page_title: Jake Swirbul
hierarchical_section_title: Jake Swirbul
caption_attribution_description: English: PictionID:42253559 - Title:Roy Grumman and Jake Swirbul with G-44 prototype Jun40 (mfr via RJF) - Catalog:17_000056 - Filename:17_000056.tif - ---------Image from the René Francillon Photo Archive. Having had his interest in aviation sparked by being at the receiving end of B-24s bombing occupied France when he was 7-yr old, René Francillon turned aviation into both his vocation and avocation. Most of his professional career was in the United States, working for major aircraft manufacturers and airport planning/design companies. All along, he kept developing a second career as an aviation historian, an activity that led him to author more than 50 books and 400 articles published in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and elsewhere. Far from “hanging on his spurs,” he plans to remain active as an author well into his eighties.-------PLEASE TAG this image with any information you know about it, so that we can permanently store this data with the original image file in our Digital Asset Management System.--------------SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
context_page_description: Leon Albert "Jake" "The Bullfrog" Swirbul, was an aviation pioneer and co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.
  Swirbul was born in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. His parents Frederiks Zvirbulis and Lena Zvirbule were immigrants from Latvia. 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 was the production manager, who understood the dynamics of mass production.
context_section_description: Leon Albert "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 parents Frederiks Zvirbulis and Lena (Dannenberga) Zvirbule were immigrants from Latvia. 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 was the production manager, who understood the dynamics of mass production. He was responsible for the huge output of World War II and was equally adept in ramping down production at the end of the war to ensure the company's survival. Jake found his solutions on a personal, rather than an abstract level. He was always known as a hands on  manager who could get the most out of his workers while treating them with friendship and respect. While Roy Grumman was always referred to as "Mr. Grumman", Jake was always Jake and could be seen out on the shop floor conversing with his men, while checking progress. Grumman was the only manufacturer to start the 1950s in the black. 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.Thousands turned out for his funeral.
  The Swirbul Library at Adelphi University is named in his honor.
caption: Jake Swirbul in 1940
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