AMERICAN OFFICE SYSTEMS INC history

M. Henry Kuntz’s grandsons now own American Office and primarily work out of the same Baltimore office opened in 1935.

Gregg shorthand speed certificate, 1944

—D.J. De Pree, founder, Herman Miller, Inc., 1953

Photograph of 21-year-old Mary Cumming, secretary at the offices of industrial designer Raymond Loewy, 1956

In 1960 American Office at 309 N. Calvert annexed the adjacent flower wholesaler to house their ever-growing inventory.

Now, you may or may not know that our bread and butter, photocopiers, were not widespread in 1961.

By 1964 American Office had become one the most respected firms in Maryland and caught the attention of Herman Miller, Inc., arguably the leader in modern furniture design.

Founded by Clarence Levesque, whose nephew still works for the company, A&A was later incorporated in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1971.

Spurred by what was arguably the birth of the copier dealer sales industry by Herb Chambers here in Connecticut, our current president and CEO, John Sullivan, purchased the company with business partner Vincent Lanzi in 1983.

In 1990, A&A adopted the Ricoh line of copiers, which is still, to this day, our primary equipment partner.

In 1999 they opened their Washington, DC sales office.

In 2001, they acquired TCB Installations to form an installation and distribution center in Virginia.

In 2003, John Sullivan's son, Barry, joined the company and the next year, the elder Sullivan bought Lanzi's stake in A&A. The ensuing years brought a number of acquisitions and expansions under Sullivan's leadership.

By 2009, with three additional Virginia offices in Charlottesville, Richmond, and Virginia Beach, American Office became the only Mid-Atlantic MillerKnoll Certified Partner and one of the largest Herman Miller dealers in the world.

Seeing an opportunity to branch out further into the underlying enterprise systems, A&A purchased RECOL, a data center in Branford, Connecticut, in 2016.