Werle, C. Robert (Clemence Robert), 1893-1990

C. Robert Werle was born in New Haven, Conn., on January 12, 1893 and received a degree in electrical engineering from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School. His earliest employment, with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company (1916-17) and Colt's Repeating Arms Company (1917-18), involved conducting time studies. This led to a permanent position with the Cooley & Marvin Company of Boston, an industrial engineering firm. Werle continued to conduct time studies, as well as analysis of accounting and plant methods for a variety of clients, mostly in the textile, leather, woodworking and metalworking industries.

In 1924, Werle followed Cooley & Marvin's chief engineer, Carle M. Bigelow, who established his own firm of Bigelow, Kent, Willard & Company with other Cooley & Marvin employees. Bigelow had developed the Bigelow Bonus Plan, a modification of the Emerson Plan that involved a system of graduated bonuses for increased productivity. Werle left Bigelow in October 1927 and became vice president and works manager of the Watsontown (Pa.) Door & Sash Company, a client of both the Cooley and Bigelow firms. He left Watsontown in 1929 to join the Real Estate, Land Title & Trust Company of Philadelphia, where he stayed until being thrown out of work in the Depression in 1931. The details of his subsequent career are unknown, although he seems to have stayed in the Delaware Valley. He died in Florida on May 27, 1990.

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