Hypertherm co-founder Dick Couch, wife and business partner Barbara Couch, and president and CEO Evan Smith are recovering from a whirlwind 14-day trip around the world to visit Hypertherm’s international associates. Traveling from New Hampshire first to Brazil, then on to the Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, and finally China, the trio enjoyed celebrating with fellow colleagues. Associates in Quebec, Mexico City, New York, and Minnesota also enjoyed the fun during 50th anniversary festivities of their own.
On June 14, current and retired Hypertherm Associates, board members, community leaders, congressional representatives and New Hampshire Governor John Sununu watched as a time capsule buried in 2003, during Hypertherm’s 35th Anniversary year, was pulled out of the ground at Hypertherm's company headquarters in New Hampshire. Among its contents, a floppy disc from the pre-smartphone era. A new time capsule consisting of a Hypertherm HyPerformance cooler assembly and filled with more than 80 items, including the company’s “Hotter than Plasma” hot sauce, took its place. It is now completely buried with instructions left to unearth it in 2043 for Hypertherm’s 75th anniversary.
Four days later on June 18 — the actual date of Hypertherm’s incorporation in 1968 — roughly 1,100 Associates based out of Hypertherm’s New Hampshire offices, along with Hypertherm sales associates from throughout the United States and other special guests, converged upon a field in Quechee, Vt. for the main event. Associates enjoyed lawn games and taking photos out of two 1960’s era Volkswagen buses. They also posed for a group photo, taken using a drone, before listening to Couch tell stories from the early years. He talked about the struggles of getting Hypertherm off the ground, including the advice he received from bankers while trying to raise money for Hypertherm. “Don’t do it,” they told him, but he did and the company is celebrating its golden anniversary. Attendees enjoyed a “beer toast” with beer specially bottled for Hypertherm by fellow employee-owned company Harpoon Brewery and lunch followed.
