Veikko Arne Oby



Surface gauge, signed by Oby, used in layout work for scribing lines on vertical or horizontal surfaces, on display in the Industrial Revolution (IR) Collection: Measuring Tools section.

The following information is courtesy of Priscilla Oby (his daughter).

Veikko Arne Oby was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, July 5, 1916 and died at the age of 83, February 25, 2000.  His parents were born in Finland.  He went to trade school evenings to learn to be a machinist.  Veikko worked for a short time at the Whitin Machine Works in Whitinsville (part of Northbridge, MA) - at one time this was the largest textile manufacturing company in the world (turn of the century?)

Oby worked at the Watertown Arsenal, Watertown, MA, a couple years before the U.S. formally entered WWII and continued until the war was over.  Employees of the Arsenal tried to quit their jobs to join the Army, only they were reassigned to the Arsenal as "privates" and got paid a fraction of what they were making before as employees!

He later worked for the U.S. Envelope Co., Hill Division, in Worcester, MA.  This is where he found the copper "gum bucket" for the envelope machines.  It was in the walls of a section being torn out.