Mar 27, 2009 
Peter Vichos, Allan's brother-in-law and business partner, looks back on Allan's career:
�When Allan married Christine, he had just left a company that manufactured a range of specialty lubricants. Upon their return from the honeymoon, he and Christine started their own industrial lubricants company called Alchris Moly Products, which made the same type of specialized lubricants that he sold at his previous company.
The business proved to be very successful, but Allan wanted a greater challenge and began looking into the local manufacture of television sets in South Africa. Television was new to that area in 1976. Allan, being the consummate entrepreneur, was friendly with the Canadian Trade Commissioner to South Africa. At that time, Electrovert was still a Canadian company (owned by the Fodors) and they had asked the Canadian Trade Commission to find them an agent in South Africa, as they had heard that many foreign companies were going to be setting up shop there. The Trade Commissioner mentioned to Allan that he was looking for someone who could sell and service �wave solder machines.� When Allan heard that they were used in the assembly of electronic PCBs, and apparently a TV had several of these strange items in them, he promptly asked the Trade Commissioner to give him the agency.
Allan took on the Electrovert agency, and soon sold his first wave solder machine. When it was delivered, the customer asked him where the solder and flux was. Allan did not know what the customer was talking about! The customer (who later became one of Allan's personal friends � a typical trademark of Allan) suggested that Allan visit a tradeshow overseas so he could familiarize himself with �the process.� So, Allan attended the first of many trade shows that he was to visit. By then, I had completed my studies in electronics and he asked me to join him for this show in the UK.
This was the start of the long and beneficial business relationship that he and I enjoyed.
He had already started his electronics supply company, which he called Allan McKinnon and Associates (Pty) Ltd. To this company he added such agencies as Heller Industries, Alpha metals, Dyna Pert, Herbert Streckfuss GmbH, Plato PMP, Camalot and many more. He single-handedly made Allan McKinnon and Associates into a household name in South Africa and it soon became the market leader in the South African electronics industry.
In 1980, Allan immigrated to the United States in search of �the big fish,� and settled with his family in Dallas. I was fortunate that he agreed to sell me 49 percent of the business.
Allan started in the United States with the Herbert Streckfuss GmbH agency, and established an agency network throughout the US. Many of the agents that he set up remained firm personal friends of his.�
McKinnon also founded FSI in Irving, TX, a PCB wet process equipment manufacturer. Allan was very influential to a number of our industry's companies and personnel. His legacy is unmatched in the number of people he mentored.
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