Alumni Spotlight: Leroy "Mike" Fingerson

In addition to the interview, excerpts from a booklet written by Mike Fingerson called TSI, The First Chapters, were used with permission.

Leroy “Mike” Fingerson is a very tall, lean man, with Scandinavian reserve, and a genuine warmth. We met at his home in Arden Hills to talk about his long and fruitful career with the company he helped to found, TSI, Inc. “TSI had a lot of relationships with the Mechanical Engineering Department. Besides the fact that I graduated from the department, we licensed products, some of which were very successful.” Today, TSI has over 500 employees and offices in Europe and Asia. One of its products was used to measure the air quality in Bejing during the recent Olympic Games. The story of this company begins with Fingerson.

Fingerson grew up on a farm in southeastern Minnesota. He had no ambitions to attend college until his piano teacher encouraged him to further his education. Attending college was unusual for rural kids at that time, so after graduating from high school Fingerson was working for his father on the farm for $50 per month and also working for a contractor. When his father needed surgery, Fingerson made a deal with him to rent the farm on thirds for a year. “I made good money that year, and had the funds to go to college, although, tuition was much lower, then,” he admits. Mechanical Engineering was the obvious choice for a young man with a farm background and abilities. Fingerson earned his Bachelor of Science in 1954, a Masters of Science in 1955, and his Ph.D. in 1961. He focused on fluid mechanics, and his Ph.D. advisor was Perry Blackshear.

During his undergraduate years he worked part time and lived near campus. He remembers the ‘609 Club:’ “It was a rooming house and a place where for $9.00 a week you could get all your meals except Sunday supper. If you worked there a couple of hours it would be $7.00 per week. It was managed by a woman known as “Mrs. E”. It was a fairly large house located on Washington Avenue, where the hotel is today, and “if you stayed at a rooming house and ate at “Mrs. E’s” it was cheaper than a dorm.”

By the time Fingerson was working on his Ph.D. he was sharing a house with several other engineers. While working on his thesis he had a problem with an instrument for making measurements in turbulent combustion. In discussing the problem with his housemates, one of the electrical engineers, Frank Dorman, came up with an idea for a ‘cooled film anemometer.’ Rodney Turnquist, another electrical engineer and housemate joined the project, which had moved to the basement shop. As they continued to work on the instrument, Arthur Kydd, another housemate, joined the group and was enthusiastic to start a company. Lowell Nystrom became the fifth member of the group. He had lived with the group before getting married. He brought a business degree, an engineering degree, as well as a Masters in Industrial Engineering to the group. By 1960 the partnership had developed to the point of taking that next step, creating a company - Thermo-Systems Incorporated, known today as TSI. By devoting their ‘free’ time and contributing money in equal amounts to purchase supplies they kept it going, but it remained a low budget operation in those early years.

1960 brought other changes for Fingerson; he married Ruth Johnson in November and bought the house. The others moved to a new location. It soon became clear that the basement operation needed a new home. The first official company headquarters was located in a storefront at 2418 E. Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. Because they needed earnings while working on their new anemometer, they set up a service to do particle sizing on powder samples. This was done by using a system developed by Dr. Kenneth Whitby, professor in mechanical engineering. ‘Thus began a long and successful association between the Particle Technology Laboratory at the University and TSI.’ They hired their first employee to run these services, and the five continued to put in ‘free time’ while they worked elsewhere. Fingerson emphasized that it was their careful planning, control of costs, and accurate financial numbers that helped TSI become successful.

In March of 1961 they incorporated, Fingerson was elected President and Lowell Nystrom became Vice President and Treasurer. They formed a Board of Directors, which added some needed expertise. Professor Kenneth Whitby became an investor in the company. Their first product was the “Heat Flux System” or cooled film anemometer. It was difficult to use so they eventually created a transistorized Hot Wire Anemometer. These instruments measure the details of fluid flow. In 1966 they also licensed their first product for sizing particles down to submicron sizes, today called nanoparticles, from the University’s Particle Technology Laboratory. The company worked in tandem on research instruments for fluid mechanics and particle technology.

By 1966 they outgrew the Hennepin Avenue storefront and leased a building of 10,000 square feet at 2500 Cleveland Avenue in Roseville. The company’s earnings had been on an upward curve since their first profitable year in 1965. Among the products that brought them this success were particle sizing instruments, a laser doppler anemometer, and the coondensation nucleus counter. The company’s main focus had been on instruments for the research market. But over time they realized that to expand and meet their full potential, they needed to develop products for a larger market.

The business reached into new areas by acquiring companies and receiving government contracts, adding clean room contamination monitoring instruments, fume hood controllers and monitors, medical instruments, and their single most successful instrument, the respirator fit tester. In 1976 they moved to their present headquarters in Shoreview, on 13 acres and now with a total of 140,000 sq. ft.

In 1980, Fingerson had 20 years with the company and decided he needed a break before his next 20 years. He was considering sailing around the world, until an opportunity presented itself which provided the needed change. “Our marketing manager told me they were trying to get a sales office going in Aachen, Germany – and asked me to help with it. So I thought, I’d get to live in a foreign country and get paid for it, so I moved the family,” which included three young children.

Fingerson maintains that the success of TSI was due in large part to the relationships with the University. But this included more than the relationship with researchers. “I am a big supporter of the work-study program [the Co-op Program],” he said, “because not only did I participate in it, I also helped administer it when I was a graduate student.” He worked with Professor Axel Algren who was in charge of the program at the time. “We had many co-op students at TSI. As far as I’m concerned the Co-op Program is great for students and great for industry.

Fingerson retired from TSI in 1998 after 37 years. In addition to his contributions to the company as its CEO, he was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University in 1991. In 1993 he was awarded the highest engineering honor, being elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He has been a member of the Mechanical Engineering’s Advisory Board, and a major contributor to the Building Committee. He also made a special donation along with his company to fund a chair in Mechanical Engineering. These funds established the Fingerson/TSI Distinguished Lecture Series which brings a noted speaker to campus every fall, usually on topics relating to particle technology.

“I had no idea that my decision to attend the University would lead to the wonderful opportunities I have been given”