How many businesses in Southern California have been in the same family for four generations and have consistently helped their customers in the worlds "second oldest profession" (the surveying industry) for 80 straight years? Well, the answer is very few, and you wouldn't think that a business with this type of profile would be right here in the Orange County community of Costa Mesa, California.

George Greenewald Sr., the founder of Surveyors Service Company (Servco), was born in Denver, Colorado in 1886 and after traveling to California several times with his family in the late 1800's and early 1900's, he later permanently relocated from Colorado to Los Angeles in 1922. After taking over the service division of a blueprinting company, he later began his own company, Servco, in 1926 in downtown Los Angeles on south Broadway.

Initially specializing in surveying instrument repair only, the company later began selling instruments and field supplies as well. Due to continued sales growth, the company relocated to larger quarters on Grand Avenue in 1948.

Even better news happened in 1950 when Servco signed an exclusive marketing agreement with the famous Swiss instrument manufacturer, Wild Heerbrugg Instruments (now called Leica), which covered the entire eleven western states area.

In 1962 the company built and relocated to its current headquarters (a 14,400 sq. ft. facility on almost one acre of land) in Costa Mesa, CA. Later as Orange County grew up around Servco, part of their land was declared eminent domain by the state in order to make way for the 73 toll road.

Through the great depression and the various booms and busts of the real estate cycle in both California and the rest of the western United States, Servco continued to grow and prosper through the hard work of Mr. Greenwald and his sons, George Greenwald, Jr. who worked at Servco his entire life.

George Jr. asked his son-in-law, Ray Mahler, to join Servco in 1958 first as a salesman for the Northern California area, then relocating his family to Southern California in 1969.

George Sr. passed away in 1968, and shortly after that, his son became ill and died in 1971.

The first non-family member, Leighton Keeling, ran the business for a seven-year period after George Jr.'s death. In 1978, Ray Mahler assumed the management responsibilities of running the entire business.

Today, Ray's son, Stan (the great grandson of George Greenwald Sr.), is in charge after Ray passed away in 2001. Stan Mahler grew up in Irvine, graduated from University High School in 1979, and earned his bachelor's degree from U.C. Berkeley in 1983. He has worked at Servco for 25 years.

This success story would not be complete, however, without mentioning the many talented and dedicated long-term employees that the company has been fortunate enough to have served their customers so well for such an extended period of time.

Times were different back then and a surprising number of employees worked over 40 years at Servco, even today there is still one employee that started with the company in 1956 and at least four others that have 20+ years of service.

In 1991, we created our Industrial Measurement Group, SERVCO INDUSTRIAL. This new part of Surveyors Service Company was formed to provide the aerospace companies of Southern California with an alternative to their in-house source inspectors. Our measurement service group using the "Wild ManCat System" went to local machine shops and tooling companies to inspected McDonald Douglas, Boeing, Northrop and General Dynamic's tools. By 1993 Servco Industrial had grown to three ManCat Theodolite systems and six inspectors and now were being asked to help build / inspect tools all over the country. In 1995 Servco Industrial branched into other industries like automotive, space technology and power plants.

Today SERVCO INDUSTRIAL offers Dimensional Inspection Solutions with our own quality engineers, manufacturing engineers and design teams. Our sales staff has many years in the business of providing the very best solution for you inspection needs.