John H. Lawlor founded the company with the purchase of Walter Kidde Sales & Service Company in West Philadelphia, PA.

This decade saw the advent of dry chemical fire extinguishing systems, which became a staple for protecting commercial cooking establishments. Keystone quickly embraced this technology and received the contract to protect all of the Howard Johnson’s on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

In 1965, Kidde rescinded the use of its corporate name, forcing the nine-year-old fledgling company to rebrand. It was at this time that Keystone Fire Protection Co. came into being.

In the early 70s, Keystone became one of the first distributors in the country to carry DuPont’s new Halon 1301 agent. This coincided with the expansion of computer use in business and became Keystone’s core business for the next 16 years.

In 1986, John M. Lawlor joined the company. Lawlor, a degreed electrical engineer, started his career designing and drafting fire suppression systems.

The Montreal Protocol severely restricted the sale and use of ozone-depleting chemicals, including Halon 1301. With the Halon market all but disappearing, Keystone diversified into the fire alarm business. The company became a distributor for Notifier alarms and grew to be one of its premier distributors.

The National Association of Fire Equipment Distributors named John M. Lawlor as its President in 1997. Lawlor would later go on to serve as President of the National Independent Fire Alarm Distributors Ass’n, the Life Safety Alliance, and the Fire Suppression Systems Association.

Keystone acquired Atlas Fire Sprinkler Company of Gloucester, NJ. This marked the company’s entrance into the sprinkler business, expanding its expertise beyond non-water-based extinguishing technologies. Sprinkler systems now represent the single largest segment of Keystone’s business.

Keystone received the prestigious Jeffrey Butland Family-owned Business of the Year Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Keystone was selected from a group of 600,000 other family-owned businesses in the region.

Keystone purchased the assets of Stong Fire Protection, a regional competitor in the sprinkler industry. The acquisition expanded Keystone’s capabilities, allowing it to compete for larger-scale sprinkler installation projects.

Keystone launched its marketing presence in the Delaware and Lehigh Valleys with the “Tag! We’re It” campaign. The recognizable, trademarked green tag began showing up on area billboards, trash receptacles, fleet vehicles, and more. It is a cornerstone of Keystone’s brand identity.

Keystone joins the KPI family of companies alongside Marco Protection Systems, LLC, Communication Systems Integrators, LLC, KPI Group USA, LLC, and PRPV Industries, LLC, whose unified purpose is life safety and property protection.