MechSE alumnus inducted into Hall of Fame

MechSE department head Placid Ferreira and Hall-of-Fame alumnus Alexander Rankin

On October 14, Illinois alumnus Alexander Rankin (BS Mechanical Engineering ’57) was inducted into the College of Engineering’s Hall of Fame.

Rankin graduated with the goal of owning his own business within 10 years. True to his vision, in 1967 he opened Vulcan Spring and Manufacturing Co. Initially a small operation run out of his basement—with one spring coiling machine, one customer, and one order—Vulcan moved into a small factory space six months later. The company saw continued success, kept expanding, and today occupies a 55,000-square-foot building.

Rankin’s interest in mechanical engineering began long before his time at either Vulcan or Illinois. He remembers having a strong, persistent curiosity and talent for all things mechanical even in childhood.

“Every day on my way home, I’d try to bring home a broken toaster, vacuum cleaner, or some other appliance,” Rankin said at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. “I wanted to take them apart, see how they worked, and see why they were broken. My father’s biggest expense was probably fuses, because I had to plug these things in to really see how they worked.”

His childhood passion materialized in a children’s product when a Vulcan spring was used to drive the speech mechanism of the “Talking G.I. Joe” action figure, the company’s first commercial application. Today, Vulcan’s products are used in products from appliances and surgical tools to locomotives and satellites.

In 1998, Rankin honored his machine design professor by endowing the James W. Bayne Professorship. In 2003, Rankin established the Alexander Rankin Professorship in honor of the men after whom he was named: his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather.