Jim Penrod
The IRgA extends its deepest condolences to the family of Jim Penrod, a long-time IRgA member and leader in the reprographics industry who passed away on July 29 at age 85.
Penrod was extremely proud of his reprographics firm, Leet-Melbrook in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which he purchased from the founding family in 1980. Leet-Melbrook was founded in 1893 and was considered the oldest reprographics firm in the Washington, DC area and the second oldest firm in the country. Under Penrod's leadership, the company continuously added technology and grew its customer base.
But Penrod was careful about growth. In a 1993 article in Modern Reprographics magazine that celebrated Leet-Melbrook's 100th birthday, Penrod explained that he did not want to expand beyond his reach: "When I first bought the company, there was one small operation -- a 6,500-square-foot shop. I expanded to four branches, but I found I was spreading myself too thin and had to rely on a lot of other people. Since I like to stay in touch with customers and have control, I sold off two branches in D.C. to a competitor and closed one in Virginia. I expanded our fleet of delivery vehicles -- now there are nine of them -- to cover the area. Instead of bringing our facility to our customers, we're bringing our customers' work to my facility." (Click here to read the whole article from the May/June 1993 issue of Modern Reprographics, which was coincidentally the first issue of that magazine.)
Penrod, who had started his reprographics career in 1959, sold Leet-Melbrook to ARC in 2002.
Penrod's involvement with IRgA peaked when he was president of the association in 1998-99. Among his initiatives during that time was an effort to grow IRgA's international presence. An article in Repro Report magazine about the potential for international growth quoted Penrod: “When we evaluated our web site activity reports, we saw a high number of visitors to the IRgA web site who were based outside of North America. We also saw a significant increase in the number of companies outside of North America requesting membership information. Some of these companies ultimately turned into new members, a significant portion of which were from Europe...The heightened interest in the IRgA’s programming and events by companies throughout the world, not just in North America, spoke to the desire to unite and develop the reprographic industry globally...The mindset is on sharing information. Helping companies meet the challenges of today will ensure a solid future for our industry tomorrow.”
Jim Penrod with grandsons Brady and Brendan Dillon in 2019.
Later in his life, Penrod especially enjoyed his time at his lake house in Palmyra, Virginia. He is survived by his wife, Virginia Strong Penrod, three children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Click here to read a more complete personal obituary.