photography founded 1936 ; 80 years ago 1936 founder bruce reinecker and eldon rothgeb headquarters eden prairie minnesota key people paul harmel chairman of the board michael meek president & ceo 1 website lifetouch.com the sculpture generations was created for the 70th anniversary of lifetouch by sculptor nicholas legeros . lifetouch inc. is an american employee owned 2 photography company headquartered in eden prairie minnesota . 3 it was founded as national school studios nss in 1936 by eldon rothgeb and r. bruce reinecker and incorporated in march 1948 . the company provides photography for families schools and places of worship with operations in all 50 states canada and puerto rico . through lifetouch media productions 4 5 video support is provided to internal and external customers . business units under the corporate umbrella include lifetouch national school studios inc. provides student photography from preschool to high school graduation sports prom and dance and yearbooks . 6 7 lifetouch preschool portraits inc. provider of infant and toddler photography . 8 lifetouch portrait studios inc. is represented in the retail market by some 800 photographic studios including jcpenney portraits target portrait studios cilento photography and lifetouch business portraits . 9 10 lifetouch church directories and portraits inc. is an on site family photography business for faith communities and other organizations providing portraiture and printed directories . 11 12 lifetouch services inc. produces high quality yearbooks and memory books . company photography labs are located throughout the united states and canada . contents 1 company history 1.1 company beginnings 1936 1949 1.2 expansion & transition to employee stock ownership 1950 1979 1.3 rebranding to lifetouch 1980 1988 1.4 acquisitions & expansion 1988 1997 1.5 current events 1997 present 2 philanthropic partnerships 3 references 4 external links company history edit company beginnings 1936 1949 edit two traveling salesmen eldon rothgeb 1916 1972 and r. bruce reinecker 1910 1987 had worked together for a couple of years for a school photography studio in kansas city missouri . in 1936 in the midst of the great depression they raised 500 and initiated their plan to open their own school photography company and set up business as national school studios nss school photography of distinction in minneapolis . they chose the upper midwest to launch their business a predominantly rural area with fewer professional photographers ; thus potential for greater opportunity . 13 14 in 1939 the national school studios had more than a dozen salesmen selling to schools reinecker in charge of production and rothgeb supervising sales and introduced its first new products the 3x5 enlargement and 3x5 display folder neither of which had ever been offered by a school photography company . 15 unusual for the era salesmen for nss were paid employees of the company rather than independent contractors . following world war ii in 1945 the founders mortgaged their personal property and stretched the company s credit line to offer approximately 80 percent of their salesmen returning veterans no interest financing for cars and down payments to buy homes . this drove the company into the red and the bank canceled its line of credit but rothgeb and reinecker persevered . in 1946 nss was one of the largest school photography firms in the country . 16 that same year 1946 the national school studios moved to a new plant in minneapolis and began using the first continuous processing equipment in the industry eliminating hand processing . the system was adapted from the us government s v mail system which printed from a continuous roll of paper and eliminated the slower single cut sheets . 17 the new equipment enabled them to add hand tinted and sepia tone prints to the product line which stimulated sales . in 1948 5x7 enlargements were introduced the first in the market . 18 by 1949 the sales force was at work in all 48 states . 19 expansion & transition to employee stock ownership 1950 1979 edit in the early 1950s stanley merz of the photo control company minneapolis began development of the national school studios model 10 camera and in 1952 nss opened its first plant outside of minneapolis in winnipeg manitoba . during that same year eastman kodak developed a new negative process and new photographic paper that streamlined color photo development . with the help of kodak nss developed the school photography industry s first cluster lens printer making it possible to print multiple photos from a single exposure . nss was first to offer full color hand colored school photos starting in 1956 . 20 package printing and the model 10 camera a replacement for the original box camera were introduced in 1957 the chief advantage of which was a separate film magazine better lighting control and better film metering . 21 the company s first color print processor was installed in 1958 . 22 during the next decade the model 10 evolved into the photo control model 5 camera which remained the industry standard for the next 20 years . by the 1960s the national school studios markets had expanded to include all 50 states puerto rico and canada . new offices and production facilities were built in bloomington minnesota in 1968 . that same year the 8x10 school portrait was introduced to the school photography market becoming vital to nss success in the late 1960s and early 1970s . 23 upon the sudden death of founder eldon rothgeb in 1972 richard p. erickson a nss territory manager was named vice president of sales and marketing to develop plans for consistent growth and profitability . 24 erickson integrated the company s first two acquisitions universal publications kansas city missouri a company specializing in school yearbooks 1973 ; and prestige portraits muncie indiana senior portraiture 1974 . 25 26 nss also released select a pack in 1974 offering choice of three different school photo packages rather than one . erickson was appointed executive vice president in 1976 when reinecker prepared to become less active in day to day company operations . 