THOMAS
BRITTON
Firestone people at the Gastonia
plant made pledges amounting to
131,653.15 in the NOVEMBER • 1969
October United Appeal Campaign.
The contribution is among the largest in the
Greater Gastonia UA effort to reach the 1970 goal of
$498,000.
Total pledges of 1,446 through payroll deduction put
participation at 90.75 per cent of employment at the time
of the campaign.
CONTRIBUTIONS averaged $21.89.
Chairmen for the annual in-plant collection were Alvin
V. Riley, manager of industrial relations; and Ralph F.
Johnson, manager of employee relations. Assisting them
Were several dozen volunteer helpers throughout the pro
duction facilities, offices and warehouses.
The chairmen announced that this outstanding record
of sharing through United Community Services of Gaston
County once more entitles Firestone to the UA “Citizenship
Award,” presented to organizations having 80 per cent or
niore participation. The plant has received this recognition
for the past eight years.
The fund chairmen called this year’s campaign “a great
gesture of real concern for others.
"THIS IS an outstanding report, again showing your
great spirit of cooperation and compassion for the needs of
others.
“You can have the satisfaction of knowing that thou
sands of people will be helped and encouraged, giving many
a new start in life.”
Said John V. Darwin, plant manager: “We are justly
proud of our people who, each year, share their material
blessings with so many people whose hope is in the United
Appeal and its agencies.
"SINCERE THANKS to all who worked and gave to
make our United Appeal effort so successful.”
As in many past years, this 1969 contribution at Fire
stone is a major single portion of the county-wide goal. This
is the third year that the UA giving program, has been ex
panded beyond Gastonia, to include several other communi
ties in Gaston County. • More on page 2
Retired Frank Austin Visited
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
c
i
DAVIS
JOHNS
JOHNSON
YATES
New Job Assignments In Supervision
Six men at the Gastonia
Firestone plant have new ap
pointments in management
and production supervision:
D. Ray Thomas, Fred J.
Davis, David Britton, Rich
ard Johns, Dennis Johnson
and Samuel Yates.
Plant manager John V. Dar
win announced the appoint
ments in October.
D. Ray Thomas, employed
here for more than 34 years,
was made department manager
of carding-spinning, replacing
W. S. Guffey who retired in
September.
Thomas, as a child, moved
from his native Virginia to
Rock Hill, S. C., where he at
tended high school. In Gastonia
since 1926, his Firestone em
ployment dates to the summer
of 1935.
AFTER a 25-year stay in spin
ning production, he was trans
ferred to the development de
partment where he worked five
years.
A subsequent assignment in
• Walter Franklin, local Liberly Mutual Insurance representa
tive (left), shared a trick with Chinese linking rings manipulated
by K. Thomas Call, safety lecturer. See 'No Magic', page 3
Frank Austin, a member of
the Gastonia Firestone manage
ment staff for 14 years, stopped
to renew old acquaintances here
i^ecently. The retired manager
of Firestone’s Woodstock, Can
ada, plant, with Mrs. Austin
visited in the Gastonia area.
They had come from their re
tirement home at Orange City,
^’la.
At the beginning of his Fire
stone career of almost 30 years,
Mr. Austin worked 3 years at
New Bedford, Mass., then trans
ferred to the Gastonia plant su
pervisory staff. After 14 years
here, he became manager of the
Woodstock textile plant. He re
tired after 12 years in that as
signment.
Now the Austins are “taking
it easy” in Florida where the
climate is mild the year-round.
They are located south of Lake
land in the heart of the state’s
citrus region.
BERNIE
FARMER
Oxen Wouldn’t Go—So They Built Lujan Cathedral
edifice.
DURING
the 17 th century.
The people said it was indeed a miracle. So, there in the
Wilderness they erected a religious shrine to weather the
^ges. Majestic and serene stands Lujan Cathedral, some 40
^iles outside metropolitan Buenos Aires, Argentina.
To it, people come from all of the story of the renowned
Over the world to marvel and
P^y and to visit the great edi-
^^ce and its museum.
The story of Lujan’s great
Cathedral is recalled by Bernie
farmer, a member of the Proj
ects & Refinement staff at Fire
stone’s Gastonia plant.
Mr. Farmer and his family
Hved from 1964 to 1968 in South
Arnerica, where he was assist-
^^t manager and later manager
of Firestone’s Buenos Aires tex-
tile facility.
Farmer, translating from a
Spanish version of the history
Lujan Cathedral, recently
^ade notes which developed in-
° some interesting highlights
Lima, Peru was the cultural and
economic capital of all South
America. Farmer said that in
that age, many immigrants and
their supplies arriving on the
Atlantic seaboard of the contin
ent would travel by wagon to
Lima.
Within this framework the
Lujan story began. More than
m
300 years ago there was an
owner of a large ranch in North
ern Argentina who purchased
from Europe a marble statue of
the Virgin Mary.
The landowner had in mind
to place the statue on the altar
of his ranch chapel. That was
in the year 1630.
At Buenos Aires the sculptur
ed image arrived. Safe in its
sturdy box, the artwork was
loaded onto an oxcart to join a
caravan proceeding to the ranch
some 1500 miles away.
The caravan, breaking camp
on the fourth morning out of
Buenos Aires, was ready to con
tinue the journey.
But there was a strange inter
vention. The two oxen which
were hitched to the cart refused
to proceed.
• See Lujan, page 3
quality control made him plant
supervisor of inspectors for
nearly three years. Since 1967
he had been scheduling expe
diter, until promoted to a de
partment manager.
Thomas has a diploma in yarn
manufacturing from North
Carolina Vocational Textile
School.
He and Mrs. Thomas have one
son who is mai’ried and lives in
Gastonia.
TAKING OVER duties of pro
duction expediter was Fred J.
Davis, employed here for the
past 18 years. He started work
ing in spinning production, and
after several years in that de
partment, was made a shift su
pervisor of inspectors in quality
control. On that job until 1960,
he was then assigned as produc
tion scheduler.
Davis attended North Caro
lina Vocational Textile School
five years, earning diplomas in
yarn manufacturing and weav
ing & designing.
Mr. and Mrs. Davis and their
sons, ages 13 and 15, live in
Gastonia.
Planned Tour:
Good Going
The planned group tour is a
good way to get the most from
vacation travel, thinks Phoebe
Pearson, secretary in the me
chanical department.
In October Miss Pearson went
on a nine-day tour through
Pennsylvania Dutch Country,
Colonial New York State and
New England, at the color
peak of autumn foliage in the
Shenandoahs, Lehigh Valley,
Berkshires and other “sightsee
ing showcases.”
The group, going from Char
lotte, and return, traveled by
modern air-conditioned motor
coach.
The tour route went through
Virginia, D.C., Maryland, Con
necticut, New Jersey, Pennsyl
vania, New York State, Ver
mont and New Hampshire.
Among highlight stops were
Arlington National Cemetery in
Washington, Roosevelt Memorial
at Hyde Park, N. Y., Calvin
Coolidge Homestead at Ply
mouth Notch, Vt., Radio City
Music Hall in New York; Her-
shey. Pa., and Natural Bridge,
Va.