Dr. Willard’s Water: How one local scientist’s discovery became a lucrative, global family business. Q&A with grandson and current CEO, John Willard III.
Tell us about Dr. Willard’s Water’s origin? My grandfather, Dr. John Willard Sr., was a chemist and he invented a product he called Catalyst Activated Water in the mid-1960’s. The product is a proprietary water additive that stimulates a number of biological activities such as digestion, cellular absorption, antioxidant activity and several other things. After conducting a few years of tests in conjunction with a biologist friend at Purdue, Dr. T.W. Perry, my grandfather, realized he’d invented something pretty special so he began to set up a company to sell the product. He founded CAW Industries (Catalyst Activated Water) in 1973 and we’ve been in continuous business since. The catalyst today is sold all over the world in just about every
In the early years the company was really run out of my grandfather’s basement where he manufactured the product and we often spent our Saturdays helping to fill bottles and apply labels. In 1980 the news program 60 Minutes did a story on my grandfather and his invention and that story really launched the company worldwide. Thanks to that interview, we were able to start bottling en masse at a manufacturing facility and my dad and uncle joined the business full-time. When my grandfather died in 1991 my dad and uncle co-ran the company and that relationship lasted until my uncle died. I took over as CEO in 2011.
Were you always interested in being part of the family business?
capacity one can imagine. There’s money to be
Anyone who has been involved in a family business
made in stimulating biological functions including
knows that the one thing you can count on when
a microbial soil enhancer, cosmetic ingredient,
working with family is discord within the family. My
plant additive, specialty beverage and everything in
sister and I grew up watching my dad deal with what
between.
seemed to be a constant flow of arguments with his
How did the company transition throughout your family over the decades?
dad and brother, so we were both very wary of entering the family business. However, I’d worked for the business during summer breaks in college and spent
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Business is Booming
