Jacques Kuhn, Leader at Kuhn Rikon, Passes Away at 97

Long before it became a fashionable watchword, Jacques Kuhn was putting authenticity it into practice. The titular head of Kuhn Rikon, who died on Dec. 30 at 97, was for many years the heart of the company. 

For 40 years he led the firm. Not as a manager from behind his desk, but as a trained engineer, who spent many a night working painstakingly until the best solution was found, such as the spring valve and locking mechanism of the Duromatic pressure cooker. When he was doing this, he would tested it himself, not only in the laboratory, but also often on his own cooker until the invention was perfect. “Many ideas occurred to me when cooking,” he once revealed.

An inventor and pioneer who remained curious and given to enthusiasms throughout his life, he visited cookware-producing factories in America after the war and sent his brother, who had taken over the firm after the premature death of their father, pages of reports back to Switzerland. Manufacturing using a production line was one of the ideas Kuhn brought back with him and which the employees adopted with enthusiasm.

“Anyone wishing to be a good leader, has to like people” was his maxim. The employees of Kuhn Rikon were not the only ones who got to know our humanitarian. In the ‘60s, together with his brother, he gave Tibetan refugees work and accommodation in the Töss Valley and later also a spiritual home. The only Tibetan Buddhist monastery outside Asia came into being with the Tibet Institute in Rikon. It is under the patronage of the Dalai Lama, who has visited the monastery 13 times and has even visited the Kuhn family and sat with them in their garden. JK, as Kuhn was also known inside the firm, continued to be involved in an honorary capacity after his retirement.

At the Tibet Institute Kuhn also got to know his wife, Roswitha, whom he married at age 88. She was in charge of the library at the Tibet Institute. Together, they wrote three detective novels in the last few years, which are set in the Töss Valley.

Kuhn finished working and retired from the company payroll at 65, however, he continued to experiment, research, advise and take an interest. “The drama in most family firms is that the older members do not stop in good time.” This mistake was one he wanted to avoid. Today the second generation to follow him is already in place in the management of the firm.