Great Living Cincinnatians: Honorees

1894 – 1981

Frederick V. Geier shaped Cincinnati Milacron into an industry leader by stressing research and product development.

Geier joined his father’s cornpany when he was 22 and the firm was still called Cincinnati Milling Machine Co. Under his direction, the firm established in 1926 a basic-research department to study chip formation and cutting mechanisms. In 1934, when Geier became coresident, the firm began building machine tools in Western Europe. Geier stressed expansion of the company’s product line through internal development instead of the acquisition of other companies. Geier remained president until 1958 and remained active in the firm until 1976.

The firm’s 1970 decision to change its name to Cincinnati Milacron, to reflect a broad product line that included more than just milling machines, is a tribute to Geier’s leadership and vision for the company.

Geier served a great many companies and institutions in his lifetime. He was a director of Armco Steel, Procter & Gamble, the Central Trust Co., the Union Central Life Insurance Co., McCurdy Co., and Little Miami Railroad Co.

He was a trustee of the Heritage Foundation in Deerfield, Mass., president (1942-47) of the Hermann Schneider Foundation; president (1946-48) of the CDC, and of the Children’s Home; honorary trustee of the Berkshire School, Sheffield, chairman of the board of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History ( 1957 -63), past vice-chairman of the Business Advisory Council, Department of Commerce; director of the Cincinnati Post, president ( 1944-45) of the American Ordnance Association, director of Ohio Mechanics Institute, member of the Economic Cooperation Administration, the Industrial Advisory Committee, the executive committee of the Machine and Allied Products Institute; chairman (1943-48) of the Cincinnati Committee for Economic Development, consultant to Foreign Economic Administration in 1945, assistant chief of Cincinnati Ordnance District (1938-40), president of the National Machine Tool Builders Association, president (1943) of the Cincinnatus Association, member Engineering Society, and associate member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

He was also one of the founders of the Camargo Club in Indian Hill, and president of the Commercial Club in 1945.