When she’s not shopping with her daughter or spending time with her husband and son, Cathy enjoys spending time with and walking her dogs. She also goes to the occasional car show, which makes her fit right in at a place like Blackstone. Cathy helps manage our sample flow, answers phones, and is a crackerjack on data entry. We’d be lost without her.
Maggie loves anything to do with the water – she grew up on a lake and could swim before she could walk. She spent many years working at her godparents’ bait shop and therefore also loves fishing. When she’s not at Blackstone, Maggie is fostering dogs, creating new art, on the water, or hosting Ren Fairs. She is also the owner of Studi07, which is currently guest curating art in several locations all over Fort Wayne. Maggie is one of the friendly voices you hear on the phone, but she is also one of the keys to our data entry process, and can set up samples like nobody’s business.
Luke is our senior-analyst-turned quality control manager, motorcycle mechanic, and all around great guy. Despite the picture, he doesn’t always transport children in a wheelbarrow. That alone is all you really need to know about him, but wait, there’s more! In his free time Luke trains Arabian horses, consults with foreign dignitaries on the value of the yen, practices reiki, applies for patents in nuclear energy, and snowboards. Some or all of this may be true about Luke; you can decide how much. Note to potential employees: this is what happens when you can’t come up with anything for your website description.
We have never known anyone who could supply Marines in the desert with water, but that’s exactly what Samir did during his time stationed in Iraq as a Marine. A Gulf War veteran, Sgt. Kharbas is also a computer crackerjack, mechanic, father, and oil analysis guru. Having worked on cars for years, Samir puts his mechanical expertise to good use crafting oil analysis reports and discussing engines with all the people who want to chat. And there are a lot of you. Samir spends his free time hunting elk and moose in Montana, having relocated there from the great state of Indiana with his partner and kids a few years back.
Travis is a man of many talents. Not only is he a coder and word-crafter of the highest order, he can take apart and reassemble engines and transmissions with ease. When he’s not coding or talking engines with Blackstone’s clientele, Travis has been known to restart hearts and rescue accident victims as an EMT, which makes him handy to have around when cars crash into our building (editor’s note: this actually happened — twice). He also can bend steel with his bare hands, and he once wrestled a grizzly bear to the ground and ate his ear. Note: The actual Travis may vary some from that last part.
Amanda is a senior analyst. She is also an instrument-rated private pilot working on her flight instructor certification, a certified steak competition judge, crews on a hot air balloon team, plays the bassoon, and, according to her Spotify account, listens to more Beatles music than 99% of other Spotify users. Having grown up in Wisconsin, Amanda loves the Green Bay Packers, eating fresh cheese curds, and she once ran over a cow in a Saturn Ion.
Erik took to Blackstone like a Labrador takes to the water. Erik spends his days in the lab improving processes, setting up new machines, and building things. When he’s not doing his yearly bluegrass thing at Skunk Fest in South Carolina, Erik has been known to spend his free time tearing apart engines and fixing up his house for his wife and three kids. That’s our kind of guy.
Kristin deviated from the family flock by attending Indiana University, earning an English degree. She worked as an editor and writer in Colorado and Michigan before the siren call of Blackstone brought her back to Indiana. Kristin started at Blackstone in 2002 and has since learned to love the intoxicating world of oil analysis. When she’s not working on the website, creating newsletters, overseeing HR, or writing reports, Kristin enjoys running, swimming, and lifting weights to make her back stop hurting. She set a goal of — and succeeded in — visiting all 50 states with her husband and kids before the kids graduated from high school. She highly recommends Alaska.
Ryan started at Blackstone in 1997 after graduating from Purdue University with a degree in mechanical engineering. Ryan is the President of Blackstone Laboratories, and he’s responsible for writing and maintaining Blackstone’s software program, overseeing the lab, writing reports, and a million other things that need to be done in a business.
When he’s not kicking ass in the lab or writing code, Ryan enjoys putting his pilot’s license to good use, working on his ’84 Chevy 3/4 ton, and cheering on his alma mater, Purdue University. As an experiment, Ryan ran Aeroshell W65 — an oil with no zinc or phosphorus in it — in his Chevy to determine if the hype over ZDDP (zinc dithiophosphate) is all that or not, figuring if the experiment ruined his engine, well, he’s rebuilt it before. (Spoiler alert: The engine was fine.)
Jim Stark passed away peacefully at his home in Ossian, Indiana on Nov. 20, 2015. He was 73.
Jim was an inventor, entrepreneur, pilot, musician, writer, workshop tinkerer, mechanic, and an all-around interesting guy.
He enjoyed happy hour (three-beer limit unless scotch was available), playing guitar and the ukulele, traveling and camping with his wife Kathy, passionately rooting for Purdue, hot tubbing, writing stories, John Prine music, and checking himself out of the hospital. Jim and Kathy played music wherever they went on their travels across the country. Jim founded Blackstone Laboratories back in 1985, a successful company that is still going strong today. He was building his own airplane – a Van’s RV12 – just before he died.
Jim survived a tour in Vietnam, crashing an airplane, two heart attacks and two heart surgeries, jumping out of an airplane (barely) when he was 70, and the doctors in Indianapolis before lung cancer got him in the end.
His spirit is among the stars, and he will be greatly missed by all who loved him.
Send samples to:
Blackstone Laboratories
416 E Pettit Ave
Fort Wayne, IN 46806
Talk to a human:
(260) 744-2380
A Newsletter With Oil the News That's Fit to Print!
© Copyright 2025 | Blackstone Laboratories, Inc. | All Rights reserved
Send samples to:
Blackstone Laboratories
416 E Pettit Ave
Fort Wayne, IN 46806
Talk to a human:
(260) 744-2380
© Copyright 2025 | Blackstone Laboratories, Inc. | All rights reserved
