Carla Clark | For The Republic Ed Krome with his CNC equipment including a lathe, a laser engraver and a router at his home at Grandview Lake, Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, October 17, 2023.
If you ask Ed Krome what the main drive of his overall engagement with the world throughout his life has been, he will readily answer, “Two things: curiosity and fun.”
That’s what has led to a life highlighted by a long engineering career, as well as an inventor, which includes nine patents, a writer, an engraver, a triathlete and an international traveler, not to mention rewarding relationships with his wife of 52 years, two daughters and grandchildren.
To illustrate how long he’s been aware of his analytical bent, he remembers telling his fourth-grade teacher that he wanted to be an atomic physicist when he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up.
At age 16, he developed a laser communication system. “It didn’t really work because the technology was 60 years ahead of its time,” he said.
He went to the city-wide high school science fair in Chicago three times. “My teachers couldn’t help me because they didn’t know what I was doing.”
The Chicago native earned a mechanical engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1971. He met his wife, Dolores, who was going to St. Mary-of-the-Woods at the time.
At age 21, he built a car by putting a fiberglass dune buggy body on a shortened Volkswagen chassis. He drove it during his courtship with Dolores.
Ed and Dolores moved to Columbus in 1974, and Ed embarked on a 37-year stint at what was then the Reeves plant on 10th Street, and now goes by the name Master Power Transmission.
“Our plant kind of stood alone within the companies that owned it over the years,” he said, which allowed him “to do all kinds of interesting things. All nine of my patents went into production.”
In 1997, Ed won the Distinguished Corporate Inventor award conferred by the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio. Meanwhile, Dolores worked at Cummins for a while and established a quality consulting company.
“If I ran into an engineering question, I’d give Ed a call,” she said.
In his professional capacity, Ed authored papers that were presented at conferences, as well as book chapters, and he’s also written for electronics magazines.
“I know my audience well enough to know how deep I can get,” he said. “I’m a self-taught electronics engineer, over the years that has really become my interest.”
He retired in 2011 but returned to work for three years on a part-time basis.
“I developed an entirely new product line, basically an electronic replacement for the Reeves drive,” he said.
He and Dolores saw the 1979 Bob Fosse movie “All That Jazz,” which, in one scene, features an electronic clock. That sparked Ed to think about how he might build one. He now has two in his living room.
“I got my circuit boards from China,” he said. “I had these obsolete tubes around here.”
In 2002, with their daughters out of college, they moved from Columbus’s north side to Grandview Lake. They love to have a glass of wine, play chess and eat meals on the patio that looks out at the length of the lake.
At age 60, he noticed that he was losing endurance, which led to his running hobby. At age 65, he ran his first half-marathon, and then he ran his first full marathon later that summer. He also learned to swim, which led to his participation in triathlons.
In 2020, Ed was part of a group that designed and built power supplies for the International Space Station. Ed performed thermal analysis, testing and mechanical designs. The power supplies provided a real-time, amateur radio connection between astronauts on board and students back on Earth.
He embarked on his laser-engraving activities a couple of years ago. One notable project is a bathymetric map of Grandview. It’s the opposite of a topographic map. It displays the gradations of depth under the water, as opposed to the height of the surrounding hills. One copy of it hangs at the Grandview office.
“He had to learn the software to do it,” said Dolores.
Their home features two garages, one of which he built, and which now serves as his shop where he stores an engraver, a CNC milling machine, a lathe and other equipment.
The Kromes are avid travelers. One recent trip took them to Cambodia. Since returning, Ed has done engravings on artifacts he returned with.
“Ed is industrious and curious,” said Dolores. “You put those traits together, and you get all these projects.”
“I don’t get obsessed with things, but some things float to the top more quickly. All this stuff is just plain fun,” Ed added.
