BOCA RATON, Fla. — Jerry Schantz, the founder of laundry payment technology provider Setomatic Systems, died Feb. 18 at the age of 90, the company reports.
Since his teenage years, Schantz had been in the commercial laundry business, from distribution of washers and dryers to manufacturing coin boxes and being master distributors for many of the top manufacturers, Setomatic says.
He led the charge into the electronic/digital age in the commercial laundry industry in the 1980s, introducing the first electronic drop coin meters when the industry was using only coin slides and mechanical timers.
With his son Michael, the elder Schantz continued to innovate and bring new payment technologies to the coin laundry industry, introducing credit card acceptance in 1993. It was the industry’s first hybrid system that would allow any form of payment. That system set the stage for payments in the vended laundry industry for the next 30 years, Setomatic says.
Schantz retired from Setomatic in 2007 and moved with wife Muriel to Florida to enjoy the weather there.
Today, Setomatic is in its third generation of family management and thriving on the culture that Jerry Schantz built. Late last year, grandson Gregg Schantz was promoted to company president and Michael Schantz transitioned into the role of CEO.
“He was a loving father, grandfather, leader, mentor, friend, and he will be deeply missed by everyone who knew him and by the industry he loved and helped develop,” Michael and Gregg say in a joint statement. “His legacy will surely live on.”
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