J. Otto Kubatzky,
boy on right.

Feisty little German, Johann Carl Otto Kubatzky, born 1869 in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder (a small town on the Oder River bordering Poland) was educated in architecture at Heidelburg University. In 1893, at age 24, Otto, the second son, came to America to avoid conscription in the German army and to see the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He walked and worked his way across the plains, found a wife in the Dakotas, settled in San Jose, California and had two daughters. Daughter, Marguerite was born 1895, second daughter, born in 1900 was named Loveera (pronounced love-era), a name for the time. Both sisters married, but had no children.

Architect Otto Leaves
Germany at age 24

While in California, Otto designed and built homes and commercial buildings in the bay area. His wife died, and in 1909 Otto brought his girls to St. Louis where he continued to build and design in the farm fields of Clayton, Missouri. His family grew when he married a very tall widow from Mississippi, Lorena Garner Pettus Quinton, who had a young daughter of her own, Thelma. Together Otto and Lorena had two sons, Theodore born 1911 and Woodrow born in 1916. A better offer to build and develop took the Kubatzky family to Tulsa Oklahoma in 1918, but they returned to St. Louis permanently in 1930.

WINCO Ventilator in
glass block wall,
c. 1945

It was in the early 30's, while Otto was building homes in north St. Louis, that he became friends with the local Pittsburgh Plate Glass distributor. PPG wanted to increase sales of their new glass blocks into the residential market, but no one had a window that could be used successfully in a 4" deep glass block wall. That need spurred Otto to design and produce a 4"deep projected aluminum ventilator. In 1939 Kubatzky applied for a trademark patent for the original WINCO VENTILATOR as well as a patent for a ventilator made with privacy panels, the first of many innovative products made by Otto's company.

Architect, builder,
inventor, and
WINCO founder
Otto Kubatzky
in St. louis office

Aluminum Factoid:

In 1926 Mr. Hubert J. Braun Sr., entered the aluminum extrusion field and was the first major supplier of this material for the architectural and building trade in the U.S. His arrangement was consummated with the Harper family in Pittsburgh Pa., the founders and owners of ALCOA Aluminum Company.