PAGE 1. FEBRUARY 1960
taiio
This Retiree Left Behind
A Good Lesson On Quality
New Warranty Mark
On Retread Tires
Firestone has become the first
rubber company to make avail
able to dealers and stores a na
tionwide guarantee program on
retread tires. This guarantee
through the company’s dealers
and stores applies to tires re-
treaded with Firestone tread
rubber, Firestone tread designs,
and identified with the com
pany’s quality medallions.
Firestone began this tread-
medallion program so that cus
tomers could identify quality
and expert workmanship in re-
treaded tires. Under the Fire
stone program, quality medal
lions are cured into the shoulders
of retreaded tires by workmen
who follow Firestone retreading
specifications, using Firestone
camelback.
“We are giving the customer
a visible mark of quality,” said
J. W. Hodgson, manager of
treading and repair material
sales for the company. “Before
now, the customer couldn’t
judge the quality of a retreaded
tire by its outward appearance.
Now when he sees the Firestone
medallion on the shoulder of a
retreaded tire, he knows he’s
getting a high-quality product
at the lowest possible price.”
Firestone quality tread medal
lions will be applied to aU pas
senger and truck retread tires in
all sizes and types, when Fire
stone quality materials have
been used according to the com
pany’s standards of workman
ship.
THE
BLOOD-
MOBILE
IS COMING
Twenty-three years spent
in Quality Control has con
vinced Charles B. Hipps a
thousand times over that
success of a manufacturing
enterprise lies heavily in
that “priceless ingredient”
w^hich workmen build into
products for the market.
Mr. Hipps, chief inspector in
Quality Control, retired January
30. His association with the com
pany began in 1935, when he
took a job as creeler in Weaving.
In the two years that followed
he picked up experience in a
number of jobs—battery filling,
yarn hauling, sweeping, taking
cloth off looms, beam hauling.
SOMEWHERE along the way,
a growing consciousness on the
importance of quality led man
agement to assign inspectors to
the various production depart
ments of the plant. In this set
up, Mr. Hipps became the first
inspector stationed in the Twist
ing department. Although he
had some incidental jobs while
there, his main interest was in
raising the quality level of ma
terials at every stage of produc
tion.
In 1937 he was made chief in
spector. Soon thereafter the
Quality Control department
came into being as a separate
operation.
Superintendent
—From page 1
ed with the -Gastonia factory
after World War II.
Since being associated with
Firestone Textiles, he has made
three trips abroad in the interest
of the company’s textile opera
tions. In 1949-50 he led in es
tablishing the Firestone Textiles
factory at Buenos Aires, Argen
tina; and in 1953 spent four
months observing operations of
the company’s plant in Bilbao,
Spain. Three years later he
visited company interests in
Europe and Asia, his primary
mission being that of an advisor
in tire fabric production at the
Bombay, India subsidiary.
In addition to his executive
duties across the years, Mr.
Kessell has participated in com
munity affairs. He was instru
mental in organizing the annual
United Fund employees’ cam
paign here eight years ago.
Since then, he has been chair
man of each fund-gathering
drive.
UNDEH HIS leadership the
fund has grown to be among the
largest single contributions to
the Greater Gastonia United
Fund each year. For the plant’s
record in recent years, the
United Fund has cited Firestone
“for outstanding contributions
to community service.”
Reminiscing on the history of
the UF program here, Mr. Kes-
Development of Quality Con
trol has been a foundation stone
of progress in the company, the
retiree knows. “Without cus
tomer acceptance of the things
we make, we could not long re
main in business in such a high
ly competitive industry,” he
says. “When you realize that
the Gastonia plant must turn
out goods that will stand up in
competition two ways —in tex
tiles, and in the rubber indus
try — quality becomes a very
practical and real thing.
“My years here have taught
me that pride in workmanship
is the greatest satisfaction an
employee can have. And on the
consumer side, the satisfied cus
tomer is the greatest insurance
of any company’s staying in the
market race.”
MR. HIPPS stepped into re
tirement with a lengthy list of
activities which will demand
“more time than he has,” ac
cording to Mrs. Hipps.
First, there will be some
travel. They plan to visit a
daughter, Mrs. Ruth Butler,
near Suffolk, Va.; then a son,
Trevelyan, associated with East
ern Airlines in Miami.
In June, Mr. and Mrs. Hipps
will travel to California with
another son, Harold, who is min
ister of West Market Street
Methodist Church in Greens
boro. The Rev. Mr. Hipps will
be on special assignment with
the California Conference of the
Methodist Church for a month.
With his family and his parents
he will have an additional
month to visit points of interest
Out West.
