How it started
Fraternity and sorority jewelry
Lloyd Garfield "Bally" Balfour was a native of Kentucky, where he earned his B.A. degree at the University of Louisville. He went on to obtain an LL.B. degree from Indiana University, where he became a member of Sigma Chi fraternity in 1907. Business was of greater attraction to Balfour rather than the legal profession, and he spent five years as a traveling representative for a maker of fraternity jewelry. During that time Balfour noticed several trends in the business, including lack of standardization, poor workmanship, inferior materials, and fictitious guarantees. These issues drove Mr. Balfour to establish his own company, and he founded the L.G. Balfour Company on Friday, June 13, 1913.
The business grew from a small nucleus of skilled craftsmen led by Mr. Balfour in a facility in Attleboro, Massachusetts which was known at the time as the jewelry capital of the world. Lloyd Balfour's wives, Ruth who died a few years after they married and Mildred, were members of Pi Beta Phi and the L.G. Balfour Company landed Pi Beta Phi as their first sorority account when the company became the official jeweler after a vote at the 1913 Pi Beta Phi Convention. In the early years, the business was concentrated on quality fraternity and sorority products and the company earned a reputation for quality, integrity, and service. Eventually, Balfour held contracts with ninety percent of all national fraternal societies.
Product line expansion
In 1922, Balfour set up a new department to manufacture and sell high school class rings and insignia. In 1923, Balfour introduced the first multi-year contract plans for schools.
During World War II, Balfour produced a variety of war-time medals and other products in support of our armed services. Shortly thereafter, Balfour manufactured the first press badge for the Boston Red Sox, beginning forty successive years of making ninety percent of all the baseball World Series press badges. Also, DuPont became the company's first major recognition products account.
From Wikipedia’s article on L.G. Balfour Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2