George (Sonny) Whelen IV had a surprise for John Olson, the longtime president of Whelen Engineering who stepped down several months ago. To honor Olson’s 57 years with the company, Whelen Engineering made a donation of $5.3 million to Olson’s alma mater, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) for the new John Olson Advanced Manufacturing Center. The center is scheduled to open this coming fall at the university.

“Sonny kept it a secret. He did the whole thing before I heard about it,” Whelan said.

Olson is a 1958 graduate of the university with a degree in mechanical engineering. He remains a part of Whelen Engineering as executive vice president in charge of manufacturing.

With the new Olson Center, UNH students will be able to work towards a degree in manufacturing engineering.

“There are things you need to know in manufacturing—OSHA rules, legal things, things about civil engineering and electrical engineering. They are taught in schools, but they’re not all in the same place,” Olson says.

The center will also give students experience with the highly technical equipment that is now necessary for manufacturing, focusing on high-precision machinery, light materials, and flexible electronics. What Olson hopes is that a degree in manufacturing engineering will leave UNH graduates prepared for the highly technical demands of the 21st century workplace.

“The real problem is getting people job ready,” Olson said.

He would also like to see more students graduate from high school job ready. College, he believes, is not the place for every secondary school graduate. He thinks more emphasis on industrial engineering classes in high school would enable graduates to qualify for skilled manufacturing jobs after high school.

“Kids never think about working in a factory. Working at MacDonald’s is all they know. Today [young people] didn’t have a father in manufacturing. They don’t know about lathes and drill presses; they have never seen them,” he says.

Olson wants to encourage manufacturing, not just at the high school and college level, but also in the American workplace itself. Whelen products, which include various kinds of safety lights and warning signals for automobiles, airplanes, and general security, are completely manufactured in this country; component parts are made in this country and, when there is no American manufacturer, Whelen makes the necessary pieces themselves.

That, Olson noted, doesn’t stop Chinese firms from counterfeiting them. He lamented what he says is the United States government’s unwillingness to protect American patents abroad.

The imitation Whelen products made in Asia even bear the company’s logo. Some businesses send damaged imitations for Whelen for repair. According to Olson, when Whelen Engineering finds suppliers selling the bogus products, they sue them.

“That slows them down,” he said.

Olson, who insists that everyone call him John, now divides his time between Whelen’s large manufacturing facility in Charlestown, New Hampshire and corporate headquarters in Chester. He used to be able to pilot a plane between them, but complications from a heart operation several years ago convinced him to give up flying himself. He maintains homes in both states. Olson has created nine miles of trails for snowmobiles and ATVs on his New Hampshire property that he encourages families to use. He regularly maintains the trails himself. In Connecticut, Olson is a longtime and enthusiastic supporter of UConn basketball.

This year, with New Hampshire’s first in the nation presidential primary, Olson said he had seen all the presidential candidates of both parties (at the time of the New Hampshire primary, a far larger group) as they campaigned across the state. In his view, those primaries had a benefit not in the least associated with politics, but with the warm weather that disrupted the state’s ski season.

“The politicians were everywhere. They made up for the lack of snow, money wise,” he said.