Arthur Klages grew up in Long Beach, NY. In 1938, he joined the Corp of Cadets at what was then Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPl). While at VPI, he joined the Highty Tighties and Phi Kappa Phi honor society. In 1942, Klages graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. He then served in the Army for three years during WWII.
When he returned from military duty, Arthur Klages worked for Western Electric as a Time Study Engineer. Within a year, he had decided to move into the apparel industry to improve the production lines. Over the next decade he worked at three different companies ending up as a plant manager in Greensboro NC, where he developed an auxiliary unit to work with industrial sewing machines. Klages contracted the machines out and sold them through a distributor. At the same time, Klages went to night school to become a machinist at a local community college. In 1960 he used his own shop to start Burlington Handbags. He worked there until 1986 when he retired. During his spare time, he worked to make dies, build and automate the machines in his shop.
After retiring, Arthur Klages put more time into the shop manufacturing the sewing machine units that had done so well. In 1997 he finally decided to sell off the inventory and move to a retirement community. The question was then, what to do with the machines in his shop that had served him so well. Around that time, the dean of the College of Engineering, F. William Stephenson, came to visit Mr. Klages. He generously offered the machines for students use in the Ware Lab. Some of these machines are still being used by the student design teams today.
Arthur Klages' son Andy graduated from Virginia Tech in 1983 with a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering and an MS in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico. He currently works as a Software Engineer for Avaya in Westminster CO. Christine Staley, Klages' daughter, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1981. She currently lives in Pasadena, CA and works as the Production Supervisor for American Idol.