LASALLE — Carus Corporation, a third generation, family-owned manufacturer specializing in specialty chemistries and environmental solutions, celebrated its centennial year with a company-wide family and stakeholder picnic, where the company awarded a $10,000 scholarship to Katie Hoffert of Hollowayville, Ill. The event was held at the historic Hegeler Carus Mansion in LaSalle.

Behind the mansion, which was the family home of Carus’ founder, Dr. Edward Hegeler Carus, once stood the original barn where Dr. Carus initially experimented with potassium permanganate, which the company still produces.

“It was 100 years ago that my father made his first test tube of potassium permanganate in the horse barn on the property here in LaSalle,” said Blouke Carus, who has worked at the company throughout two-thirds of its 100-year history. “As my Uncle Alwin tells it, my father came in and shouted, 'Eureka! I’ve found it!' Little did he know that it would not only lead to a company 100 years later, but that we would be a world-leader in making potassium permanganate, so we have a lot to celebrate!"

As part of the celebration, Inga Carus, Chairman and CEO, presented a $10,000 check to Carus’ centennial scholarship winner, Katie Hoffert. Hoffert, a junior at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, also won a paid internship opportunity in Carus’ research laboratory, which she completed this summer.

“I learned so much,” said Hoffert, who is studying biology and biochemistry. “The best part about the internship was seeing everything Carus does. You don’t realize how much of a contributor they are to everything in our world, things in our everyday lives, which most people don’t realize come from somewhere, and Carus is responsible for it.”

Over the last 100 years, new approaches to product research, customer support, and manufacturing process improvement have turned Carus from a single-product manufacturer operating out of an old barn in 1915, to a global company with diverse product lines. The firm’s roughly 400 employees primarily focus on making products for water treatment, air purification and soil remediation.

“In another 100 years, we’ll be a completely different company,” said Inga Carus. “As an example, we are in the process of developing some exciting additions to our product lines that are going to help clean-up the environment in new ways."

Carus is one of the most prominent family-run businesses in Illinois, with its headquarters and main production facility in LaSalle-Peru, in the heart of Starved Rock country. As it has grown over the years, the company has added subsidiaries and facilities both in the United States and abroad, including in Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Spain. However, the company says LaSalle is home.

“We stay in LaSalle, Illinois, because we have an incredible employee base here that is highly-trained, very skilled and simply does amazing work,” said Carus. “We have a world-class manufacturing plant in LaSalle that we intend to continue investing in, and while we want to grow internationally, this is our home base.”