Oil Patch Bits: Unique Machine founder Ken Bystedt retires

Unique Machine said that on June 29 it celebrated the retirement of Ken Bystedt. Bystedt founded Unique Machine in 1973 and has been an influential leader in Alaska for the past 40 years. An open house and luncheon reception was held in his honor.

“After so many years in business people have always asked how did you do it?,” Bystedt said in a statement released June 22, “I played the machine game. To me every aspect in business is a machine being mechanically minded. I knew how to make machines and keep them running, so I just viewed it all as some type of machine that needed to work and work well. The greatest rewards to me came from designing and building machines that would purr like a kitten and my biggest disappointments came from machines that did not. To make machines work you have to focus and zoom your mind in on the problems and all the details of what will work and what will not and make it happen. The one thing I have learned if you miss the tiniest screw in your machine you will lose the