27 paul harmel who joined nss in 1977 as controller introduced long range financial plans that moved the company forward further propelled by reinecker s decision to reward his employees with an employee stock ownership trust esot in 1977 . the esot was unusual in that it gave employees 100 percent ownership of the company and transferred ownership without requiring contributions from individual employees . 28 29 rebranding to lifetouch 1980 1988 edit the national school studios introduced a prototype of its micro z camera at the july 1980 sales meeting a system that richard erickson had brainstormed with the company s chief design engineer tal hopson for handling nss information and sales volume . despite innovations photographers were reluctant to accept it after using the model 5 for 15 years . redesigned four times in five years erickson was committed to making the camera work . the major advantage was that data could be applied to negatives in barcode which micro z printers recognized automatically printing the correct photo package . it became the camera of choice in 1982 . a key component of the company s success was its ongoing dedication to the design and construction of its own cameras . 30 31 erickson was named president of nss in november 1980 . as part of a new corporate development program kinderfoto international a studio photography company was acquired in 1983 which pushed nss into retail marketing and promotion . 32 on august 1 1984 erickson announced a new name for the corporation lifetouch saying that the new logo in script looks like we re signing our work . business units each with separate identities were rebranded nss became lifetouch national school studios ; kinderfoto became lifetouch portrait studios ; prestige portraits became lifetouch senior portraits now prestige portraits ; universal publications became lifetouch publishing now lifetouch services . 33 in 1986 lifetouch celebrated its 50th anniversary with sales of nearly 200 million photos annually . richard erickson became chairman of the board and ceo of lifetouch inc. and paul harmel was named executive vice president and chief operating officer of lifetouch national school studios in 1987 . acquisitions & expansion 1988 1997 edit the 1980s were marked by numerous acquisitions for lifetouch video creations of st. paul minnesota was purchased in 1988 followed by enterprise school photos inc. a school picture and yearbook vendor in tulsa oklahoma in 1989 . 34 lifetouch then initiated acquisition of school pictures inc. and portrait world . max ward delmar the leading supplier on the east coast of undergraduate and senior portrait services was purchased in 1990 giving lifetouch an office and lab in chesapeake virginia . portrait industries corporation a division of max ward delmar gave lifetouch a stronger presence in the preschool photography market . 35 36 portrait industries inc. a company based in mobile alabama that specialized in preschool photography with national accounts such as kindercare la petite and childtime owned by mike ward was acquired in the 1990s . paul harmel became president of lifetouch inc. in 1769 in may 1995 united photographic industries galion ohio a church directory and commercial printing business was purchased . the following year lifetouch celebrated its 60th anniversary and broke ground for phase i of a new lifetouch corporate campus in eden prairie minnesota . phase ii was completed in 2004 . 37 olan mills school division was acquired in 1999 as was a major competitor in school photography t.d. brown of cranston rhode island which had been in business since 1929 . the richard p. erickson scholarship was initiated in 1998 to honor erickson s decades of service to the company and to benefit the children and grandchildren of lifetouch employees . current events 1997 present edit paul harmel who had been appointed ceo in 1997 was named chairman of the board in 2002 . michael meek was named ceo in july 2016 with paul harmel retained as chairman of the board . 38 flash digital portraits became a branded retail concept in 2000 . 39 flash as a brand is not longer operating and the higher end studio photography brand now operates as cilento photography with eight studios in the united states . 40 joining the lifetouch family in 2006 was the photography business of jostens and in 2011 the photography division of herff jones . in december 2010 the smithsonian s national museum of american history received a donation of historic materials from lifetouch as part of its effort to record the history of photography . the donation included two cameras a micro z and a truview patent drawings and interview with the inventors that complement the museum s collection of some 15 000 pieces of photographic apparatus and more than 200 000 photographs . 41 a micro z and truview camera were also placed in the collection of the international museum of photography in rochester ny . on november 9 2011 lifetouch inc. announced that it had purchased the remaining assets of olan mills photography both its church directory and retail studio businesses . 42 in 2013 lifetouch purchased many of the assets of shuttered competitor cpi corp. who had operated retail portrait studios in sears and walmart stores . 43 these assets included the brand pictureme which has been relaunched as a chromakey based background replacement family photography concept in some of its retail locations . 44 philanthropic partnerships edit the lifetouch memory mission is an annual volunteer trip that provides humanitarian aid to underprivileged communities around the world . its first venture in 2000 was to war ravaged kosovo . missions have since traveled to appalachia jamaica land of the navajo haiti dominican republic and have assisted with hurricane katrina floods in the dakotas fires in california and tornadoes across the midwest . 45 46 47 48 49 50 lifetouch and the national center for missing & exploited children ncmec announced in 2004 a joint