After graduating from USC in 1952, LeVan sold scientific instruments for various manufacturers. The companies would take old instruments in trade in order to sell new ones but would discard the old models rather than refurbish and resell them.
Customers would ask LeVan about the availability of old equipment, so he reconditioned discarded analytical instruments in his Fountain Valley garage and sold them on the side. In 1978, LeVan started Genie Scientific to buy, refurbish and sell used scientific equipment, naming the firm for his wife, Jeanne.
LeVan and his children, who now run Genie, exemplify a common entrepreneurial path, picking up and running with ideas that big business ignores. That habit has built Genie into a company with 20 employees with various divisions for new opportunities that crop up from time to time. And they have learned to stop doing what no longer makes economic sense.
"If a customer wants something, don't say no," said son Mel, Genie's second employee.
Mel started working for his dad hunting for used instruments to buy. He expanded into used lab furnishings.
"Our big break came when Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (in Los Angeles) closed," Mel LeVan said. "Genie sold the lab equipment and furniture and customers lined up for it."
As Genie's reputation grew, it became harder to find old furnishings so Mel started his own division, Genie Instruments, to make equipment, specializing in scientific laboratories. Fortunately for Genie, Orange County had plenty of research and development and pharmaceutical labs that needed fume hoods, steel cabinets and other specialized furnishings.
Later, John LeVan's daughter Moya O'Neill joined the company. She had been selling Pitney Bowes machines and needed some extra money, so she was given the company's refurbished airborne particle analyzers to sell.
"I sold them all in 30 days, so Dad had me come to work for Genie," O'Neill recalled. She worked on straight commission and learned more about scientific equipment than she ever did in school.
The most recent family addition to the staff is Mel's son Garrett, who handles the company website and marketing.
Genie couldn't compete with major manufacturers, but excelled at special, custom orders such as fume hoods so large that a human could walk into them, Mel LeVan said. Whatever a customer wanted that it couldn't find in the open market, Genie could make. It has worked with more than 500 customers worldwide, from cosmetic manufacturers to Apple Computer.
One of the keys to survival for 35 years has been the ability to stop doing some things. Genie tried manufacturing in Mexico and in China, but with the help of a California lean manufacturing program, designed to keep companies in the Golden State, Genie has brought the manufacturing work back to Fountain Valley.
"Our customers want it fast and they want quality," O'Neill said. "That's our specialty."
About four years ago, Genie stopped doing what it was created to do, John LeVan said. "They no longer refurbish instruments; no one fixes instruments anymore."
LeVan himself is "retired" at age 89, although he and his dogs come to the office every day. He has a workshop next to his office where he tinkers with inventions such as a topper for keys to make them easier for arthritic people to use and lasers for golf instruction.
But Genie still tries new things when customers ask. O'Neill has started a separate division called Moya Living to make custom steel residential furniture. It currently is working on a big project for a New York City apartment co-op.
"I feel like I've come full circle because I studied design in college," O'Neill said.
Mel LeVan said the separate divisions of Genie uses each family member's strength. "Moya likes the design, but I like fume hoods because of higher profit margins."
Contact the writer: 714-796-7927 or jnorman@ocregister.com
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