li will pay you lo do right.
Some of the people will be pleas
ed and the rest will be astonish'
ed.
—Samuel L. Clemens
GASTONIA
God has promised forgiveness
to your repentance; but He has
not promised tomorrow to your
procrastination. —St. Augustine
VOLUME VI
GASTONIA, N. C. MARCH, 1957
No. 3
ENGLISH TEXTILIST Fred Dunkerley (center), chats with
General Superintendent Nelson Kessell (right), and Jack Darwin,
plant sales manager.
PLANT VISITOR
British Textile Manufacturer
Studies Tire Cord Production
An English textile manufac
turer, aviator and campanologist
made a two-day visit to the
plant recently. Fred Dunkerley
of Oldham, Lancashire, consult
ed with management and ob
served procedures in tire cord
manufacturing.
The visitor came to Firestone
Textiles from Chattanooga,
Tenn., and Dalton, Ga. At Dal
ton, he studied carpet yarn-
niaking at a plant which process
es a large volume of synthetic
fiber. His stop at the plant here
completed his study of textile
manufacturing methods on this,
his third trip to the United
States and his second visit to
the South.
CRISP 265
An all-time high score in ten
went on record for the
fowling hardwood at the Fire-
®*one Men's Club, when Ed
ptisp. Twisting, rolled a blister-
'^3 265 in mid-February.
Banquet Program Headlined
By Achievement Awards
The textilist is managing di
rector and owner of the Oldham
Tyre Cord Mill, director of the
Standard Spinning Mill in Rock
dale, England, and two mills in
Annsborough, Northern Ireland.
The Oldham plant supplies a
volume of tire cord for the Fire
stone factory in England. His
four mills in Europe, employing
around 1,100 workers, process
American cotton and European-
produced synthetic fibers.
MR. DUNKERLEY, a graduate
of Manchester University, is a
world traveler and has gained
renown throughout Europe as an
aviator. The winner of many in
ternational flying races, he holds
some 30 citations for records-
breaking in flying competition.
One of these honors is the
—Turn to page 6
Tompkins Licensed
In Architecture
Dave Tompkins of Gastonia
has passed the North Carolina
State Board of Architectural Ex
amination and Registration and
is now licensed to design any
type of achitecture.
The son of R. L. Tompkins,
plant purchasing agent, and Mrs.
Tompkins of Main Office, he
completed a series of examina
tions in Raleigh recently, cli
maxing several years of study.
Young Tompkins received his
license at a dinner meeting of
the State Board of Architectural
Examination and Registration at
Chapel Hill in February.
The architect, who first began
designing when he went to work
for the city in 1946, is now as
sociated with a local architectur
al firm, where he has had ex
perience in all types of design,
including the planning of
schools, churches, industrial
plants, commercial buildings and
other structures.
Those who attend the 21st annual All-Sports
Banquet at Firestone on March 30 have in store
an evening of rare entertainment. One of
America’s greatest sportsmen will address the
gathering, preceding the highlight of the eve
ning—awarding of honors to more than 200 em
ployees for distinction they have won for them
selves in the plant sports and recreation pro
gram during the past year.
The visiting speaker, Nils V. “Swede” Nelson,
is a former Harvard University football star and
coach. He was an officer in the Navy during
World War I. For several years he has been
president of N. V. Nelson & Company, a cotton
merchandising firm.
A former president of the Gridiron Club of
Boston, Mass., he is the Massachusetts state
chairman of the National Football Hall of Fame
Association and sponsor of the N. V. Nelson
Award for outstanding sportsmanship in football.
This award, presented for the past 11 years by
the Gridiron Club of Boston, each year honors
a college athlete who makes the greatest sports
manship gesture in the football season im
mediately preceding the award. To select the
recipient of the award, the Gridiron Club polls
more than 1,000 coaches and newspaper sports
writers throughout the United States.
AN ENTRY on the N. V. Nelson Award has
been inserted in the Congressional Record, as
a “saga in Americanism.”
At the All-Sports Banquet prograrn here, up
wards of 200 trophies will be handed out to em
ployees, in recognition of outstanding perform
ance and achievement in sports and recreation
in 1956. The laurels range from a trophy honoring
the employee who caught the biggest fish last
year, to the plant department which captured
most honors for its sports-recreation participa
tion during last year’s season.
Chief of the awards is the Supremacy Trophy.
For the past nine years the Spinning Depart
ment has taken the honor. In 1954 Spinning tied
for it with Twisting.
AMONG the many awards to individuals and
departments will be that one which lauds “The
Ideal Athletes of 1956.” Those so honored will
be four men and four women representing all
three shifts at the plant. These employees were
selected in late February, by secret ballots of
employees who were eligible to vote by reason
of their participation in the sports-recreation
program last year. “The Ideal Athletes” are
chosen on the basis of sportsmanship and partici
pation and attainment in sports and athletics
during 1956. In the selections, men vote for men
and women vote for women. Once an employee
is selected as an Ideal Athlete, that person is not
eligible for that distinction a second time.
THE ALL-SPORTS BANQUET, staged each
year since 1936, has brought to Firestone nation-
ally-prominent speakers from the fields of indus
try, sports and recreation. Among these have
been D. C. Walker, former football coach at Wake
Forest College, now a coach in the Canadian
League; Roy B. Clogston, athletic director of N. C.
WHICH DEPARTMENT will receive the Su
premacy Trophy this year? This is the question
most often asked by employees who look forward
to the All-Sports Banquet each spring. Doris
McCready (left), and Jerrie Barton of Main Of
fice take a look at the prized award which will
go to the plant department winning the most
honors in the sports-recreation program last year.
State College; Carl Snavely, onetime coach at the
University of North Carolina, now coaching at St.
Louis, (Mo.) University; Murray Greason, basket
ball coach at Wake Forest College; Joseph Thom
as, Secretary-Treasurer, The Firestone Tire &
Rubber Company; Rex Enright, athletic director
and football coach at the University of South
Carolina and James M. Tatum, football coach
at the University of North Carolina.
A Poetic Flair? Try Hand At Safety Contest
A number of employees have
already entered the “Save-a-
Life Line” Safety Contest, be
ing sponsored and conducted by
the National Safety Council
this year. The rivalry, begun in
January, consists of 11 separate
monthly contests and is open to
all employees and members of
their immediate families.
There is a total of 33 cash
prizes in each monthly contest,
lasting through November.
Prizes are: First—$100; Second
—$50; Third—$25; Others—30
prizes of $5 each.
Idea of the contest is to write
an original last line to a safety
limerick, making it rhyme with
the first and second lines of the
limerick chosen for a given
month during the year.
“Because possibilities of win
ning in a national contest are
fewer than in a local contest, the
Companj'- will double any cash
prize won by a Firestone Tex
tiles employee,” Safety Director
Alvin Riley said. For example,
should an entrant here win the
first prize of $100 in a monthly
contest, he would receive an
additional $100 as a gift from
the Company. This applies to an
employee only—not a member
of his or her family.
Information on the contest is
posted on plant bulletin boards
each month. Additional details
may be obtained from the Safe
ty Department.
A corporation may spread itself over the whole world . . . may
employ 100,000 men . , . yet the average person will form his
judgment of the corporation through his contact with one in
dividual.
If this person is rude or inefficient, it will require a lot of
courtesy and efficiency to overcome the bad impression.
Every member of an organization who, in any capacity, comes
in contact with the public, is a salesman . . . the impression he
makes is an advertisement . . . good or bad.