Scholarship | o i i
People To School
Jo Ann Hull has begun her sophomore year at David
son College, on a Firestone scholarship. She is the most
recent from families of Firestone Textiles Company to be
awarded a company scholarship. Jo Ann’s major study is
pre-law and economics. During summer she was a counselor
at Golden Valley Girl Scout Camp of Piedmont Council.
Laura Ann Hall was a lead cations. During summer Robin-
counselor at Golden Vally dur
ing summer. She was graduated
from Duke University last
spring, having studied the four
years on a Firestone scholar
ship. She is now doing graduate
work in marine science at North
Carolina State University.
Also back in school on Fire
stone scholarships are Barry
Robinson and Melvin Willis,
both seniors. Barry is majoring
in music therapy at East Caro
lina University. He attended
summer school and, as president
of the student union, helped in
freshman orientation.
Melvin is majoring in physics-
astronomy at Western Kentucky
University. He worked in store
stocking over the past summer.
Robinette Caldwell is in her
junior year on a Firestone schol
arship at University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her ma
jor field of study is communi-
Toward 6th Term
Carl J. Stewart Jr. was a lead
ing vote-gatherer in the Aug. 17
NC primary election. He and
three other Gaston-Lincoln
county (38th Dist.) incumbents
are virtually assured of victory
in the NC House of Representa
tives race in November.
Stewart is going for his sixth
two-year term in the House. He
continues chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee, is a
ette worked in an Oregon Inlet
restaurant at the N. C. Outer
Banks.
The two Merit winners from
Firestone Textiles Company
families in this year’s Scholar
ship program have entered col
lege:
Greta Renee Setzer of Bes
semer City, N. C., to Gardner-
Webb College; and Teresa Diane
Jones of Bowling Green, Ky., to
Western Kentucky University.
Greta, a graduate of Bessemer
City High School, worked dur
ing summer as a cashier at Bes
semer City Swimming Pool.
Teresa, graduate of Warren
East High School of Bowling
Green, will major in science at
WKU. In late summer she was
crowned “Miss Southern Ken
tucky Fair.”
member of the State Board of
Awards, the Advisory Budget
Commission and Southern Re
gion Education Board.
He was named one of the
State’s Most Effective Legisla
tors, and is a leading contender
for Speaker of the House in 1977.
Rep. Stewart, a Gastonia at
torney, attended Duke Univer
sity on one of the earliest Fire
stone college scholarships award
ed in the 1950s. His father and
mother are retired from the Gas
tonia plant. Rep. Stewart worked
at Firestone in summers during
his student days.
Cleaning Up
Margery N. Monteith is an of
fice cleaner. She scrubs, mops,
dusts, waxes floors, cleans win
dows and desk lops, empties
trash baskets and performs
other related duties. She is a
pcirl of the Shop sanitation serv-
Glass in Safety Office door
gels a shine.
ice of offices, factory and ware
houses.
Employed at Firestone. Gas
tonia, since May of this year,
Margery says her background
for the work she does is "plenty
of experience at home."
POLYESTER
After 17 Years:
A Major Fiber
Back in September of 1959
Firestone News carried a
front-page article headlined
‘Maybe Polyester Tire Fab
ric?’ The story said that
“polyester fibers soon could
take their place with cord
materials used today as a
fabric for use in tire con
struction.”
The article noted that this con
clusion came after one phase of
a research program carried out
by Firestone scientists since the
coming of synthetic fibers, and
TWISTING
CORD Twister operator
Charles Lancaster checks a poly
ester plying process in TO Twist
ing, Gastonia Firestone plant.
His wife Gladys is a respooler
after more than a million test
miles had been logged on tires
built with polyester cords.
Said the report: “Research
proves that the tested types of
polyester are equal or superior
to any fabric now used in pre
mium tires. . . . The nev/ cords
compare favorably in strength
with any cord in use today. Tires
built of these cords give in
creased mileage and improved
ride.”
