John started his career in water treatment in Southern California in the early 50's after a short time as an aeronautical engineer. As he would often tell the story; "while working as an engineer I saw people doing the same job as me who had been there for many years and I couldn't stand the idea of seeing myself in the same position forever". So, he decided to change careers and answered an ad to sell water softeners and he soon realized that he could design and build better equipment himself. In 1953 he decided to move back to his hometown of Chicago and start his own water conditioning manufacturing and sales business with his father. The RainSoft Water Conditioning Company was born in the basement of a cigar store in Bensenville, IL. He would go out and make sales calls in the evening and then build and install the units during the day. The ceiling was so low in the basement of the cigar store that John had to stoop his large 6'+ frame while building units. It wasn't too many years later that he had out grown several "factories" and was one of the largest retailers of water softeners in the Chicago area selling 300+ units a month! The word soon spread throughout the Midwest and RainSoft dealers started popping up everywhere. At its peak, RainSoft boasted having over 300 dealerships in just about every continent on the globe who intern employed ~3,000+ people selling ~$300,000,000+ worth of products and services annually. John was a consummate engineer and held numerous patents on equipment he had designed. The famous 8 cycle valve with filtered water brine refill and the first cabinet water softener are just a few examples. His wife, Bette, was one of RainSoft's first glamor models showing off the new cabinet unit in trade journal advertisements in the late 50's. For many years John, was the head of engineering, advertising and marketing, legal, sales and purchasing. Today his titles would include CEO, CFO, COO, CLO and CIT just to name a few. John was one of the key founders of an industry made up of entrepreneurs who built their businesses with very little capital and with a lot of hard work and true grit. However, probably his greatest accomplishment was his ability to lead people to be the best they could be. Many people who joined his company realized success beyond their wildest dreams and beyond where they would have probable gone if they had chosen a different path. Their successes could be measure not just in monetary terms but, also how they grew as individuals. They learned skills and experienced things they would have not gotten anywhere else. One example of how he would help grow people, was when he helped a young RainSoft engineer by the name of Dave Pettinato design a unique R.O. system then helped that young engineer get several patents in his name.