Leon A. "Jake" "The Bullfrog" Swirbul (March 18, 1898 – June 28, 1960), was an aviation pioneer and co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.
Swirbul was born in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. His family moved to Long Island when he was a child. He grew up in Sag Harbor and graduated from Pierson High School. He attended Cornell University until 1917 when he left school to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Jake Swirbul and Leroy Grumman met in 1924 at Loening Aeronautical Engineering Co. in New York City, one of the many small aircraft firms that sprang up after World War I. When the firm's Manhattan factory was closed after its sale to Keystone Aircraft in 1929, Swirbul and Grumman decided to form their own company. Grumman mortgaged his house to contribute $16,875, and Swirbul contributed $8,125. Two other Loening employees, William Schwendler and Edmund Ward Poor, contributed a little and former Wall Street banker E. Clinton Towl made up the fifth employee of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, formed January 2, 1930.
Swirbul's management style complemented Grumman's engineering skill. The two men formed a close business partnership that fostered growth, managing to keep the company alive during the Great Depression. As World War II approached, Swirbul's contacts in the US Navy kept Grumman's production lines running, and his scalable management style is credited with Grumman's ability to ramp up production faster than any other company when war broke out, and to maintain higher profit margins than any other aircraft company throughout the war. Jake's management style was easy to emulate, but difficult to imitate. He had an innate sense of handling people and getting the most out of them, while treating them with respect and dignity. The huge production levels of WWII was proof of this dynamic. In the 40s and 50s, when Grumman had tens of thousands employees, Jake knew everybody's name. And if he didn't actually know yours-with his personnel style- you thought he did. In 1944, the Navy asked Grumman to slow production to 500 airplanes a month even though Swirbul said he could build 700 a month. In March, 1945, Grumman built a record 664 aircraft. Following the war, Swirbul effectively scaled down Grumman's operations so quickly that the company was the only American aviation company to post a profit in 1946. Jake always believed that going to see the boss was one of the hardest things a man could do. Jake kept his desk facing the open office door so he could see an employee approaching. The guy would usually stop before he got to the door, unsure if he should continue. Jake would then break the ice by calling out "You want to see me?"
Jake Swirbul died of pneumonia while ill with colon cancer on June 28, 1960, shortly after Grumman began work on the Gemini program and one month after the roll-out ceremony for the A-6 Intruder. His funeral was attended by thousands of Grumman employees. Jake was the greatest unsung industrialist and production manager in the world. If only he was around today.....
The Swirbul Library at Adelphi University is named in his honor