Latest News Bonnie Sericko, a Champion of Independent Labs, Dies at 99 By Staff Monday, June 6, 2016 12:21 AM Juanita (Bonnie) M. Sericko. PORTLAND, Ore.—Juanita (Bonnie) M. Sericko, a veteran optical laboratory owner who played an influential role in the development of the U.S. lab industry, passed away here on May 24 at the age of 99. According to The Oregonian newspaper, Sericko was born in Petaluma, Calif. on Sept. 6, 1916. She got her start in the lab business with American Optical in 1934, where she met her future husband, Joe Sericko. After marrying him in 1936, Bonnie worked at an optical dispensary during World War II while Joe managed an optical lab making war supplies. Wives of enlisted men received $50 a month for expenses; she saved this money or sent it to Joe, who was a skilled poker player, and routinely sent her back hundreds of dollars in winnings. They used these savings to purchase Columbian Bifocal (CB) Optical Lab in 1946.After taking time to raise two daughters, she returned to work in the late 1950s to challenge anti-competitive tactics that large optical companies were using to undercut small independent labs. Along with Gordon Keane, Sr., she initiated a case against AO and B&L, collecting evidence of price fixing to prove the large labs were driving out smaller competitors. The evidence became the cornerstone of a federal trial that eventually lead to their complete closure. She and Joe funded the entire case until the attorney general took over.Sericko was an active manager at CB Optical into her 70s. She championed a 100 percent company-funded profit sharing plan for employees, nearly unheard of in the 1960s. She was fascinated by technology and integral in computerizing the entire wholesale optical industry in the 1970s. In 2005, the Optical Laboratories Association inducted her into the Optical Pioneers Hall of Fame.Sericko is survived by her daughters, JoAnne McMahan and Julie Mitchoff; grandsons, Joe and Mike Mitchoff; and four great-grandchildren.Memorial gifts may be made to casahelpskids.org or Holy Family Catholic School.