WATERLOO - Otto Schoitz didn't live to see his company, Schoitz Engineering, turn 50. He missed the company's lean times in the 1980s and '90s.

And, he will miss out on the tool and die maker's 90th anniversary this year.

That's a shame, company President Ed Jensen said, because Schoitz would be pleased to see how well the company is doing.

Times are good for Schoitz Engineering, said Jensen, an employee of nearly 40 years who took over as president Jan. 1, 2006, and says he has handled virtually every job in the plant, at 4901 Sergeant Road (U.S. Highway 63), on the southern edge of Waterloo.

"Things have been going just super," Jensen said. "We've actually increased our employment in the last year by about 30 percent."

The malaise that has enveloped many industrial businesses, such as the automobile industry and its allied businesses, and caused some factories to close, has spared Schoitz, Jensen said.

"We have a good mix (of customers), and it's been good," Jensen said, listing John Deere and Caterpillar among clients who purchase agricultural-industrial, road construction and other heavy equipment from Schoitz.

It's not a new trend at Schoitz, a company that Otto Schoitz, a local industrialist and philanthropist, launched in downtown Waterloo in 1919.

The company patriarch's role in the community is well-documented. It was Schoitz who made the principal gift for the construction of Charlotte Lee Schoitz Memorial Hospital, named for his wife, who died in 1943. The hospital merged with St. Francis Hospital to form Covenant Medical Center in the 1980s.

Schoitz died in 1968. The next year, the company moved to its current facility at U.S. 63 and West Shaulis Road.

During lean times, Schoitz Engineering workers came together, under not inconsiderable stress, Jensen said.

"We took concessions, pay cuts, lost vacation pay and vacation (time) and benefits in general," he said.

"There were layoffs. But, we kept a core group of people and, somehow, we survived. I don't know how we did it, but we just had good, hard-working people trying to survive and they all came up to the plate."

In good times and bad, management and union workers from the United Auto Workers Local 1740 have worked closely together, Jensen said.

"We've never had a strike and have been a union shop for 36 years," he said.

At one time, Schoitz had more than 100 employees.

Then the tough times came. At one time, half or more of the company's business was with John Deere. But Deere scaled back in the 1980s.

Schoitz responded by developing relationships with Caterpillar, as well as Maytag and a number of firms who had direct connections to the domestic automakers.

Farmers State Bank also played a significant role, providing needed financing when other lenders were backing off, Jensen said.

"They've played a big role in our recent success," Jensen said.

That faith and patience has paid off, as the company marks is 90th birthday, he added.

"We've been one of the shops that have been really blessed with a lot of work this half of the year," he said. "We've had three of our best years just recently."

Schoitz currently has 48 employees and, in fact, recently has hired six toolmakers from area plants that have been hit with layoffs and closures, including three from recently shuttered auto parts maker Traer Manufacturing.

"We've just done a good job," Jensen said. "We've had some really tough years, but now I can't say enough for our employees. They stuck with us through some bad times and, now, we happen to be enjoying some fairly good times."

Jensen, 56, is one of the long-timers. He came to the company as an apprentice in 1971, just after his graduation from West High School. Schoitz had just moved to its current building two years earlier, having operated in downtown, at a plant at Sixth and Jefferson streets, for its first 50 years.

"I've done every job there is to do in this building; I swept floors, drove trucks, built tools, designed tools, sold tools," he said.

Linda Laylin, director of commercial and industrial development for the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, described Schoitz as one of the most valuable business assets in the Cedar Valley.

"They are one of the oldest tool and die businesses in the state," Laylin said. "They'e been one of the few multi-generational companies where employees had parents and grandparents working there at one time. They're a very close knit company that cared very much about the employees. That's been well represented by things they've done in the past. They care about relationship building and the customer base reflects that."