Kathryn Hach-Darrow: A Brief Biography

Kathryn (Kitty) Hach-Darrow was a chemist, entrepreneur and philanthropist born on October 20, 1922. She grew up during the great depression. She lived on a farm with her family due, which would later help her afford to go to college. She attended Christian college (currently known as Columbia) for a brief time, and later she transferred to Iowa State with the purpose of becoming a home-economics teacher. During her time in college she was often inspired by Nellie Taylor, who was a chemist that worked for the home-economics department. Through school she met her husband Clifford Hach. He own a patent on a new way to generate carbon dioxide to fight fires. With the money he earned with the patent, the pair start a company called Hach Chemical company. They mixed …show more content…
While raising her 3 children, she pioneered a direct-mail campaign to help grow the company. She would fly hours and distributed their water purification systems, and also trained people on how to use them, as well as how the system worked. Their company was instrumental in standardizing water-purification tests and pioneered titration test kits and many world-standard water-testing instruments. The company’s tests were designed to be simple and effective, using visual comparisons against color standards and nontechnical directions. According to the company mottos, they could be used by anyone who can read.After Clifford’s death in 1990, Kitty Hach-Darrow was the company’s sole CEO, and Hach Corporation was the largest woman-operated business in the state with annual sales in excess of $100 million. Hach Corporation was sold to the Danaher Corporation in 1999 for $355 million. Before retirement, Hach-Darrow guided the company to its status as a $313 million global leader in water-purification technology. Kitty was the first woman director of the American Water Works Association. In 1982 Kitty and Clifford established the Hach Scientific