private pediatric practice in Lynn, Massachusetts, for 30 years. He's been very active in health care financing and, as Walt puts it "medical politics." Walt has served as chief of pediatrics for Lynn, Union and Northshore Children's Hospital and has for decades chaired the Massachusetts Medical Society committee that deals with Medicaid and Medicare.

Walt's also been a stalwart with the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and has started and chairs two committees—one dealing with HMO and public health medical directors on pediatric problems, the other a coalition of groups interested in children's mental health issues. He's received a national recognition award from the academy.

On the home front, Walt has five children ranging in age from 19 to 31 from a previous marriage, and Jackie, a nurse, brought her two children into the Harrison household when he married her eight years ago.

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