Skedco is a family-owned and operated business based in Tualatin, Oregon, just south of Portland.Bud Calkin, the Vice President and Founder of Skedco, is a veteran of the U.S. National Guard and U.S. Army. While enlisted, he was stationed in Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Fort Ord in California, and at bases in West Germany. Bud trained as a combat medic and later, a dental technician, fabricating bridges, crowns and dentures. He also served as an instructor at the Dental Technology School.In 1980, when Bud's sister stalled on a design for a game carrier she was working on, he suggested she transform it into a rescue stretcher for injured people. When she didn't develop that idea, Bud took on the project himself. He re-designed it to be essentially the Sked as it is today.Skedco was incorporated in 1981. Bud bought his sister's patent after Desert Storm in 1991. During those 10 years, Bud and his wife, Catherine, each worked two jobs to build the business.