Norman C. Nitschke, 100, an engineer and inventor who teamed with fellow innovator Harold McMaster in renowned ventures to temper glass and harness solar energy, died Sunday in his Perrysburg Township home.
He had coronavirus, son Steve said. He’d received care after suffering traumatic brain injury in a fall a year ago.
Mr. Nitschke and Mr. McMaster were allied in Permaglass Inc., which used an innovative method to temper glass and created a market in the auto industry. After selling that firm, they started Glasstech Inc., which became a leader in roller hearth glass tempering and bending.
Mr. McMaster had an interest in capturing solar energy, Mr. Nitschke’s son said. Glasstech Solar and Solar Cells Inc. followed, using thin-film cadmium telluride technology.
The firms were considered pioneering, yet “Dad was never one to go around boasting,” his son said.
Mr. Nitschke effectively retired in 1992 when his wife, Lois, became ill, although he invested with the late Mr. McMaster in another solar venture, his son said.
In recent years, he was best known as a benefactor of education and the arts — the University of Toledo; Bowling Green State University; Imagination Station; the Toledo Symphony, and the Toledo Museum of Art.
His donations led the way toward construction of a new UT engineering building, Nitschke Hall, and toward the business and technology incubator, the Nitschke Technology Commercialization Complex. He was a supporter of BGSU’s Center for Photochemical Sciences.
“He thought northwest Ohio would be better if we had more engineers and builders educated in northwest Ohio,” his son said. “His main idea was to make sure the university had the facilities or the draw to get good professors. And better professors would attract better students.”
Mr. Nitschke believed innovation started with students and faculty, said Nagi Naganathan, a former UT dean of engineering who also was an interim university president.
“I learned so much from him, and he had such a transformative effect on my personal and professional life, for which I will always be grateful,” said Mr. Naganathan, now president of Oregon Institute of Technology
Mr. Nitschke was a longtime member of the Toledo Symphony board, with a particular interest in audience development, said Robert Bell, the symphony’s president emeritus. Indeed, he provided funding to support the appearance of famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma with the symphony.
He was born April 2, 1920, in Mishawaka, Ind., to Anna and Bruno Nitschke and grew up on East Toledo. He was a 1938 graduate of Waite High School, then attended business and engineering classes at UT before completing bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and engineering physics from the University of Michigan.
He started working at Sun Oil Co. during World War II. He met Mr. McMaster at the Libbey-Owens-Ford Co., where they worked on glass bending and tempering.
He and the former Lois Mandell married in 1947. She died March 9, 1994.
Surviving are his sons, J. Stephen, Robert, David, and Dean; daughter, Susan Ouellette; nine grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren,
Services will be private. Arrangements are by Witzler-Shank Walker Funeral Home, Perrysburg. A public celebration of life event will be held later.
The family suggest tributes to Hospice of Northwest Ohio; the UT college of engineering; Imagination Station, or the Toledo Symphony.
First Published February 17, 2021, 5:00 a.m.
