Robert Looker

Robert Looker, 1922-2012

Founder of Satco

Robert Looker, well-known industrialist, businessman, patron of the arts, and philanthropist, founder and chief executive officer of El Segundo-based Satco, has died. He was in his 90th year.

Looker died at UCLA Santa Monica Hospital on June 28 after a brief illness.

Satco, which Looker established in 1968, benefitted greatly from his engineering inventiveness to produce pioneering models and variations of so-called unit load devices (ULDs) for air cargo, which won for his company the major market share in the field, notably with FedEX, UPS, and many airlines worldwide. Operations take place in El Segundo, near LAX, in seven buildings dedicated to the design, manufacture, sales and service of the various products. In addition there are three repair stations located in Memphis, Louisville, and Indianapolis, where maintenance service is conducted.

Looker remained at the helm of the company until the end, appearing at his desk every day of the week. For most of his life, he would drive down the coast from his home in Montecito, "Villa Califia" (built by Gordon Kaufman, architect of the Greystone Mansion, Santa Anita and the Los Angeles Times Building); but in recent years he stayed more often at his new house on The Strand in Manhattan Beach, designed by architect Frederick Fisher. "Dad was a hands-on and feet-on boss," says his son Peter, Executive Vice-President of the company. "We called him 'Designer Bob'-he was always innovating, always improving, always leading the way. When he got something in his sights, change was on the way." He established the high standards for the air-cargo business that remain active today.

Looker was a patron of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and especially of the art scene in the city. He was at one time on the Board of Trustees of both LACE and MOCA, and was still a trustee of LACMA, and a member of the National Gallery of Art Acquisition Committee. He was an important collector of modern and contemporary art, especially German Expressionism, and his acquisitions were on display in his homes in California, New York (Greenwich Village) and London (Brompton Square).

Robert Looker was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, on August 30, 1922, son of Oscar Looker and Dorothy Jane West Bernard, where he grew up with his older sister Dorothy. During World War II he entered the navy and attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating in 1946. He remained devoted to the school, making major donations to it, and for the last ten years he served as a member of the Academy's President's Circle. He was prominent in celebrating his class's major anniversaries, although after the 50th he organized one for 52 ½ years in New Orleans, fearing that some colleagues might not last until the 55th date. He himself went beyond year 65. While still in the Academy, on June 12, 1945, he married Mary Marjory Macbeth of Grosse Pointe, who remained his constant companion all his life; they had six children together.

After his naval service, Looker joined the Huck Manufacturing Company of Detroit to work for his stepfather and mentor (Lou Huck) and became national sales manager. In 1957, he moved his family from Grosse Pointe to Santa Monica, and bought the Brownline Manufacturing Company, which he operated until 1968, when he formed Satco-as in "Satisfactory Company."

Bob Looker was constantly striving to expand his intellectual as well as artistic horizons. He was always very interested in philosophy, theology, and hagiography (the scholarly history of saints), especially after he and his family became Catholics in 1968 and fans of the Paulist Fathers at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood. Among his favorite thinkers were Cardinal Newman, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hannah Arendt, and, most recently, Epicurus and Lucretius. He was so impressed with Nietzsche, and eager to spread his enthusiasm for his works, that he tried for several years to create a chair of Nietzsche studies at a suitable university, but in the end he decided that his efforts and resources would be best employed in funding the preservation and restoration of the philosopher's personal notes and papers, which were in disarray and decay in the Nietzsche archives in Weimar, Germany. With the grateful assent of the local authorities, he imported expert technicians who went to work, and after long labors put everything in order, producing 45 volumes bound in gold-tooled leather, of all of Nietzsche's published works (5 vols.), lecture notes (3 vols.), philosophical notebooks (24 vols.), memoranda (10 vols.), and musical compositions (3 vols.). An additional volume contained an index and description of the over 900 books in Nietzsche's personal library. An exact duplicate of these volumes, and microfilms of all of the material, were donated by Looker and his philanthropic arm, the Looker Foundation, to the New York Public Library in 2002.

The Nietzsche project led to the founding of The Looker Foundation in 1995 for the purpose of supporting programs that address the unmet needs of children, families, education, the environment, and culture and arts. Over the years, major grants have been rewarded to Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Wheels for Humanity, and the Environment Defense Fund among many other worthy and important organizations. His family looks forward to many more years of honoring the entrepreneurial spirit of Looker and keeping the Foundation alive and giving.

Looker's interest in Eastern thought and esthetics, especially Indian philosophy and Japanese design, should also be mentioned. He was a great supporter of Professor Raimundo Panikkar of the School of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who helped shape his passion for these subjects, especially when viewed through Panikkar's unique merging of Eastern and Western traditions.

Looker is survived by his wife Mary, his daughters Blair Ridenour (Tom) and Amy; his sons David (Monica), John, Peter, and Robert; and 10 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. A funeral mass will be celebrated at St Paul the Apostle Church, Westwood, on Thursday, July 5, at 1:00 p.m.