100 | Business World Magazine |
April 2014
T
he goods and services and the
means by which they’re made and
distributed may have changed
through the years, but the intangibles like re-
liability, dependability and quality have not.
And that, in the estimation of Ed Good,
is what’s kept the R.A. Hiller Company in
good stead with its customers and employ-
ees over 60-plus years since its humble begin-
nings in western Pennsylvania.
“It’s really like a family-first environment
here,” said Good, an 18-year company vet-
eran who’s now the sales manager for Hiller’s
business. “Everybody understands that you
have to work to make money, but family is
very important and that’s carried over. It’s the
type of company where as long as you take
care of what you’re responsible for and you
do your job, it’s a very fair place to work.”
The company was founded in 1950 by its
namesake, Ralph A. Hiller, as an industrial
distribution entity that sold pneumatic and
hydraulic components to the industrial sec-
tor in its home territory.
It evolved to work within the nuclear
power industry in the late 1960s by design-
ing custom linear actuators for safety related
applications, which focused on main steam
