Pacific Quartz, established as a family-owned business in 1967, has emerged as one of the leaders in the quartz machining industry. E. Roy Dickson and Ross La Rue founded the company under the name of Mark Optics. The company has been doing business with a variety of industries for more than 30 years, including military, aerospace, medical, precision instrumentation and semiconductor. In 1970, the company expanded to include quartz machining and finishing capabilities in response to the demand from the rapidly growing semiconductor industry. General Electric awarded the first distributorship to Mark Optics in 1972. The Quartz Group separated and became Pacific Quartz in 1994. Pacific Quartz is located in Santa Ana, Calif.