Griner & Schmitz Inc. was organized as Oswald Griner Co. in 1910. Mr. Griner served as instrument maker for the Filotechnia Salmoriaghi Co. in Milan, Italy. His job was making the activating mechanism for torpedoes. In 1907 he emigrated to the United States with his young bride and settled in Hoboken, New Jersey where he was employed at the Keuffell & Esser factory as an instrument maker. In 1910 he came west and settled in Kansas City. He opened a one-room ground floor instrument repair shop at 313 E. 10th Street. One of the catalogues of the date indicates the sight Compass was a principal means of surveying and a one minute Telescopic Transit with Tripod was listed for $175.00. Mr. Griner is told to have sat out front of his shop in the hot summer evenings like shopkeepers did in the Old Country until some of the other merchants told him it wasn't considered good taste here.

This small beginning led to his taking on lines of merchandise to supply the growing building industry in Kansas City. He joined the Rotary Club and Masonic Order, becoming friends with many of the city's leaders including J.C Nichols and Henry Massman and others who became valuable business connections that lasted his lifetime. By the early 1920s he found it necessary to move to 1108 Oak Street where the business now comprised a full line of architect and engineering supplies, a modern blueprint and photostat plant, also a line of microscopes and apparatus became a part of the business. By this time his eldest son, Albert, was an important part of the company with the laboratory section his primary interest.

The Company enjoyed and profited by representing some of the leading manufacturers at the time. It was an exclusive distributor for Buff & Buff surveying instruments and Bausch & Lomb microscopes. Although not a distributor for Keuffell & Esser, his former employment with them allowed access to their products whenever needed.

Amber Brunson became a shop employee in 1923, working until 1927. He eventually started his own company and became renowned in the field of optical tooling.

In 1930 the depression had taken it toll in the business and it was necessary to retrench somewhat. The company was divided into two companies with Oswald Griner taking the engineering part and moving it to 920 Oak Street. The son opened an office on the ground floor of a building at 13th & Locust and was known as the A. J. Griner Co., handling the laboratory equipment.

In 1933 Frank Schmitz was employed by Oswald Griner as an instrument maker apprentice. Mr. Schmitz served the Company until 1939 when he was employed by the Eugene Dietzgen in Chicago as an instrument technician, working in their service department until the company was made a primary provider of instruments for World War II. During these war years Mr. Schmitz served as final inspector and made the last adjustments to the thousands of transits and levels sold to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.

The war years were a difficult time for the Oswald Griner Co. Losing its lease at 920 Oak, it was forced again to retrench and move into smaller quarters in the Grand Avenue Temple Building at 9th & Grand. At this time Mr. Griner sold the blueprint operation and drafting room supplies, retaining only the surveying equipment lines, engineering supplies and continued to operate a service facility.

In 1946 the industry was getting back to normal and Mr. Griner proposed a partnership with Mr. Schmitz, resulting in the formation of Griner & Schmitz which moved to newly acquired facilities at 3014 McGee Trafficway.

In 1947 Mr. Griner retired from the Company with Mr. Schmitz becoming full owner. About this time the unrest in Korea prompted the U. S. Army to have a large number of the instruments procured during World War II to be rebuilt. Griner & Schmitz was selected as one of the contractors for this service. This brought about the next move to a new and larger building at 17th & Broadway in 1952. The replica of a Surveyor’s Level placed in front of the building became a landmark. The company policy established by Oswald Griner of treating all customers fairly and being 100% dependable has lived on and was likely responsible for the company's success. Griner & Schmitz has enjoyed serving nearly every major engineering and construction company in the Midwest.

Up to this time the rental of surveying instruments was an incidental part of the business. The continuing war in Korea brought a demand for transits, which were, used in industry especially the Aircraft as substitute optical tooling, a newly developed technology. Another unusual demand was brought about by the construction of Kansas Turnpike, which required nine contractors simultaneously surveying right of way and overpasses. Griner & Schmitz served these customers with all new equipment. Some contractors required 6 sets of two instruments each. At one time the Company was purchasing all the Sokkisha Transits being imported from Japan. This rental of equipment suddenly became a large part of the business.

While limiting its scope to the field of instrumentation, it acquired the distributorship for all the major manufacturers and was well regarded throughout the industry. The Company has kept pace with the developments in technology, first with the advancement of Optical Reading Theodolites and Automatic Levels and more recently with the use of Electronic Measurement and Computer Programming capability.

In 1973 another chapter in the Company history began when the total assets of the Company were sold to Donald Campbell, an employee, and Dean Martin, a civil engineer.

Dean and Don entered into a partnership that could not have been a better fit. Don, with his instrument repair background, ran the repair shop while Dean, with his civil engineering background, ran the sales side of the business. With this combination they continued to earn the business and respect of major survey and construction companies such as Shafer, Kline, and Warren and J.E. Dunn Construction Company. Their business practices and success also earned them recognition of many top manufacturers. Wild recognized Griner and Schmitz in 1982 as 'One of the select few', 'who produced results that were truly outstanding.'

In 1995, Don Campbell retired, selling his interest in Griner and Schmitz to Jeff Dillon. Jeff came to Griner and Schmitz with a long history in the surveying and optical tooling profession. He ran the repair shop along with the optical tooling sales. In 1999, Jeff left Griner and Schmitz, Inc. to delve into more optical tooling.

Currently, Jim Martin, Dean's son, is the General Manager of Griner and Schmitz, Inc. The staff includes Gene Willis, repair shop manager; Joe Martin, Brandon Hisel, Bill Scott and Eric Williams, repair technicians; Terry Gammill, sales manager, Don Kelly and Dave Cross, sales representatives, Brent Fligg, technical support specialist and Traci Wykert in administration. The product lines include Topcon, Sokkia, Tripod Data Systems, Carlson, Microsurvey, Nikon, Spectra Precision, Chicago Steel Tape, Seco, Crain, David White, and many others. With this combination of personnel and product, Griner and Schmitz, Inc. will continue the tradition of excellent customer service that Oswald Griner started 98 years ago.

Griner and Schmitz building located at 1701 Broadway, Kansas City, Missouri after additional was completed in 1996.