After 53 years working for Airstream, Research & Development Manager Bob Sandford is retiring. Sanford worked for nearly half a century at the company’s Jackson Center, Ohio headquarters. In his tenure, Sanford watched countless concepts move from ideas into finished Airstreams rolling off the line. Along the way, Airstream stretched and grew and evolved. For many of those developments, Sanford was at the helm.
“I’ve been a part of so many great things,” Sanford said. “The collaborative and supportive work environment has allowed me to explore my curiosity and grow professionally. This company is like a family.”
A lifelong resident of west-central Ohio, Sanford began his career on the factory floor after graduating from high school. Soon after joining the company, he joined the team that worked on NASA’s Mobile Quarantine Facilities (MQFs) for the Apollo program.
Four facilities were built to house astronauts returning from the moon, in case the astronauts brought back harmful parasites from space. Today, the MQFs Sanford worked on are housed in museums, including at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C.
“They’d bring you in and you’d do your job,” he remembered of the NASA project. “Then somebody else would come in and do something else, and maybe you’d come back and do something – it was a need to know basis. But it was incredible knowing that we’d contributed in some small way to that project.”
As the research & development manager, Sanford was integral in bringing Airstream’s designs to life. Many of the improvements Sanford initiated streamlined and fine-tuned Airstream’s hand-made manufacturing process. In an era of predating computer-control machining tools, Sanford was renowned for hand-carving prototype pieces that preserved the function and beauty of Airstream designs.
“This company and this brand are all about loyalty and longevity, and nobody represents that more than Bob Sanford,” said Airstream President & CEO Bob Wheeler said. “Fifty-three years making an impact for this company – he gets a lot of credit for much of the design and development that’s kept Airstream relevant and up-to-date.”
