“From Fulbright engineer working on the Apollo Project guidance software to Titan of environmental mitigation systems for global industries.”
Like most successful fulbrighters, the story of engineer Gene Anguil is complex and rich and beautiful both in challenges, experience and the level of character that he’s developed through an 88-year-old life of innovation. Gene was born in Rome, living in a small family household that included his father, the director of a bank, his mother and brother. In 1938 when Mussolini changed the national law in Italy that forbid Jewish residents from gainful employment, Gene’s father decided to board his entire family on the last boat out of Genoa, Italy in 1940. He was raised in Jersey City, New Jersey and he spent his early life interested in drafting, woodworking and electrical trade. He found himself in industrial arts education, but it wasn’t until his math teacher, Miss Nadal, found something special in a young Gene. He went on to skip two grades starting at the age of 13 and ultimately ended up in Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. This was in 1959. He was the vice president of his college class and the president of his fraternity where he met his future wife, Brenda. He then went on to obtain a National Defense fellowship in mathematics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Virginia and did all of the work short of defending his PhD thesis as he had been given the great opportunity to study computer science around the Turing machine (an early model of the Central Processing Unit [CPU]) in 1961 as a Fulbright scholar to Rome and returned back to his birthplace. Gene’s wife joined them for the year, and they had their first child there. He states that the experience was a year of richness with other Fulbrights studying poetry, music and the arts from all around the world. Gene loved the experience because although he did have one other technical student with him the majority of his cohort was in the arts and per him “he lived a wonderful year with great community of scholars.” He has fond memories of that time and was able to get reacquainted with family that have been left behind in Italy before the second World War.
Gene came back to the States and worked for two aerospace companies, spending three years at his first company as the youngest section lead and then four years at General Motors from 1968 to 1972 working in the Research and Development Division out of Oak Creek, WI. During that time Gene worked on the Apollo project as a project engineer with early software development to look at calculations of weight at various stages of flight, the effects of propulsion and trajectory on orbit and many of the early calculations that were necessary for a successful Apollo project, known as the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). This involved collaboration with AC Electronics Division and the Draper Instrumentation Lab at MIT. Within GMs R&D division he then migrated to selling concepts and solutions to federal programs and industrial projects, including projects to curb drunk driving with car systems to prevent impaired drivers with cognitive impairment tests before allowing vehicle ignition.
After he finished this incredible work on the national treasure of the Apollo project, at the age of 39 Gene was remembering a book he had read in college about how to build and lead your own successful firm by the age of 40. As he told me during the interview, his success was done step by step… developing relationships along the way and having the ability to communicate effectively and understand the needs of his clients. Gene’s company, Anguil Environmental Systems, is currently 47 years old and based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, working with industrial firms to engineer environmental systems to decrease their amount of volatile organic compounds impact consistent with EPA and international standards. He told me that Fulbright helped direct his focus on being at the top of his field, to focus on excellence and communication. He told me about his first business contract when he started his company with a printing firm out of Brooklyn, NY, where he flew out to meet with the owner and the owner took a revolver out of his desk and put it in his holster on his belt as Gene was starting discussions about the project and contract with them. It was at that point that he had to define the four pillars of his business, one of which is “never back down.” To never back down from a relationship, a problem or a challenge which he now sees embodied in his son and daughter, Chris and Deb Anguil, who have taken over the company in the last few years.
Gene speaks fondly of his time in Fulbright and reiterated multiple times during our discussions together on how it had helped propel his career and allowed him to work on the Apollo project and the R&D division of General Motors by being able to work both on selling innovative solutions to large industrial problems but also being able to communicate and develop relationships in a truly Fulbright way. At this point after 47 years, his business has grown to $100 million revenue per year with 120 technically trained employees in the US (mostly engineers), an additional 50 in China and 20 in India. They have performed over 2000 industrial system installations across >100 industries to make the world a cleaner environment in balance with production requirements for a better future. (Figure 6) Building a purpose driven company of almost 50 years. What an amazing history and to be shared with the Fulbright Association and all of its membership.
Thank you for taking the time to talk and share your story with other Fulbrights.
Thank you, Gene Anguil, Fulbright to Italy 1961.
Written by, Michael J. Malinowski, MD