Munday Scientific and Microscope Marketplace have been working with Harvey Caplan at Ibis Optics for years.  He is a good friend and I wanted to preserve his story and our relationship by having him answer a few questions about his career in the microscope industry over the last 50 years.  The head photo for this post is Harvey and myself.  My wife Samantha and I  recently flew down to visit Harvey in Palm Beach, FL.  His stories were amazing and he had lots of advice 

Harvey started selling Carl Zeiss microscopes in Virginia in 1977 for the authorized Zeiss Microscope dealer until Zeiss decided to go direct and eliminate most of their dealers in 1993.  During this time Harvey won a national sales contest and was sent to Germany with 4 other Zeiss dealer representatives and their spouses for selling the most of the new Axio line of microscopes.

He spent 18 years with the Olympus dealer in the Washington, DC area.  This dealership operated under the name Optical Elements Corporation or as most know it as OPELCO. OPELCO was owned by a man named Hermann Esser.  I've never met Hermann but my colleagues Danny and Scott have.  Everyone, including Harvey had good things to say about him. 

After that, Harvey retired and moved to Florida in 2005. He was actually the first employee to retire from OPLECO.  But being an industry expert and full of ambition, Harvey didn’t stay retired long.  

In late 2005 Ibis Optics was born.  At Ibis Optics Harvey did microscope sales and training on microscopes.  He provided this service to end user customers and microscope sales representatives.  

One of Harveys most proud moments was when one of the sales representatives he trained went on to become the Olympus National Sales Person of the Year.  

Munday Scientific continues to work closely with Harvey on a weekly basis. We appreciate all of his knowledge, guidance, clever sayings and amazing stories.

By Chad Potts 08-14-22