Blayne Rollman got his first job out of Bremerton’s West High School almost as an accident. While interviewing him for a position of grinding lenses, the owner of Peninsula Optical Lab learned they were both from North Dakota — and Rollman got the job. Within the next decade, he worked his way up to become the lab manager.

“It was on the job training,” he said.

For the last 17 years, Rollman’s own business of lens manufacturing picked up where his former employer left off after retirement.

When Peninsula Optical Lab closed, Rollman commuted to another job for a while. Then one day he decided to bring lens manufacturing back to the Olympic Peninsula, got the OK to use the name of Peninsula Optical Lab for his own enterprise, and was in business.

Rollman, who practically started in his garage, now employs 32 people in Bremerton and serves opticians throughout Puget Sound and the Northwest. Recently, the business purchased new technology to provide anti-glare coating, Endura Easy, in-house. The coating helps reduce glare, fatigue and eyestrain.

“We can do it on our own now so we can do it better and control quality,” Rollman said. “We are able to process just about any lenses on the market,” he added.

Lens manufacturing is essentially an assembly line, an involved process that takes several specialized workers and many hours to complete. Some of Rollman’s staff have been with the business since the beginning.

The industry has changed dramatically in the 30 years that Rollman’s been involved. Unlike some specialties where computers offer mixed blessings, for lens manufacturing technology has proven a big advantage, and computerizing the process has made it faster and more precise.

Rollman has remained a hands-on company president, spending most hours working in the lab and managing it. But entrepreneurship has some side effects. “You do work longer days,” he said.