'Ttrestone Textiles Company Gastonia North Carolina JUNE, 1975 Bennettsvilk t> i- ^ South Carolina Top Gaston Scout Outstanding in his Troop, School, Church, Community Eagle Scout David Michael Farmer is Gaston County’s 1975 winner of the Raymond C. Firestone Award for achieve ment in Boy Scouts. Michael, of Gastonia Troop 21 sponsored by Myers United Methodist Church, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. B. R. Farmer. Mr. Farmer is Firestone projects man ager of Process & Product Development, and is scoutmaster of Troop 21. In this year's Firestone Scout ing awards, 19 others from 9 troops in Gaston County of the Piedmont Council received Cer tificates of Merit and money for a stay at summer camp. Awards were made at a din ner meeting in late May. An Eagle Scout since last Sep tember, Mike, 14, has been in Scouts four years. He holds Life Rank and has completed much of the requirements toward the God & Country Award. He has earned 28 merit badges, the most recent received for snow- skiing. He is a member of order of the Arrow, national honorary camp ing organization. AS AN EAGLE Scout, Mike has participated in the national Reader’s Digest Oratorical Con test, speaking on “The Spirit of ’76.” He has won in troop, district and in the 11-county Piedmont Council competition and will advance to semi-finals in Atlanta. As part of the judging in the Firestone awards program, Mike did two community-service pro- David Michael Farmer Eagle Scout Saving Waste & Oil RETREADING Recycled 1.5 billion poimds potential waste, while saving more than 300 million gal lons of crude oil. It’s the record of the tire retreading industry in 1974. J. E. Hynds, head of retreading for the Firestone company, said that: Of the 1.5 biUion pounds, al most 900 million pounds were reusable casings of truck tires and 506 million were car tires. “These casings ended up with a new life by being retreaded, and when a tire is retreaded it saves crude oil used in produc tion of synthetic rubber.” Hinds noted that. . . • It takes 4% gallons less crude oil to retread a passenger- car tire than to make a new one, and a retread of an average truck tire saves 10 gallons crude per unit. • The industry retreaded 34 million car tires and more than 15 million truck tires in 1974, adding up to 305 million gallons crude oil saved. • Firestone, the industry’s largest retreader, is retreading all types tires, including steel- belted radials. • Firestone retreads cost about half as much as a com parable new tire, and are “ex tremely difficult to tell from a new one.” TRAVELING? • • Planning your vacation travel itinerary? Summer-Au tumn special events abound in the Three Stales where Fire- SomG Events stone Textiles Company has its production plants, So> this Tinpnminjy long-range glimpse of wide- appeal events to look forward to—July into early October; Kentucky • Davy's Run Homecoming Festival, Hitch- ins, July 26; Mountain Music Festival, Olive Hill, Aug. 1-3; Sacajawea Festival, Cloverport, Aug. 7-10; Ky. Highlands Folk Festival, Prestonsburg, Aug. 29-31: Art ists & Craftsmen Fair, Cave City, Sept. 27-28. North Carolina • Yancey Youth Jamboree, Burns ville. July 31-Aug. 1; Mountain Dance & Folk Festival, Asheville, Aug. 7-9; NC Apple Festival, Hendersonville, Aug. 16-Sept. 1; Crafts Fair, Fontana, Aug. 27-29. South Carolina • Low Country Arts/Crafts Festival, Charleston, Aug. 1-3; Foothills Festival, Easley, Aug. 16- 17; Apple Festival, Westminster, Sept. 5-6; Golden Mus cadine Festival, Woodruff, Oct. 4. jects. He helped in program ming young people’s educational activities at Parkwood Baptist Church where the Farmer fam ily attends; and assisted in or ganizing a Scout troop at NC Orthopedic Hospital. He has finished 9th grade at Grier Junior High and will at tend Ashbrook High School next term. All three years he was at Grier, Mike was an honor stu dent. In 9th grade, he has been editor of the Grier SCRIPT, stu dent publication. The top Firestone Scouting More, page 2 • Commemorative The belt buckle. An item of commemorative art, es pecially popular in this time of America's Bicen tennial. The Firestone company has its own, to take note of 75 years of being in business. The commemorative buckles and leather belts were marketed through mailorder sales May-June 1. to employees, retired persons and their friends. Designed by Larry Mil ler of the company's art department in Akron, the buckle was produced in pewter and brass. Design incorporates the familiar Firestone logotype, a fig ure of a 1900 worker op erating a machine for springing the tires on a carriage wheel, and the words "Non-Skid Tires. Quality Since 1900." Truck Operators • MOORE COLLINS LATTIMORE Trucking With Safety • • The three operators who run the Firestone trucking service out of Gastonia have amassed millions of road miles and thousands and thousands of hours travel time without an accident along the way. R. K. “Bob” Collins, Reid Moore and Frank Lattimore usually make two trips a week from Gastonia to Firestone’s Pottstown, Pa., plant and plants at Barberton and Akron, Ohio. They return with pickup stops at Firestone, Hopewell; and Lynchburg, Va.; Kemersville and Greensboro, N. C., then to Firestone’s tire plant at Wilson before going on to Gastonia. ON RUNS NORTH they carry fabric from Gastonia. Returning, they bring tires, mill stock and other materials. The rigs are op erated mainly on Interstates 77, 85 and 95. The three operators work out of Gastonia under direction of Don Hedges, manager of the controlled delivery system. Mr. Hedges said the trucking service that operated almost four years from Firestone, Bowling Green, Ky., has been discontinued. Charles Horine, who was driver from Bowling Green, made rung to Memphis and up to Illinois and Indiana. Before he left Fire stone, Horine was recognized for 16 years of operating safety. Hedges said the one tractor and three trailers at Bowling Green were transferred to Gas tonia, increasing the operating stock here. TRACTOR-TRAILER rigs More, page 3 • Secretary of the Year • Jodie W. Fulkerson was named Secre tary of the Year during the recent observ ance of National Secretaries Week. An nouncement was made at a Bowling Green Country Club dinner, where bosses and their wives of National Secretaries Associa tion members were guests of the NSA Chapter. Mrs. Fulkerson competed in the Kentucky Di vision Contest against seven other NSA winners. Three executive secretaries were nominated for the award by votes from fellow NSA members. EACH of the three supplied a resume of her education, work experience and contributions to NSA, along with a letter of recommendation from her boss. Resumes were sent to three out- of-town judges for selection of Secretary of the Year. Jodie is a charter member of National Secre taries Association (International), and served two terms as her Chapter president. She chaired vari ous committees in the local Chapter. These in cluded Ways and Means which sponsored the first Dartnell Seminar in Bowling Green; and Kentucky Division Membership Committee. For the past two years she was coordinator of the 1975 Kentucky Division Annual Meeting. JODIE was for four years secretary to John A. Medley, vice president of Medley Distillery • Jodie and Bowling Green plant man ager T. L. Yelton. Company of Owensboro, Ky.; and for another four years, secretary to William C. Fisher, M.D., an Evansville, Ind. neurosurgeon. In January 1968 she became Firestone secre tary to F. B. Galligan, the first Bowling Green plant manager. She was secretary to R. L. King, second plant manager; and now is secretary to T. L. Yelton, plant manager.