Larry Hejlik likes to joke that he didn’t work at Harley-Davidson, he retired there.
The Cyclone engineer (’72 engineering operations, master’s of industrial engineering ’79) says his position with the leading motorcycle manufacturing company in the U.S. met all his criteria for a dream job.
Mentor young engineers and work with fun people? Check. Focus on design from the user’s experience? Check. Work in product liability? Check. Self-directed? Check.
“When I took the job at Harley, I planned on being there for maybe 10 years and ended up staying until I retired 18 years later. I enjoyed the people I worked with and the work itself,” Hejlik said.
Prior to his work at Harley, Hejlik worked at Iowa Mold Tooling Co. in Garner, Iowa, working his way up from a design engineer to the vice president of engineering. He also worked a stint as an instructor at Iowa State in the late 1970s while he pursued his masters. He graduated with two of his brothers on the same day in 1979 – a family accomplishment never before documented at Iowa State.
Hejlik did a lot of teaching throughout this career.
“I encouraged young engineers to expand their viewpoint, and to focus on how their design affects the overall machine,” Hejlik said. “Once they realized their designs had to work, be manufactured cost effectively, and not detrimentally impact the rider experience, it’s like a light bulb went off.”
Live to ride, ride to live
To best understand the design of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Hejlik was expected to ride them. All of them.
“I had only ridden a Harley-Davidson once before I got this job and part of the requirements was to ride every bike the company made. Not only that, we had to learn about the competition so I rode those as well,” Hejlik said.
Dream job, indeed. His favorite?
“The Softail, which I ended up owning, and the touring bikes. Those are very, very comfortable for long trips. They are designed to protect you in some nasty weather, too,” he said recalling one memorable ride in a Milwaukee snowstorm.
Hejlik put his knowledge and experience to work for Harley as a principal engineer advising his colleagues on product liability and how to communicate about function and design from the legal standpoint. He became the company’s go-to-guy for investigating accidents and testifying on Harley’s behalf in legal disputes.
Laying the groundwork at Parks
Hejlik said he used the product liability work he created as an Iowa State student as the foundation for his career.
“I used my research paper all the time. I handed it out to all my young engineers,” Hejlik said. “It focused on the impact of product liability on small manufacturing facilities and had many relatable concepts.”
It was in the stacks of Parks Library that Hejlik wrote his paper, A Products Liability Study, one weekend at a time, while working for Iowa Mold Tooling.
“I spent every Saturday and Sunday in the stacks reviewing journals for three months,” Hejlik said. “Every night I’d work on the paper from home, and every weekend, I’d return to Parks to work on the paper again.”
That’s one of the reasons Hejlik became a donor to the University Library. He understands the importance of having a designated space to study and focus. He made a gift to fund a group study room in Parks Library this summer, as did his daughter Carrie Naber (’04 marketing) and her husband Steven (’02 civil engineering) as part of the Iowa State University Foundation Forever True campaign.