At home on West Main ave
nue in Gastonia, the retiree will
continue to carry on his unusual
hobby of producing walking
sticks. In the past two years
alone he has given away more
than 300 canes to the infirm
and the part-crippled.
sell said:
“The United Fund at Firestone
will remain one of my most in
spirational memories. I am glad
to have been a part of the
steady growth of this worth
while effort. The interest and
response through the years has
proved that our people have a
heart of concern for those less
fortunate than themselves. The
United Fund has written good
history for Firestone—because
of the way everyone has
shared.”
Mr. and Mrs. Kessell recently
moved into their new Subur
ban Heights home in Gastonia.
They have a daughter, Mrs. At
kins D. Michael of Gastonia;
and two sons. Nelson Jr., an ex
ecutive of a Winston-Salem tex
tile mill; and Alfred C. Kessell,
employed in Quality Control at
Firestone.
“I’ve always believed in try
ing to make some contribution
to life,” he says. A hobby is the
means through which Charles
Hipps has practiced that belief
all along.
Mr. and Mrs. Hipps and QC
manager R. B. Hull (center)
look over a lounger chair which
was Ihe retiree's gift from his
associates in Quality Control.
FOOTBALL CONTEST
$30 For Guessing Scores
When scores of the nation’s
major football bowl contests be
came history by New Year’s Day
this year, Earlene Creasman of
Main Office had $15 in prize
money as the top gridiron
prophet of 1959-60.
Her interest in the fortunes of
the nation’s collegiate football
teams, mixed with a bit of guess
work, enabled her to pick five
out of five games correctly and
to foretell the exact total of
scores of five major bowl con
tests played at year’s end, and
on New Year’s Day.
The guessing exercise put on
by the Recreation department
for the past eleven years, con
sists in trying to predict winning
teams and scores in football
clashes of major sports bowls
in the country in late December
and on New Year’s.
SECOND PLACE this time
went to Ralph L. Moten of Sup
ply, who earned $10 for picking
five out of five game winners
correctly, and coming within
eight points of the total scores.
Clarence Jolly of Nylon treat
ing took $5 for picking five of
five games and guessing within
nine points of the total scores,
A limited measure of luck put
these persons in the “honorable
mention” bracket; James L.
Hemphill, Shop; Harold Dean
Braswell, Weaving (synthetics);
Evelyn Mayfield, Quality Con
trol; J. B. Smith, Twisting; Joe
Brockman, Nylon treating.
Third Shift Nurse
On NCAIN Program
Mrs. A. T. Newton RN, of
Firestone, presided at the quar
terly meeting of the North Caro
lina Association of Industrial
Nurses which met at Belk
Brothers Company in Charlotte,
January 29.
The third-shift nurse here,
who is president of NCAIN, took
part in a panel discussion on
first aid, health, and safety in
industry. She also led in a busi
ness session following the main
address of the day-long session.
Miss Gertrude Stewart RN,
supervisor of nursing service.
International Business Machines
Corporation, Washington, D. C.,
addressed the group on “AAIN
and Its Constituent Members”,
with emphasis on public rela
tions. Miss Stewart is immediate
past president of the American
Association of Industrial Nurses.
She is chairman of the commit
tee on public relations of AAIN.
Textiles Through The Ages
In ancient India, around 1,000 years before the
birth of Christ, the horizontal hand loom was exten
sively employed to weave the priceless cotton hang
ings of that culture.
Painstaking efforts of skilled artisans resulted
in truly great works of art. So exquisite were these
fabrics that King Solomon of Biblical Israel had his
envoys make the slow, torturous journey to India,
expressly to seek and purchase the finest cotton
adornments for his famous temple in Jerusalem.
February 1960
Volume IX Number 2
☆ ☆ ☆
Published by The Firestone
Tire & Rubber Company,
Firestone Textiles Division,
Gastonia, North Carolina.
Claude Callaway, Editor
Charles A. Clark, Photographer
PLANT REPORTERS
Carding—Edna Harris, Jessie
Ammons
Cloth Room—Margie Waldrep
Industrial Relation s—Flora
Pence
Main Office—Doris Corella
Quality Control—Sallie Craw-
ford, Louella Queen, Leila
Rape
Spinning—L i 11 i e A. Brown,
Maude Peeler, Mary Turner
Spooling—Nell Bolick, Rosalie
Burger, Ophelia Wallace
Mechanical Department—Rosie
Francum
Twisting—Vera Carswell, Elease
Cole, Annie Cosey, Katie El
kins, Catherine Fletcher
Twisting (Sales)—Elmina Brad
shaw
Warehouse—M a r j o r i e Falls,
George Harper, Albert Meeks,
Rosevelt Rainey
Weaving (cotton)—Ruth Veitch
Weaving (synthetics)—Mary E-
Johnson, Irene Odell
Winding—Ruth Cloninger, MaV'
zelle Lewis