Walter Creuz, 80, dead man found in canal was famous inventor
wazzzy
Walter Creuz, the 80-year-old man who was found dead in a Morgan's
Harbour canal last week, was a pioneer in the world's manufacturing
industry.
Some in his native Germany might even call him famous.
The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service is still trying to determine
exactly how the elderly man ended up in the water south of Uncle Bob
Road in West Bay on 6 March. A post mortem found Mr. Creuz's death was
consistent with drowning, and at this point investigators do not
suspect foul play.
About 48 years before his unfortunate demise, Mr. Creuz was on to
something big. He was about to found the Sortimat company, which
today is one of the world's leading providers of assembly technologies
for manufacturing....from his garage in Germany.
The Sortimat company's website says Mr. Creuz produced his first bowl
feeders, a sorting device used in mass manufacturing, in that garage
in 1959.
By the end of the next decade, Mr. Creuz and his business partner
Heinz Sommerfeld had hired 60 employees and the company had produced
the world's first assembly machines for disposable syringes.
The company now has 370 employees in Germany, India, and the US and
does business in 40 countries.
"We are very shocked here, we didn't know," said Silke Fischer, head
of marketing for Sortimat in Winnenden, Germany. "We mourn his death
very much."
Ms Fischer said Mr. Creuz sold his interest in Sortimat in 1988 and
that the company was aware he had been living in the Caribbean.
She said the Sortimat Company he founded is considered to be the
world's leader in assembly systems for health-care products.
Today, the business mainly produces assembly machines for a wide range
of tasks, and feeder technology used for the processing of complex
parts for cars, electrical goods, furniture, toys, valves, fittings,
bikes, or watches