Hypertherm Associates is celebrating the life and legacy of Bob Dean, co-founder of Hypertherm, who passed away in January at the age of 94. Dean was professor and mentor to Dick Couch and in 1968, Couch and Dean founded Hypertherm to commercialize the waterinjection plasma arc cutting technology they invented. In 1971, Couch purchased the majority interest in Hypertherm and took on the CEO role, with Dean serving on the board of directors until 1997. Dean remained an active collaborator with Couch and the wider engineering community at Hypertherm and is a named inventor on seven of the company’s U.S. patents.