Ken started working with Vernon Dorn while he was in high school. Initially he was the shop “hand” and performed basic tasks like sweeping, taking out garbage and packing customers orders. Over his high school years, Ken’s mechanical ability blossomed under Vernon’s tutelage and he began making and sharpening microtome knives by hand.

After safely returning home from the Vietnam War in the late 1960’s, Vernon offered Ken his old job back while Ken went to college. It was during college where Ken met his future wife, Deidre. By 1971, Ken and Deidre were married and worked with Vernon to build a new facility and formed a new company named Dorn & Hart Microedge, Inc. Vernon unexpectedly passed away a few short years later and left his portion of the company to Ken and Deidre.

From that point in time until the late 2000’s Ken and Deidre successfully ran the company, growing it enough to hire employees, one of which was their son, Bill, whom in years prior started as a shop hand. Due to their beliefs that earning things are more rewarding than being given things, they asked Bill to get “real world” experience before they would consider hiring him. Bill did get his “real world” experience working in both engineering and insurance.

After Bill married his wife, Kati, Ken and Deidre were ready to step back from some of their work responsibilities and offered to hire him so he could spend more time with his family instead of traveling for extended periods of time for work. Once Bill joined the company full time Dorn and Hart Microedge was able to expand their products and services even more. In 2014, Dorn & Hart Microedge moved the entire company to the Gulf Coast of Alabama.

Ken and Deidre are both “retired” but insist on coming in every morning for a few hours to help, before enjoying time with their two youngest grandchildren after school.