Gary Stern Celebrates 60th Birthday

June 15, 2005 - Happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you... On Sunday June 12th, Gary Stern, president and owner of the only pinball manufacturer in the world, celebrated his 60th birthday. Stern Pinball celebrated Gary's 60th with the whole factory singing both "Feliz Cumpleanos" and "Happy Birthday" to him.

Gary was born in 1945 in Philadelphia. His father, Sam Stern was an operator and distributor in the Philadelphia area. The Stern family moved to Chicago where Sam Stern purchased Williams Electronics, Inc. Gary grew up in Chicago, and then went south to Tulane University in New Orleans for his degree in business and accounting. Returning to Chicago, he went to law school at Northwestern and graduated in 1971. He practiced law for a few years before joining Williams in 1973 to help his father run the company.

They both left Williams in the spring of 1976 and at the very end of that year formed Stern Electronics out of the ashes of Chicago Coin. Gary went on to start Data East Pinball, Inc. with Joe Kaminkow and Shelley Sax in 1986. In 1994, Data East Pinball was purchased by Sega, and became Sega Pinball, Inc. Then in 1999, Gary bought the company from Sega and re-named it Stern Pinball, Inc. Gary has been the president and owner ever since.

All the folks at Stern Pinball are very happy to wish Gary a wonderful 60th birthday, and that he have many more making great pinball machines.

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