Bob started his entrepreneurial career in the late 1970’s when he founded Draycon Equipment, in Ontario, Canada. Draycon was the brainchild of Bob and his partner at the time, Mr. Jerry De Boer. Draycon focused heavily on products used in Ontario’s construction and agricultural drainage markets. Draycon’s first product offering was bringing to market the first hydraulic pull scraper made in Canada.
In the 1980’s Draycon expanded its product offerings into a new market; the sale and service of lasers to the construction industry. While laser technology was not new, the application of lasers with construction excavating equipment, automatically controlling their hydraulics was. It was during this time, Bob acquired the Spectra Physics office in Toronto. Through that acquisition, Draycon gave birth to Laserline Ontario which ran independent operations in Toronto, Exeter, and Ottawa, Ontario for many years. The Ottawa location was managed by Bob’s brother, Jim McIntosh.
Bob, forever being an entrepreneur with a passion for technology, in 1994 started, with Mike & Deb Hunter, Latec Instruments, a niche designer and manufacturer of lasers and laser guided machine control systems in Exeter. In 2011, Latec Instruments developed Level-Ice, an innovative laser-based control system for ice resurfacing machines and partnered with well-known brands such as Zamboni. Latec Instruments, has since become Latec Machine Control, and is owned and operated by Bob’s son Rob McIntosh.
While the initial meetings happened in 2001 between 9 independent Spectra Precision dealers, it wasn’t until 2003 when Mr. McIntosh merged with three other independent dealerships, owned by Scott Beathard and David Owen, Regis Brown, and Tom Brennan; forming GeoShack North America. A year after the merger in 2004, GeoShack North America transitioned to Topcon Positioning Systems products. The company still partners with Topcon today, over 20 years later.
Bob served as a Board Member for 15 years, including during our transition to Ultara Holdings in 2016, and he assisted with several acquisitions and the opening of numerous new locations during his tenure. McIntosh retired from the company in 2017. We will always and fondly remember him as one of the company’s original founders; his playful personality, love of family, and willingness to always lend a hand to anyone who needed it.
Family was at the heart of his life, and he especially cherished the time spent with his grandchildren, who lovingly knew him as “Papa Bob”. Always ready to lend a hand—or offer his supervision—he was the self-proclaimed “supervisor” of every project. He had a passion for collecting old tractors and cars and enjoying the stories and memories that came along with each one. Our heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to the entire McIntosh family at this time.
In keeping with Bob’s wishes a Celebration of Bob’s life will be held at his ‘shed’ in Grand Bend, Ontario on Saturday, October 24, 2026 from 1 – 5 PM.
Robert Allen “Bob” McIntosh Obituary: https://www.haskettfh.com/mcintosh-robert-allen-bob-of-grand-bend/
GeoShack, Inc. is North America’s largest dealer of positioning, leveling, alignment, measurement, guidance and grade control solutions to the Construction, Survey, Agricultural, Landfill, Mining, Aggregate, and Industrial markets.
GeoShack’s goal is to provide their customers with a “total solution” of quality products and services to meet their needs. Their job as the technology leader is to stay at the forefront of emerging technologies, weeding out the exceptional from the unproductive to bring their customers only the best.
Their team approach to sales, service, and training matches their customers’ needs to a specific group of factory-trained professionals. These experts provide them with the latest technology-driven productivity tools and give expert training and advice on the equipment and software they provide.
GeoShack will be the leading distributor of leveling, alignment, measurement, guidance and grade control solutions to the Construction, Survey, Agricultural, Landfill, Mining and Industrial markets in North America by providing our customers with a “total solution” of quality products and services to meet their needs. In so doing, we will achieve superior levels of financial performance, provide stockholders with a secure return on their investment, create better career opportunities for our employees and sales growth for our vendor partners.
