Thomas McGourty

Prior to joining Commodore

Thomas McGourty was a World War II veteran who has the distinction of having been the youngest Master Sergeant in WWII. He was in charge of the motor pool in the US 8th Army air corps.

After leaving the military in (XXXX year), he founded an adding machine dealership on Long Island in New York City. It was during this time that McGourty initially met Jack Tramiel, the co-founder of Commodore. Mr. McGourty was naturally mechanically inclined and had the ability to fix the early Barrett adding machines, which was a skill that caught Jack Tramiel's attention.

In (XXXX year) he accepted an offer to manage the manufacturing operations of the General-Gilbert Corporation, a clock manufacturing company in Winsted, Connecticut and moved his family from New York to Connecticut.

Time with Commodore

Shannon, Ireland, 1963

In 1963 Mr. McGourty began working for Commodore at the Commodore Industries, Ltd plant in Shannon, Ireland as the President and General Manager. Mr. McGourty's wife and children moved to Ireland in February, 1964 to join him. The Commodore Industries plant in Ireland assembled and manufactured adding machines, primarily for the Commonwealth Market.

West Germany, 1965

In May 1965, McGourty was promoted to the role of Vice-President, Manufacturing for Commodore Business Machines (Canada), Ltd and was listed as an officer of the company. It was around this time that McGourty's manufacturing expertise was needed at the Willy Feiler Zahl-Und Rechenwerke GMBH plant in West Germany. McGourty and his family moved from Ireland to West Germany.

United States, 1966 -

When Commodore sold the Willy Feiler plant in 1966, McGourty and his family moved back to Norfolk, Connecticut. With Commodore no longer having the means to manufacture their own adding machines, finding an OEM supplier was paramount. Thomas McGourty began making frequent business trips to Japan to set up an OEM agreement and McGourty took on the role of acting as Commodore's entire Research and Development division. In 1967, the McGourty family moved to Aptos, California such that the frequent travel to Japan would be less onerous. It was during this year that Commodore and Ricoh came to an OEM agreement and the model 201 re-branded adding machine was released to market.

The model 201 was sold as both a Ricoh product and a Commodore product with the only difference being the branding badge. Mr. McGourty