William Borba, Sr. and his wife Elsie started Borba Manufacturing, Inc. in 1949 in South San Francisco, California.  The company was primarily a machine tool and die repair shop.  Being an advent bowler at the time, Bill Sr. realized that there was nowhere to purchase awards and trophies for his hobby between San Francisco and San Jose.  So he started to gather discarded banana crates from the piers in San Francisco, dismantle the wood and he shaped them into designs using his machine shop equipment.  At first he did so just for his own use, but soon after started to do so for other bowling leagues.  That was the start of the retail company Clearlite Trophies.  The name Clearlite was chosen because of the popularity of clear acrylic awards at the time.

Bill Sr. and Elsie operated both the trophy company and machine shop for several years.  In the 1960's their son Bill Jr. started slowly to take over the day to day operations of Clearlite Trophies.  In 1978 Bill Jr. read about a new laser technology being used in the medical field.  In researching it further he learned of two brothers who were applying this laser technology to enhance wood products for the gift industry.  In 1979 Bill Jr. purchased a large laser system, and formed a wholesale division of Borba Manufacturing called Laserbor.  Bill Jr. was a pioneer in applying laser technology to both wood and acrylic products for resale in the awards and advertising industries.

With the formation of Laserbor Bill Jr. found himself focusing all of his time and energy on this new endeavor.  It was at this time that Bill Borba, III, Bill Sr. and Elsie's grandson, stated to take over the daily operations of Clearlite Trophies.  In 1982, due to illness and an ever changing market place, Bill Sr. was forced to close his machine shop.  In 1986 Borba Manufacturing purchased Awards Unlimited, an awards company on Post Street in San Francisco established in the 1960's .  In 1996 Bill and Gina Borba III purchased from Borba Manufacturing both retail award companies and formed a new corporation called Borba Recognition Company, Inc.  In 2001, Bill Jr. sold Laserbor to New York based Noteworthy Company and dissolved Borba Manufacturing Co, Inc.