The history of Ontario Corporation began in 1955 when the owners of a Muncie silverware plant, built by Canadian interests in the late 1890s, decided to close the facility. Ontario’s founder, William W. Rich, did not see a closing but rather envisioned an opportunity to create something entirely new. Mr. Rich and his associates purchased the facility and began making close-tolerance forgings, mostly for aircraft engines. During its first quarter century, Ontario developed as a premiere independent forge shop. Along the way, Ontario acquired two more forge plants, one in Springfield, Massachusetts, and another in Pontypool, South Wales, Great Britain.
Over time Ontario expanded outside the forging market to acquire a metallurgical testing firm known as Sherry Laboratories, a high-tech brazing company operating as Pyromet Industries, Inc. in San Carlos, California, and a machining company known as CDS Engineering of San Jose, California. Ontario formed Ontario Development Corporation, a real estate development company in Muncie, Indiana, and started a commercial television station, WFFT-TV Channel 55 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Added to Sherry Laboratories were testing facilities in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Lafayette, Louisiana, as well as Columbus and Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1985, Ontario acquired Compusoft, Inc., a computer software company later renamed Ontario Systems.

Responding to market changes, Ontario Corporation sold the forging operation in 1989, Pyromet Industries in 1995, Ontario Systems in 2003, and Sherry Laboratories in 2006. In 2005 Ontario Corporation’s equity in CDS Engineering and Rave Precision were exchanged for an equity position in CDS Group Acquisitions, LLC. Ontario Corporation has thus transitioned into a holding company maintaining its investment in CDS Group, with no operating units, no employees, and no payroll.