ACROSS THE Warp & Woof
A feature story in the Sept.,
1959 FIRESTONE NEWS found
its way last month into a collec
tion of material on the history
of York, S.C.
The story of 17 years ago ap
peared in the plant newspaper
as a ‘homeown’ feature, since a
number of Firestone (Gastonia)
people live in York and York
County.
Melvin McKeown Jr., a York
attorney, wrote last month to
request a copy of the old arti
cle. He passed it on to Judge
Robert W. Hemphill, a South
Carolina federal judge, for his
research on York history.
A Bicentennial exhibit of 109
oil paintings on “Highways of
History” continues through Sep
tember in Washington, D.C. The
exhibit in the lobby of the old
Pension Building at Fifth and
G St. NW depicts development
of highway transportation in
the U.S. over four centuries.
Paintings were done by Carl
Rakeman beween 1939 and 1945.
From introduction of horses
into the New World in 1530,
paintings continue through the
era of Indian trails, colonial
roads, coming of steamboat and
railroad, through the Motor Age
from turn of the century to the
present.
Died • James E. “Jack” Well-
mon Sr. of Bessemer City. He
was a Warehouse supervisor at
Firestone, Gastonia. Funeral and
burial Aug. 9 at Ebenezer Bap
tist Church of Kings Mountain
where he was Sunday school
superintendent and a deacon.
Surviving are his widow, Helen
Wellmon; daughters Carleen
Holland and Billie Moore; son
James Jr.; sisters Lucille Mor
gan, Mildred Feemster, Thom-
asinia Jones and a brother, Rob
ert. Also, 7 grandchildren, 2
step-grandsons and 1 great
granddaughter.
operator in the same depart
ment. Polyester is a 'family'
name of fiber 'manmade' in the
sense that it is synthesized
through chemical processes from
its basic source material—petro
leum.
THE STORY of 17 years ago
added that “polyesters combine
the best performance character
istics of those fibers now used in
building of tires.” Further exten
sive testing of polyester tires
continued the evaluation.
Now, 17 years later, polyester
is one of the major fibers of tire-
fabric production. At the Bowl
ing Green (Ky.) plant of Fire
stone Textiles Company, poly
ester is first in volume of pro
duction. At Gastonia, N. C., it is
second to nylon. (Bennettsville,
S. C., is all-nylon).
☆ ☆ ☆
Roadside marker going west
from Sunbright, Tenn.: NOSEY
VALLEY, TENN. POPULA
TION VARIES. Sign on motel
board at Pigeon Forge, Tenn.:
"Girls With Nothing To Wear
Now Swim In It."
Volume XXII
Number 9
September, 1976
Page 2
• GASTONIA
Claude C. Callaway, Editor
Plant
Offices
Warehouses
REPORTERS
Monthly publicalion 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 Carolinas Association of Business Communicates, Formerly South Atlantic
Council of Industrial Editors.
Industrial Relations—Bobbie Baldwin
Main Office—Freida Price
Mechanical Dept.—Rosie Fletcher
Twisting Tire Cord—Elease Cole« Katie
Elkins
Warp Preparation—
Nell Bolick
Warehouse—Harold Robinson
Chafer Weaving—Ruth Veitch
BENNETTSVILLE PLANT
Frances Fletcher. Redona David, Mar
garet McCaskill, JJmmy McCaskill
BOWLING GREEN
T. J. Slack
65 Upcoming
The company pension
department is requesting
that all salaried employ
ees who will reach age
65 with’n the next 10
years, obtain birth cer
tificates to be a perma
nent part of their rec
ords.
Alvin V. Riley, divi
sion personnel manager
of Firestone Textiles
Company, originally
made Jhe "proof of age"
request in early summer.
For those who have
not complied with the
request, Mr. Riley says
"We'll appreciate your
supplying us with a
'proof of age' certificate
as early as possible, so
we may forward it to the
pension department o f
company headquarters in
Akron."