Carl Magee

Local merchants complained that their sales were hurt by low traffic turnover, since parking spaces adjacent to downtown businesses were occupied by the same cars all day.

After the contest, Oklahoma A&M Professors H. G. Thuesen and Gerald Hale agreed to help him develop his model into an operating meter.

Businesses benefited greatly from the decreased parking congestion, but some outraged citizens complained and even initiated legal action in response to installation of the meters.

POM, Inc., as constituted today was organized in 1976 to purchase the parking meter production operations from Rockwell, as well as its Russellville plant.

According to its website, the company today “has the largest plant in the world devoted to the manufacturing of digital parking meters.” Magee switched from Republican to Democrat and ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 1924.