Martin J. (Marty) Skok Jr., who helped build his father’s successful engine parts manufacturing business into a truly global enterprise serving original equipment manufacturers and replacement parts distributors, died Oct. 4, 2015, at his home in Elgin, Ill., following a brief illness. He was 87.
Born and raised in Elgin, Skok assumed control of Elgin Industries after his father, company founder Martin J. Skok Sr., suffered a stroke in the early 1960s. A graduate of Elgin Academy and Northwestern University, Skok over the next 50 years directed the growth of the company’s manufacturing and distribution operations, product line and portfolio of customers.
Skok’s most significant success, however, was in guiding his father’s company, established in 1919, to international prominence while maintaining its focus on quality, leading-edge technology and exceptional customer service. Founded as a manufacturer of a single product line – piston pins – Elgin Industries today is a fully integrated, U.S.-based supplier of internal engine and chassis components and one of the world’s premier manufacturers of push rods and complete valve train packages.