Make reservations now for Camp
Firestone which opens May 17.
Tire$lon*
GASTONIA
“No rule can measure the value
of good safety habits.”
Cramer Little, 3rd place winner,
1953 Safety Slogan Contest
VOLUME III
GASTONIA, N. C., APRIL 25, 1954
NO. 7
Spinning, Twisting Departments Tie For Annual All-Sports Supremacy Cup
Joseph Thomas Lauds Plant Sports
Program In Lively Banquet Speech
AFTER seeing the Spinning and Twisting Departments win the
Supremacy Cup in a tie—the first time in eight years that Spinning
hadn’t single-handedly walked off with this honor—Joseph Thomas,
Secretary and General Counsel of the Company, spoke to the 18th
annual All-Sports Banquet on the subject: “The Social Values of
Athletics.”
[■
OVERSEERS Hobert Aldridge and Sam Guffey second and third from left respectively, will share
the Supremacy Cup—top athletic award at this plant—for the next 12 months. The presentation of the
award by General Superintendent Nelson Kessell, fourth from left, was one of the highlights of the
A^ll-Sports Banquet, April 24. Others in the picture, left to right, Ralph Johnson, recreation director;
W. A. Karl, President of Firestone Textiles Division; and Joseph Thomas, Secretary and General
Counsel of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company.
Employees Give To Cancer Society
Auiytmn-
CaiJKs;
'j'j'Mq
check
^IRS. LOIS WOOLEY, plant nurse, presents
'471.05 to Hugh McArver, treasurer of the local unit of the Ameri-
Cancer Society. Watching the presentation are Mrs. R. L. San-
executive secretary of the unit, and Superintendent Francis
San. The gift, which was contributed by plant employees dur-
Galli
the last United Fund drive and earmarked for this purpose, will
^sed primarily to further cancer treatment and cure through
Search. In a recent instance, this society assisted in getting medical
in New York for an employee of this plant.
Therese Galligan
X, Music Contest's
®ice Award
of Therese Galligan, daughter
Gaiii ^^^^*^^®^dent and Mrs. Francis
a voice division in
cetjti contest sponsored re-
%io ^^apel Hill, N. C., by the
Federation of Music
I'll
Galligan, who
voice under local and
® instructors and sings
® Charlotte Opera Associa-
awarded a scholarship
^^®ks of study at the
n'i. of Music in New
Camp Firestone Opens
To Employees May 17
Camp Firestone at Bridgewater,
N. C., will open for the summer
season on May 17. As has been
customary, employees must have
reservations, issued by the Indus
trial Relations Department, for
the use of camp cabins or bunk-
houses. Reservations are to be ac
cepted anytime after April 29.
Recent improvements at the
camp include the combining of
Cabin No. 2 with the bunkhouse
adjoining in order that the second
hands, who are moving from their
present smaller cabin, may have
more room.
Voice” To Appear
1st Time In Color
THE first color telecast of the
“Voice of Firestone” radio and
television program will be carried
on 25 NBC television stations a-
cross the country on Monday, May
3, at 8:30 p. m., (EDT).
The same program will appear
as clearly on regular black and
white screens. Dorothy Warensk-
jold and Robert Rounseville will
be featured as guest artists and
Howard Barlow will conduct the
Firestone Symphony Orchestra.
WBTV, Charlotte, is installing
color equipment, but will not have
it in operation in time to show the
May 3rd “Voice of Firestone” pro
gram in color. It will be shown,
however, in black and white as
usual.
Producer Charles Polacheck has
planned a vivid musical program
with spectacular sets and costumes
for the first telecast in color. The
first five numbers on the simulcast
have been arranged as an Arabian
Nights sequence, which enables set
designer Willis Connor and cos
tume designer Edythe Gilfont to
work with brilliant Oriental colors
and sumptuous fabrics. Dancer
Beatrice Kraft, noted for her
adriot satiric adaptations of tra
ditional Oriental dances, will be
featured in the production.
Part of the commercial on the
program will be a showing of the
double-page Firestone advertise
ment on spring merchandise which
will appear in the May 3 issue of
LIFE Magazine, on newsstands
April 30,
He prefaced his enthusiastically®
received address with the comment
that the Textile Division and this
plant in particular took second
place to none within the Company
in its program of recreation and
athletics. W. A. Karl, President of
the Textile Division, introduced the
speaker in the absence of General
Manager Harold Mercer.
A former college baseball player
and otherwise all-round athlete,
Mr. Thomas, now an ardent base
ball fan, views athletics as an im
portant contributor to emotional
and character training of the in
dividual. “No other activity in our
educational program,” said he,
“gives opportunity for such direct
and powerful training of the
characteristics that make for good
citizenship.”
Team play and spirit are excel
lent mediums for instilling demo
cratic ideals in the minds of youth
and serve as great developers of
leaders, the speaker pointed out.
PRIOR to Mr. Thomas’ address,
225 employees of Firestone Tex
tiles received trophies ranging
from the Ideal Athlete Sweaters
through the gamut of team and
individual trophies for outstand
ing performance during the year
1953.
Winners of the Ideal Athlete A-
wards were: James Mauney, Lewis
Clark, Bill Tate, Laura Medlin,
Miss Joanne Westbrooks, and Mrs.
Nora Crouch. The President of
Firestone Textiles Division, W, A.
Karl, made these presentations,
which included a monogram sweater
in the Company’s colors to each
winner.
The Johnson Awards, given an
nually by Recreation Director
Ralph Johnson to the two most
competitive athletes at this plant.
(Continued on Page 2)
Governor Appoints
Ralph Johnson To
Festival Committee
GOVERNOR William B. Um-
stead has appointed Recreation Di
rector Ralph Johnson a member of
the National Sports Festival Com
mittee.
Mr. Johnson is one of several
recreational and sports leaders of
the state appointed to this com
mittee. Their job is to co-ordinate
a National Sports Festival Observ
ance in North Carolina this spring.
The Sports Festival, second an
nual national event of its kind, is
designed to stress the values of
well-conducted sports and recrea
tional activities and to encourage
widespread interest and support in
a sound program of recreation and
physical education.
Mrs. Harold M ercer Passes
In Pennsylvania Hospital
MRS. HAROLD MERCER, wife of the general manager of Fire
stone Textiles, died Monday, April 26, in the University of Pennsylvania
Hospital at Philadelphia, Pa.
Mrs. Mercer had been in failingO—
health for the past year and had
been a patient at hospitals here
and in Charlotte prior to being
transferred to the Philadelphia
hospital.
Funeral services were held Wed
nesday morning at 10:30 o’clock at
Main Street Methodist Church with
Dr. Wilson Weldon, her pastor; and
Dr. Murchison, pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Concord,
N. C., officiating. Burial was held
in the Oakwood Cemetery in Con
cord.
Mrs. Mercer, the former Penel
ope Cannon, was born in Concord
on March 27, 1908. She attended
elementary school in Concord,
Fassifern School at Hendersonville,
Salem College, and graduated from
Holton-Arms Finishing School in
Washington, D. C.
Surviving in addition to her hus
band and parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Archie Cannon of Concord, are her
two sons, Borden Rhea and Wil
liam Gannon Hallowes; a stepson,
Mrs. Harold Mercer
John Mercer, and a stepdaughter,
Sara Mercer, all of the home; and
a brother, J. Archie Cannon, Jr.,
of Greensboro.