M.E. Hicks

August 20, 1886 - April 24, 1972

M.E. Hicks lived in Bunker Hill, Indiana and operated a music store, an automobile service garage and a Ford dealership. By 1924 he was rebuilding starter drives as a full time business. He called his company Accurate Parts. In 1928, the family moved to Kokomo and the basement became the factory. Hicks designed a special tool to make replacement of starter drives easier and patented his "Perma-weight pinion," which greatly improved the reliability of their starter drives and eventually made the company internationally known for their product reliability.

His business continued to grow while the entire country was suffering through the "great depression". In 1931 he hired eleven salesmen to travel throughout the country, promoting his starter drives nationwide. The starter drives gained the reputation for being the most dependable on the market and sales continued to increase.

After World War II ended, his son-in-law, John Walther and son Charles, joined the company. The company relocated three times to larger buildings and finally bought its last building on South Jay Street, where the company remained until 1988. In a 1977 article, Charles Hicks stated that the company had never had a year that wasn't better than the last one.