1940s
This period saw ESCO adding many new products to meet demand for supply valves, pump bodies, anchor chains and other components for warships and tanks. Many women worked in ESCO foundries as their male counterparts fought overseas. In 1946, ESCO engineers developed the first two-piece tooth system, dubbed the “R” system. In 1948, the company entered the cable excavator bucket market.

1950s
Capitalizing on the exploding mining and construction markets after the war, ESCO launched new products and opened additional plants, sales offices, subsidiaries and licensees around the world – including a Midwest distribution facility and a new foundry in British Columbia. The company also embraced innovative manufacturing, inspection and metallurgical technologies, allowing production of ever-more sophisticated components.

1970s
ESCO rose to the economic challenges of the 1970s by devising new technologies and became the first steel foundry to use the AOD (argon oxygen decarburization) process, creating alloys of unprecedented purity and toughness. ESCO also adopted the cutting-edge vacuum molding process. To meet growing demand, the company opened an automated foundry in Mississippi and a second Canadian foundry in Ontario.

1980s
As recession wracked the economy during the early 1980s, ESCO focused on efficiency and continuous improvement – creating a leaner and stronger company. The company’s innovative new Helilok pin and lock system soon became an industry standard. By the close of the decade, ESCO pursued new opportunities, including acquisition of Gray-Syracuse and Concorde Castings – investment casting facilities serving the aerospace and power generation industries. The acquisition of Bucyrus Blades further strengthened the ESCO construction attachments product portfolio.

1990s
Robust economic conditions created capacity challenges during the 1990s, and ESCO expanded operations throughout the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The company also entered a joint venture to manufacture products in China. Acquiring Heflin Steel added wear liner fabrication and armor plate capabilities, and the new Super V tooth system was an instant success and today remains an industry standard.

CF Swigert served as chief executive of the Pacific Bridge Company, which built several bridges over the Willamette and Columbia rivers. In addition, the company built several piers for the Golden Gate and San Francisco

Bay bridges, and Swigert also participated in the construction of the Boulder, Parker and Bonneville dams. Swigert founded the Electric Steel Foundry Company (later renamed ESCO Corporation) in Portland, OR, in 1913. This was the first foundry in western United States to utilize a French-made furnace fired by electricity rather than coke. The foundry’s first castings were for streetcars and logging trains.

Swigert’s other business interests included the Willamette Iron & Steel Works, the City & Suburban Railway Company and various firms that produced wood products, paints and preservatives. He served on the Port of Portland Commission and was highly regarded for his industrial and civil engineering expertise.

In 1929, Swigert founded the Hyster Company and installed his second oldest son, Ernest, as Hyster president.

A graduate of Harvard, Fred joined Electric Steel Foundry Company in 1914, and he succeeded his father as company president from 1935 to 1952. He also served as Chairman 1953 to 1961. Fred Swigert’s strengths were organizational, technical and interpersonal. Genuinely fond of people, he was largely responsible for creating the informal and family-like culture that has become an ESCO tradition – highlighted by a genuine commitment to employee wellbeing and happiness.

Fred Swigert established ESCO as an industry leader in technology; and under his leadership, the company added shellcast and centrifugal foundry capabilities and built operations in British Columbia and Illinois. ESCO also established its first dealerships and foreign licensees during this period.

Fred Swigert and his wife Christine were passionate supporters of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), as well as several other concerns. Their endowments during the late 1950s helped to build OMSI’s first structure in Portland’s Washington Park. In 1998, the Christine and C.F. Swigert Jr. Trust awarded $3.3 million to help build OMSI’s new building on the east bank of the Willamette River.

Ernie Swigert joined ESCO after receiving his metallurgy degree from Harvard University. He excelled in sales and marketing and influenced the company’s development of products for logging, earthmoving, and the pulp & paper industry.

In 1929, Ernie Swigert became president of an ESCO spin-off concern specializing in manufacturing hoists and logging arches. Originally called Willamette-Ersted Manufacturing, the company was renamed Hyster Company and became a world leader in lift trucks and materials-handling equipment. Under Ernie Swigert's leadership, Hyster would eventually become a Fortune 500 company, with annual sales in excess of $650 million and more than 8,000 employees worldwide.

In 1943, Ernie Swigert participated in founding Cascade Corporation, specializing in manufacturing lift truck attachments. Son-in-law Robert Warren became Cascade Corporation’s first president.

Throughout his career, Ernie Swigert was committed to community involvement and charitable giving. He was largely responsible for bringing Junior Achievement to Oregon in 1950. A champion of American free enterprise, Ernie Swigert was active in Oregon politics and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1952. He also served as president of the National Association of Manufacturers in 1958 and was the first Pacific Northwesterner elected to that position.

In 1978, Ernie Swigert was inducted into the Oregon Business Executives Hall of Fame; and in 1980, he was first to receive the Oregon Pioneer Award, in recognition for his 50 years as an Oregon industrial leader.

Harvard-educated Hank Swigert joined ESCO in 1955. He served as an outside salesman and Vice President of Finance before being elected ESCO Board Chairman in 1979. Hank Swigert stepped down as Chairman in 2003, but remains a Board Member.

During his tenure as Chairman, ESCO Corporation added plants in Kentucky and England and established a joint venture in China. The company under Hank Swigert also aggressively diversified by acquiring Gray-Syracuse, Inc. in 1987, Concorde Castings, Inc. in 1987, Bucyrus Blades, Inc. in 1989, Impulse Hydraulics, Inc. in 1990, Heflin Steel Company in 1999, Fonderie Formetal in 2000, and TecoMetrix LLC and Isys Manufacturing, Inc. in 2001.

Hank Swigert served as a director and president of the Portland Chamber of Commerce (Portland Business Alliance) and as board member for the Bank of California, the World Forestry Center and Associated Oregon Industries (AOI). In 1993, Hank Swigert received Willamette University’s Glen L. Jackson Leadership Award for “extraordinary public and private leadership in the Pacific Northwest.”

In the early 1990s, the Swigert Foundation was established, which supports a variety of education, health, civic and arts concerns.