What began as a lubricant manufacturing operation in a garage became a Fortune 500 chemical company. In 1928, brothers Kent H. (CSAS 1917), Vincent K., and Albert K. Smith (CSAS 1922) along with Francis A. 鈥淎lex鈥� Nason (CSAS 1922) founded Graphite Oil, which would become the globally traded chemical manufacturing company Lubrizol.
The company ceased retail operations in 1942 to transition to a research and production focus, and built its Wickliffe, Ohio, research facility in 1946. By 1995, the company recorded annual sales of $1.6 billion and nearly 30 subsidiary companies.
