Tire$tone
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
BENNEHSVILLE
SOUTH CAROLINA
BOWLING GREEN
KENTUCKY
N. C. Plant
APRIL
1973
For
Steel-Belted Radials
The Firestone company will build a major tire
manufacturing plant at Wilson, N. C. The announce
ment was made in late March by Gov. James Hols-
houser and Mario A. DiFederico, executive vice presi
dent of Firestone.
The plant, which will in
volve an ultimate overall in
vestment of more than $40
million, will be located on a
485-acre site on U.S. Hy. 301,
V-h. miles north of Wilson’s
city limits.
Construction, which will
begin shortly, should be com
pleted so that production can
get underway within a year.
In Teenage
Pageant
Audrey Fay McCaskill, 15,
will represent Marlboro County
(S.C.) in the Miss National
Teenage pageant contest at the
Sheraton Hotel in Columbia,
May 26.
Audrey’s father, Jimmy Mc
Caskill, is a ply twister operator
with 22 years service at Fire
stone, Bennettsville. Mrs. Mc
Caskill is an inspector in Quali
ty Control.
Audrey is a ninth-grade stu
dent at Bennettsville Junior
High School, and a member of
Future Homemakers of Ameri
ca. Her hobbies are reading,
dancing, skating, meeting new
people.
Pageant contestants will be
judged on scholastic achieve
ment, leadership, poise, person
ality and beauty. Each contest
ant will recite an essay on
“What’s Right About America.”
Audrey is sponsored by the
Bennettsville Jaycees.
Winner of the Miss National
pageant in South Carolina will
join other state winners for the
national contest in Atlanta.
IN ITS first stage—to be
reached by the end of 1975—
the plant will employ some
1,000 people with an annual
payroll of $10 million to $13
million.
The plant has been design
ed to allow for expansion
that could more than double
the original size within five
years, if warranted.
The plant will produce
steel-belted radial passenger
car tires.
The ultra-modern Wilson
facility will be the third
manufacturing unit in North
Carolina. Firestone Textiles
Company has operated a
tire-fabric plant in Gastonia
since 1935; and a small foam
products plant is under con
struction in the Conover-
Hickory area.
“The overwhelming and
enthusiastic acceptance o f
radial tires by auto manufac
turers and the motoring pub
lic has made this new facili
ty necessary,” DiFederico
said. Firestone forecasts that
steel-belted radials will be
equipping more than 75 per
cent of all new cars in 1975-
76.
BOWLING
GREEN
Of these, one went to Ralph
King, Firestone Bowling Green
plant manager, who was cor-
UGF Award To King
Nine plaques of appreciation were presented recently
to leaders of the Bowling Green (Ky.) 1972 United Givers
Fund (UGF) campaign.
porate division chairman of the
last UGF campaign.
Besides the plaques to indi
vidual leaders in major UGF di
visions, awards went to three
radio stations, a TV station, and
to the city’s daily newspaper.
Roland Willock, 1972 UGF
general chairman, was one lead
er who received a plaque. Pre
senting the other plaques, Will
ock said;
“I am sorry we are unable to
give similar recognition to the
additional 200 men and women
• More, Page 3
Plant
Visitors
FADING SCENE
month as Firestone at Gastonia
was "going out of the cotton-
ROVING • This familiar op- processing business 'for good'"
eration at plant since early —making way for more syn-
1900s, was phasing out last thetics.
$11.5 Million
TO GASTONIA
ECONOMY
Firestone Textiles Company, with headquarters
at Gastonia, contributed more than $11.5 million to the
Gastonia-area economy in 1972, according to general
factories manager F. B. Galligan.
The company’s 1,464 em
ployees at Gastonia earned
$10 million in wages and sal
aries during the year, an in
crease of $1.4 million over
1971, Galligan said.
He pointed out that the com
pany also spent $1.5 million
locally last year for goods and
services.
In 1972, Firestone’s Gastonia
plant processed more than 95
million pounds of fabric, by
weaving yarn into cord material
for use in production of tires.
Product lines include rayon, ny
lon, polyester, fiberglass, wire
and chafer.
Textiles manufactured at Gas
tonia are shipped to Firestone's
13 tire plants throughout the
country and are sold to other
tire manufacturers.
Galligan said that Firestone
employees and the plant con
tributed $46,748 to the United
Fund last year and that em
ployees are active in many local
service organizations, including
Chamber of Commerce, YMCA,
American Cancer Society,
American National Red Cross,
Gaston Memorial Hospital and
Schiele Museum of Natural His
tory.
Firestone Textiles Company,
is a division of The Firestone
Tire & Rubber Company. Be
sides the Gastonia headquarters
plant, there are manufacturing
facilities at Bennettsville, S.C.,
and Bowling Green, Ky. James
B. Call is president of the di
vision.
• •Fourteen students from
Salem College, Winston-
Salem, N. C., included the
Firestone Gastonia plant on
their tour of several North
Carolina industrial locations
in March. Here, some of the
student group discussed the
tour highlights with S. E.
Crawford, plant training di
rector.
Salem is a four-year
women’s college affiliated
with the Moravian church.
10 Retired At Gastonia
Of the 10 persons who retired at Gastonia in
recent weeks. Hazel D. Ward of Spinning ended
her work with Firestone with the longest record
of service.
She had 37 years.
Next, in terms of time “put in on the job”, Clar
ence B. Donaldson of TC Twisting had 36 years
and 8 months. The other 8, with their years and
months of service:
Blanche G. Dobbins, Chafer Weaving, 30 years
and 2 months. James V. Lewis, Carding, 28/11.
Newton Colvard, TC Twisting, 28/1. Myrtle Berry
man, TC Twisting, 28. Estelle Price, TC Twisting,
23/1. James A. Bradshaw, Quality Control, 22/11.
William G. McLeymore, TC Twisting, 20/2. Sarah
Goins, Preparation, 17.