The Kucera organization was founded in 1953 by Robert Kucera as Kucera & Associates for the purpose of providing state-of-the-art aerial photography and photogrammetric services, a purpose that has remained central to the company’s mission throughout its history.
Throughout the 1960s, Kucera developed a large base of industrial/commercial and engineering/surveying clientele and broadened its range of in-house capabilities to include a variety of specialized photogrammetric/remote sensing technologies and applications. Branch offices were established in Denver CO (Kucera West) in 1965 and Lakeland FL (Kucera South) in 1968 to serve specific geographic regions and provide additional production capacity.
After Rober Kucera’s death in 1969 the presidency of the company was passed to John Antalovich, Sr. Under Mr. Antalovich’s leadership, Kucera experienced significant growth in the 1970s and began regularly serving, in addition to its private enterprise clientele, government clientele such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, and various state highway and natural resource departments.
In the 1980s, Kucera’s predominant photogrammetric service shifted more toward county and citywide base mapping, beginning in 1981 with a 50-county aerial photography and photo base mapping contract for the Missouri State Tax Commission’s statewide reappraisal program.
Kucera’s organization changes in the 1980s included renaming the company to Kucera International Inc. to reflect the company’s expanding geographic and technical range and establishing the branch offices as profit centers with full map production capability. Kucera added more branch office production capacity in 1986 with the acquisition of Henderson Aerial Surveys Inc. of Columbus OH, and again in 1990 with the acquisition of Keddal Aerial Mapping of Pittsburgh PA. In 1984, ownership of the Kucera organization passed from the Kucera famiy to John Antalovich Sr., now the current CEO.
Since 2000, Kucera has continued investing in advanced spatial data acquisition and processing technologies and has focused on combining these technologies with proven, traditional photogrammetric systems and processes as a means of expanding its range of products and services and reducing their time and cost without compromising quality.
Kucera continues to improve its project management, reporting, and quality control capabilities. Kucera’s current overall business strategy is, and has been in the past, one of steady, manageable growth founded on a core expertise in photogrammetry with controlled expansion into related areas, e.g., engineering, surveying, cadastral mapping, facilities management, data conversion, remote sensing, and GIS support.
