Newspapers / Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.) / May 1, 1973, edition 1 / Page 2
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Scholarships • From Page 1 Winners are sons and daugh ters of Firestone employees. It was the largest number of awards presented in the 21-year history of the Scholarship pro gram. GRANTS which students re ceive are worth up to $7,000 to ward tuition, fees, required text books and room and board ex pense during four years of col lege. Scholarship winners may at tend any accredited college or university in the United States and pursue any desired course leading to a degree. In addition to the 46 scholar ship recipients, 203 applicants were selected to receive Certi ficates of Merit and $100 United States Savings Bonds, in recog nition of their outstanding high- school records. The 249 Scholarship and Cer tificate of Merit winners for 1973 live in 31 states and were selected from 372 applicants. Of the 46 scholarship winners, 24 are girls and 22 are boys. The 203 Certificate of Merit winners include 126 girls and 77 boys. In the 21 years Firestone has made awards in this program, 649 college scholarships have been awarded. Winner this year from Gastonia is the 19th schol arship recipient from employee families of Firestone at Gas tonia. PURPOSE of the Firestone program is to provide financial assistance to worthy sons and daughters of Firestone employ ees who seek college educations. The scholarship program for employees’ children is but one part of Firestone’s overall aid- to-education program. In 1972, the company’s finan cial support of education in cluded other scholarships and fellowships, special programs. Barry Richard Robinson Gastonia Charles Melvin Willis Bowling Green MERIT WINNERS Janice Rebecca Stiles (left) Rachel Elizabeth Whitworth direct grants to institutions, grants to associations of non tax-supported colleges and cost of education supplements. Also of note is the company’s share of the matching-gift plan, the program whereby the com pany will match, above a mini mum of $25, an employee’s gift of up to $1,000 to a tax-support ed college or university and a gift of up to $2,000 to a non-tax supported institution. Last year this plan enabled Some of 18 Eighteen new Alima ply twist ers have been installed at the Bennettsville plant. These ma chines have many improved fea tures and are some of the most modern available to the indus try. Steel Wire to come from Danville, Ky. Next February is scheduled as time for beginning pro duction of steel w^ire for tire cord at the Danville Wire & Cable Company plant, Danville, Ky. J. M. Comely, vice president for diversified products of the Firestone company last month made announcement of the new facility. Representing a multi- million-dollar investment, the manufacturing plant will occupy 160,000 square feet of floor space in a building already existing. Installation of manufacturing equipment and initial hiring and training of some 125 employees will start in late fall this year, and operation will begin about a year from now. When full pro duction is reached in 1975, the work force will be some 250 em ployees, with an estimated pay roll of more than $2 million. "RADIAL TIRES are expected to constitute 73 per cent of the tire market by 1975,” Comely said, “with a growing percent age of these radials expected to be in steel-belted construction. The Danville plant plays an im portant part in company plan ning to meet our anticipated tire customer needs.” The Danville steel tire cord plant is the first to be an nounced within the U.S. tire in dustry. It will produce steel cord used in Firestone’s growing steel- belted tire line which now in cludes the Steel Radial 500, the 500 Steel Belt and Radial V-1 Steel passenger tires, and the Transteel Radial truck tire. Firestone also operates a steel tire cord plant at Lens, France. The Gastonia plant of Fire stone Textiles Company pro duces Firestone’s major volume of fabric from steel cord. 249 education institutions in the U. S. to receive $206,032 in do nations, half from 526 contribu ting employees and half from the company. Long-Service List 6AST0MIA •• Luell E. Thomas of the Shop became the 115th per son to observe a 35th work anniversary at the Gastonia Firestone plant. In April a week earlier, James O. Thomas of TC Twisting also completed a 35-year employ ment record. And there were more witli work careers at Firestone from 5 to 30 years as of April. The list: Thirty Years • Edna Dawkins, TC Twisting; Marie J. Jones, TC Weaving; Vivian S. Metcalf, Chafer Weaving. Twenty- Five Years • Ophelia I. Wallace, Preparation; Harold Robinson and Trula B. Ball, TC Twisting; Mae M. Jones, Chafer Weaving. Twenty Years • Bobby A. Rogers and Ethelda Robinson, TC Weaving, ing. Fifteen Years ‘Bobby D. Neal, TC Twisting. BENEFITS All A Pretty Nice Gold Watch During 1972, the Firestone Company con tributed more than $78 million toward employ ment retirement benefits—$36.4 million to our own company plan and another $41.9 million in social security taxes. That’s 60 per cent more than the $47.9 million the company paid to stockholders as dividends on their investment in Firestone—the sole in come the owners got from their company in 1972. Who benefits from the program? Last year 10,453 retirees shared $26.7 million in pension payments. They live in 49 states and nine foreign countries. In 1972 the company put in $36.4 million on this. In order to insure that the fund grows and its assets continue to keep pace with future com mitments as they come due, pension funds are carefully invested in a variety of profitable areas including U.S. government securities, pre ferred and common stocks, corporate bonds and notes, and real estate. All this a pretty nice gold watch. Ten Years • LorinaE. Spearman, TC Twisting; Jimmy S. Adams, TC Weaving; Cleo W. Buchanan, Chafer Weaving. Five Years • Malcolm G. Stewart, TC Twisting; Reola N. Gordon and Glenda Radford, TC Weav ing; Paul Clayton Whitfield and Harold Kirkland, Shop; Edward E. Sweeten, Quality Control. GASTONIA Volume XX Number 5 May, 1973 Page 2 Claude C. Callaway, Editor Monlhly publication of the Gastonia. N. C., plant of Firestone Textiles Company, a division of The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio. Division headquarters, Gastonia, N. C. 28052. James B. Call, president. Mem ber South Atlantic Council of Industrial Editors and International Association of Business Communicators. Plant Offices REPORTERS Warehouses Industrial Relations—Dale Callahan Main Office—Bea McCarter Mechanical Dept.—Rosie Francum Quality Control—Louella Oueen, Leila Rape Twisting (synthetics) — Elease Cola, Katie Elkbu Warp Preparation—Elmina Bradshaw, NeU BoUclc Warehouse—Harold Robinson. Israel Good Weaving (cotton)—Ruth Veltch BENNETTSVILLE PLANT Faye Shankle, Mary H. Oliver, Sylvia Lockamy, Frances Fletcher—Report ers. BOWLING GREEN Dorothy Kingrey, Mary Snell, Mary Bryant, Brenda Loatman, Teresa Leonard Suggestion Progress At Bennettsville in March al most one-third of the employees submitted ideas in the plant's suggestion participation. During March the suggestion program was stimulated with a 40 per cent increase of sugges tions received. The number of March suggestions received was the highest total in a five-year period. Among the Diversified Prod ucts plants of the parent Fire stone company, Bennettsville ranks second in the Suggestion Progress Comparison. In a pre vious year, it had ranked first.
Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.)
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May 1, 1973, edition 1
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