Kenyon Y. Taylor was known throughout the Greater Beloit Community simply by his initials, “K.Y.” Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he graduated from Deerfield Academy and attended the University of Massachusetts. K.Y.’s family included a grandfather, George N. Pierce, pioneer in the automobile manufacturing industry, who built the famous Pierce-Arrow automobile.

K.Y. Taylor would be responsible for creating two major Beloit industries and providing jobs for hundred of his fellow citizens. K.Y. came to the Beloit com-munity and spent 16 years with Besly-Wells Corporation, rising to be its executive vice president. In 1955 he helped form the Beloit Tool Corporation, subsequently to be named Regal-Beloit Corpor-ation and in 1956 left Besly-Wells to devote full time to the new company. As President of Regal-Beloit, K.Y. helped to build the company into a major industry in the Beloit community, with plants in America and abroad. In 1986, at age 71, K.Y.  retired as chairman of the board of Regal-Beloit.

Not content to rest on his laurels, he started with his son Roger, North American Tool Company, serving as its CEO and chairman of the board, building the new company into a major industrial force in the Beloit community. K.Y. Taylor believed in Beloit and its people. He was active in many important civic functions, notably the formation of what has evolved into the Stateline United Way.

He was a primary worker and supporter of the Beloit Memorial Hospital fund drive to build a new hospital for Beloit and chairman of the capital fund drive to build the new Beloit YMCA. He was known for his charitable acts, although his participation was many times behind the scenes. Philanthropy was part of his character, seeking public attention was not. K.Y. Taylor became a crusader for adoption of the metric system in the United States and was appointed by President Richard Nixon to the United States Metric Commission.

He also served as chairman of the American National Metric Council. Known to his friends as “Mr. Metric,” he carried his crusade to whomever would listen to him, in light of the fact that most Americans were unfamiliar with metrics. He believed – correctly – that American business would be stronger in international markets by using metrics, the standard of the rest of the world marketplace. His efforts gained him national attention, but he couldn’t affect the conversion. K.Y. Taylor died on March 22, 1994, at the age of 78.

The Beloit Daily News editorial at the time of his death speaks the epithet of this Beloiter, known to his friends and all who knew him: “This was a man who thoroughly enjoyed each and every day. He loved people. He loved challenges. He loved to work. And he loved to have fun. Entrepreneur, executive, philanthropist, visionary, family man. K.Y. Taylor was all that and more. With his passing, Greater Beloit has lost a fine friend. His was surely a life to celebrate.”