Born on Kibbutz Kfar Blum, Israel in 1956 Natan Parsons was a man who lived for family and innovation. A high-school drop out with the intellect of a genius and insatiable desire to learn, Natan joined the Israeli military, becoming one of the youngest men to attain the rank of tank commander. The scarcity of resources he encountered in the arid and mountainous region of the Middle East would help instill a sense of value for natural resources in this young commander. After he received an honorable discharge from the military Natan moved to the United States, where he would meet his future wife Amy and begin work as a consultant for the US Navy.
One night while washing the dishes with his new bride, Natan became exacerbated with the amount of water that was being wasted while cleaning the plates. Determined to change this, he set his mind to finding a way to reduce water waste. Conducting experiments at his lab in MIT, Natan came up with a practical and revolutionary answer, his solution – a sensor activated faucet. Following the initial period of problem solving, Natan established Arichell (a combination of the names Arielle and Michelle – his two daughters) Technologies in 1985 to market and perfect the system. A multinational and close-knit group of engineers, he and his team would work endlessly to ensure their systems offered the plumbing industry an unmatched level of efficiency. Personally involved at every stage of product research and development, Natan thrived on experimentation, and started his days at 4:30 every morning and work until 7 or 8 each evening… with the help of a lot of coffee.
For the Arichell team, family was of the utmost importance. A group that spanned 27 nationalities, each represented with a flag in the main production facility, they built their success on a mutually shared love of impacting the future, engineering and a common respect for one another. The type that often yelled out of excitement, Natan enjoyed congratulating his employees on their progress within the company. With focus on promoting team members from within the company, Natan found great pride and joy in seeing people move up, which he would joke was evident by the cars they drove and how frequently they changed. In the early 1990’s this family was expanded when Arichell began what would become a lasting partnership with Sloan Valve Company. Both Natan and Chuck Allen, the President of Sloan at the time, shared a passion for innovation, family and impacting the lives of others. The relationship that would develop between the two men and companies would result in sensor operated sinks and valves becoming the standard within the commercial plumbing industry.
Eventually the closeness of the two companies would compel a new generation at Sloan to bring Arichell Technologies under the Sloan name, finally merging the families so-to-speak, in 2006. It was also during the years in the 1980’s and 1990’s that Natan’s philanthropic side flourished. Having always been involved with improving conditions in his home country, he became a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish National Fund. Later he would even found his own charitable organization, the Logica Foundations, which funds scientific and social endeavors in the both the United States and Israel. His legacy lives on though those at the Arichell facilities in West Newton, Massachusetts, and in his wife Amy and two daughters who have continued his work in Israel – making annual trips and creating an organization that works on water reclamation.
The scarcity of resources he encountered in the arid and mountainous region of the Middle East would help instill a sense of value for natural resources in this young commander. - Chuck Allen