Page 8
SfSW^
February 15, 1958
Charts Show Volume^
Distribution Of Sales Dollar
★ ★ ★
FIRESTONE GROWTH IN DOLLAR SALES 1935-1957
(By 5 Year Intervals)
Millions
of Dollars
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
ai
>U59<
1935
1945 1950 1955 1957
★ ★
THESE CHARTS show the growth of the com
pany in sales volume for the last 22 years (in millions
of dollars) and how the dollar was distributed during
1957 to operate the company. It may be noted that
taxes took more than six times as much of income as
did dividends to the company’s owners, the stockhold
ers. It also may be noted that, besides costs for ma
terials, fuel, transportation and other outside expenses,
employees received more than all other items com
bined, in wages, salaries and benefits.
53.6c
For materials, fuel,
transportation and
other expenses
26.3c
For Wages,
Salaries and
Employee Benefits
3.3
For working capital
and plant expansion
3.1c
For wear and tear on
buildings and equipment
1.7c
For cash dividends
to stoci^holders
.4c
For Interest
on money
borrowed
Joseph Thomas, Joseph A. Meek
New Company Vice Presidents
The election of two new vice
presidents, Joseph Thomas and
Joseph A. Meek, was announced by
Harvey S. Firestone Jr., chairman,
following the board of directors’
organizational meeting, January 18.
Joseph Thomas, secretary and
general counsel of the company for
11 years and one of Akron’s lead
ing citizens in business, profes
sional, civic and community affairs,
will be vice president, secretary
and general counsel. He has been
a director of the company since
1951.
Joseph A. Meek, director of in
dustrial relations since 1953, has
been with the company for 33
years. He advanced through a
series of management posts, many
of them in key production capaci
ties. He was named to the office of
vice president, production.
MR. THOMAS WAS born in
Akron and was educated in Akron’s
public schools. He was graduated
from the University of Akron with
a Ph.B degree and went on to the
Law School at Ohio State Univer
sity. He received his LL.B degree
in 1917.
Upon graduation, he was ad
mitted to the bar and became en
gaged in general practice of law in
Akron. During World War I he
served with the American Expedi
tionary Forces in France.
After the war, Mr. Thomas re
turned to practice law again in
Akron. He continued in this field
until 1943 when he joined Firestone
as assistant secretary and general
counsel. In 1947 he was named
secretary and general counsel.
Mr. Thomas served as president
of the Akron Bar Association in
1929 and has been president of the
Akron Law School since 1938.
^
HE HAS BEEN extraordinarily
active in community affairs, serv
ing as president of the Community
Service Center, Inc., a director of
the University of Akron, a trustee
of City Hospital, the Akron Auto
mobile Club and the United Foun
dation of Akron. He was chairman
of the United War Chest in 1942.
For a number of years Mr.
Thomas taught the young peoples’
class at the First Methodist
Church. He is a member of several
Masonic bodies and served as
Monarch of Yusef Khan Grotto in
1929.
He is a member of the American
Joseph Thomas
Legion, the Veterans of Foreign
Wars, the Portage Country Club,
the Akron City Club, and Phi
Delta Theta and Acacia fraterni
ties.
Mr. Thomas is married to the
former Laura Grace Sturdevant of
Linesville, Pa. They have one son,
Charles Grant Thomas, a lawyer.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas make their
home at 2427 Covington Road,
Akron,
MR. MEEK IS A native of East
Palestine, Ohio, and a 1925 gradu
ate of Ohio Wesleyan University.
He joined Firestone in 1925 in
the cost department and in 1928 he
went to California where he estab
lished the industrial relations de
partment in the company’s Los An
geles plant. This was the first
domestic tire plant Firestone had
built outside of Akron.
Mr. Meek later served as pro
duction manager of the Los An
geles plant and, in 1942, he was
transferred to the Firestone-
operated Nebraska Ordnance plant
as production manager. In 1943 he
was named general manager of
that plant.
In 1944, the U. S. Army’s Chief
of Ordnance selected Mr. Meek to
serve the nation as chief civilian
adviser directing the operations of
the Army’s more than 60 powder,
explosives, rocket and ammunition-
loading plants in the United States.
« *
AT THE END of World War II,
when Mr. Meek’s service to his
country was completed, he re
ceived the War Department’s high
est award for civilians, the Excep
tional Civilian Service Award, for
Joseph A. Meek
his outstanding contributions to
the war effort as deputy field
director of ammunition plants.
Mr. Meek returned to Akron in
1945 as assistant director of indus
trial relations. In 1951 he was
assigned to Firestone’s largest tire
plant, in Memphis, Tenn., as gen
eral manager.
❖ ❖ ❖
HE RETURNED TO Akron in
1953 when he was named the com
pany’s director of industrial rela
tions.
Mr. Meek and his family make
their home at 333 Afton Avenue in
Akron. Mrs, Meek is the former
Clara Phillips of Seattle, Wash,
The Meeks have a daughter and
two sons. They are: Marilyn M.,
a junior at Buchtel high school;
Donald C., a student at Ohio State
University’s Medical School; and
Phillip J,, a junior at Ohio Wes
leyan.
Mr. Meek is a member of the
board of trustees of Akron’s
Westminster Presbyterian Church.
He is a member of the University
Club of Akron, the American Ord
nance Association and Phi Gamma
Delta fraternity.
* * *
MR. MEEK’S SUCCESSOR as
director of industrial relations is
J, V. Cairns, who has been assist
ant director of industrial relations
since 1951.
Mr, Cairns joined Firestone in
1943 as a time study man in the
industrial relations department. He
was named manager of industrial
relations at the company’s plant in
Des Moines in 1949 and returned
to Akron in 1951,
■4^
MORE EMPLOYEES than ever be
fore participated in recreational activi
ties in Akron and in other plants. LEFT
—W. A. Karl, president of Firestone
Textiles, crowned Safety Queen Nancy
Cloninger at the Gastonia plant^s All-
Sports Banquet. RIGHT—A group of
employees, members of an Akron golf
league, check scores. Left to right, Bill
Ingersoll, Calvin Capple, George Haid-
nick and Howard Hall.