Inventor, businessman.
Born at Canora, Saskatchewan on 11 June 1911, second-eldest of twelve children of Polish immigrants Emil and Claudia Pakosz, in 1936 his father paid a cattle buyer $5 to take his son to Winnipeg where he pursued studies in automotive engineering at a technical school. In 1940, he moved to Toronto, Ontario where he was a tool designer for the agricultural manufacturing firm of Massey-Harris.
While there, he designed an innovative grain auger that his employer dismissed as infeasible. Undeterred, he made several prototype augers and sold them to farmers he knew in Saskatchewan. He used the proceeds to make more augers and the beginnings of a company were forged as the Hydraulic Engineering and Manufacturing Company. In partnership with his brother-in-law Roy Robinson, they diversified into sprayers, swathers, tractors, and other farm equipment.
They returned to Winnipeg in 1951 and the company grew through the decade until, in 1963, Pakosh and Robinson incorporated it as the Versatile Manufacturing Company. By 1978, the firm had over 1,000 employees and more than $100 million in annual sales. The firm was the first to mass-produce articulated four-wheel-drive tractors.
In 1937, he married Adeline Pakosh (?-1995) and they had two sons. He was a member of the Jehovah’s Witness faith.
In 1993, he retired to Freeport, Bahamas where he died on 20 February 1999. He was inducted posthumously into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame.
See also:
Versatile Tractors: A Farm Boy’s Dream by Jarrod W. Pakosh, Boston Mills Press, 2003.
“Versatile Manufacturing Ltd.,” Winnipeg Free Press, 7 March 1964, page 61.
“Versatile wins against farm implement kings,” Winnipeg Free Press, 14 June 1976, page 43.
“Farm boy helped found Versatile,” Winnipeg Free Press, 23 February 1999, page 19.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 23 February 1999, page 37.
Versatile Tractors [www.versatile-tractors.com], The Internet Archive.
We thank Don Wadge for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 16 July 2024
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