KASTEN TO BE HONORED FOR CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Vernon L. Kasten, president and co-founder of Ceramo Co. Inc. of Jackson, will be honored by the University of Missouri at Rolla during commencement ceremonies there May 13.

Kasten, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees in ceramic engineering from the university, is among 19 Rolla alumni who will be awarded professional degrees in honor of their professional accomplishments.

Shortly after graduating from the university in 1945, Kasten, classmate Raymond Jones and UM-Rolla faculty member Paul Herold founded Ceramo Co., Inc., which makes terra cotta-type flowerpots.

Kasten was no newcomer to the clay business. His grandfather, R.C. Kasten came to Jackson in 1895 from Uniontown, where he had been a brick maker's apprentice, and bought half interest in what is now Kasten Clay Products. R.C. Kasten was half owner in the business until 1920, when his four sons bought the remaining half interest from Joe Schmuke, who believed the very durability of bricks would eventually drive brick makers out of business. Kasten Clay Products remains a family-owned business today.

After Vernon Kasten, Herold and Jones made the decision to produce clay flowerpots, Vernon Kasten got some clay from his family's brick plant and set to work to come up with an appropriate formula for the production of pots.

Once a proper formula was found, the three launched Ceramo Co. Inc. on a four-acre site from which they could extract their own clay and dry their pots in the loft of a barn which existed on the parcel. The entrepreneurs fired the pots in a kiln they constructed themselves.

Kasten purchased the interest of Herold and Jones in the 1950s and made Ceramo a corporation. Today, that corporation employs 100 workers and produces about 15,000 tons of materials annually.

With annual sales of more than $7.5 million, the company is the nation's third-largest manufacturer of clay pots, according the UM-Rolla's "Alumnus" magazine.