The Starmet Legacy

Starmet Corporation began as the metallurgical laboratory of M.I.T. at a time of national wartime need in 1942. Over the years the working relationship of the company with M.I.T. has continued. The Company has funded research programs led by M.I.T. staff and shared laboratory facilities with the university. Dr. Kenneth Smith, Professor of Chemical Engineering former Associate Provost of M.I.T. has served on Starmet's Board of Directors since 1985.

The transition from laboratory to private company came in 1954, when the Arthur D. Little Company acquired it as a subsidiary and named it Nuclear Metals reflecting the era's optimism in a postwar nuclear future. The metallurgist had emerged as a valued problem solver and the company was a recognized leader in a new materials technology.

Concord, a town whose "shot heard round the world," is linked with the nation's birth, courted the company's relocation from its Cambridge campus as part of its commitment to attract industry, promote a balanced economy and broaden the tax base. According to the 1956 Concord Town Report, the efforts of the Development and Industrial Commission were rewarded. "An organization of excellent reputation and background that seemed to measure up in every way to the standards of what reasonably demand of any enterprise locating in the town purchased a large block of the available acreage zoned for industry." Town officials and committees were welcoming with praise and the media compared the arrival of the pioneering company of the space age, with historic Concord's place in the birth of a new nation.

In 1958 Nuclear Metals, Inc., (NMI) moved to their current location at 2229 Main Street. "On October 29, 1958, the day of dedication, President of M.I.T. Dr. Julius Stratton, spoke of the challenge of a New Metals Age and the capacity to shape civilization while keynote speaker Senator John F. Kennedy, two years before entering the White House, sounded the expectancy and promise that characterized his presidency's vision of the New Frontier," exerpted from an early history of the company published in 1995 called M.I.T. Beginnings: The Legacy of Nuclear Metals, Inc., by Renee Garrelick. The book is available through Starmet and at the Concord Free Public Library and the Fowler Library in West Concord.

Textron and the Whittaker Corporation became successive owners of the company and in 1972 NMI became an independent company, acquired by two former employees, Will Tuffin who became president, and George Matthews as chairman of the board. In 1978 NMI became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange, with the trading symbol now of STMT. In December 1994 Will Tuffin retired as president and joined the Board of Directors as its Vice Chairman, and Robert Quinn, vice president of sales was appointed president. September 1997 marked the passage of 25 years as an independent company and the change of name to Starmet to reflect our vision to explore new horizons in metallurgy and the emergence of new business opportunities. A new product organizational structure of company subsidiaries allows for specialty area expansion while maintaining a small efficient working unit.