Bob Sloss
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May 23, 2021, Robert (Bob) J Sloss passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife Dusky Smithpaine, daughter Gabrielle and sons Andrew and Daniel Sloss. As CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Bob led Connor Manufacturing Services, Inc. for nearly 25 years, retiring in March 2021.
Bob was a native Californian, born and raised in San Francisco. Upon graduating from Rutgers University in 1972, Bob joined the family business, Connor Spring Co. Connor Spring Co. grew out of Sloss and Brittain a wholesale hardware company founded by Bob's grandfather. In 1947, Bob's father, Joseph Jr together with his identical twin brother Henry, purchased the company from Joseph Sr. At the time, Connor was an innovative employer, providing employees with health insurance as well as company profit sharing.
Over his 50 year career with Connor, Bob held positions of increasing responsibility in manufacturing operations, sales and marketing. For the first two decades of Bob's career, Connor expanded from its home base in Northern California to include factories Los Angeles, Dallas, Portland and Phoenix as well as a service center in Florida. Upon the death of his father, Bob assumed the roles of CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Bob was a true visionary. In the early '90s, he realized that economic and cultural changes in the US were creating increasing challenges for domestic manufacturing, especially in California. Seeing a future for the company in Asia, Bob looked to Singapore and established Connor's first off-shore manufacturing and distribution facility there in 1998. The success of this facility led to continued expansion in Asia and today Connor has factories in Kulai, Malaysia; Suzhou, China; Kunshan China as well as offices in Singapore.
Bob led Connor for almost 50 years and during those years the global footprint of the small spring company of his father's time grew to include not only China, Singapore, and Malaysia but also Monterey, Mexico; Chicago, Illinois; and Portland, Oregon. Bob will be remembered for his generosity, his commitment to employee welfare and his willingness to recognize that the world is in a constant state of change exemplified by his oft repeated phrase "it was true when I said it".