Firestone
news
COMPANY
Gastonia, North Carolina • BennettsviUe, South Carolina
Bojvling Green, Kentucky April 1981
Riley
retired;
Nevin
Chairman
I
Nevin (left)
and Riley
The president and chief executive officer of The Fire
stone Tire & Rubber Company, in February was elected
to the additional position of chairman of the board of
directors.
In that post, John J. Nevin succeeds Richard A. Riley,
who retired March 31, in keeping with the company’s
policy: Mandatory retirement by age 65 for company
officers.
Nevin, 54, has been with Firestone since late 1979 as
president and chief operating officer. He was elected a
member of the board in Feb., 1980; named chief executive
officer in September, 1980.
Riley came to Firestone as an accountant at Fall River,
Mass., in 1939. He has had sales, manufacturing and
financial management positions in 5 company divisions,
including the presidency of 4.
He is a member of Firestone’s board of directors (since
1970). Before becoming president in 1972, his duties as
executive vice president included responsibility for the
company’s chemical, diversified products and interna
tional operations. He became chief executive officer in
1973; was elected chairman in 1976.
Stock bought
at $10.11
• An average $10.11 for pur
chase of Firestone Common
Stock. Manufacturers Hanover
Trust Company bought the
stock at this rate during Febru
ary, for accounts of participating
employees.
MHT Company, trustee for Firestone’s Stock Purchase
and Savings Plan, figures ‘average’ per-share price by di
viding total purchase cost of stock for a month by total
number of shares the same month. February is the most
recent report. As of late March there were 6,748 Fire
stone people enrolled in the Purchase/Savings Plan.
Firestone U. S. Auto Club
Firestone Stores and dealers
countrywide last October
started offering customers the
service, security, safety, and
savings of the all-new Firestone-
United States Auto Club. Mem
bership by mail is a convenience
added recently.
Major benefits the Club offers
are emergency road/tow ser
vice; 24-hour toll-free telephone
service; $5,000 accidental death
and dismemberment insurance.
A brochure gives full details
on these benefits, plus other fea
tures, as Trip-routing-service,
car rental, discount travel op
portunities, emergency travel-
‘The Voice’ of old
Recollecting “The Voice” •
Just 6 years after the beginning
of commercial radio in the
U. S., “The Voice of Firestone”
was a regular weekly network
program. It is among the many
programs described in Thomas
A. DeLong’s new book “The
Mighty Music Box.”
Company founder Harvey S.
Firestone started the “Voice”
series and took a personal in
terest in it. The familiar theme-
song “If I Could Tell You,” was
composed by Mrs. (Idabelle)
Firestone.
In the early days after its be
ginning in 1928 the program
stressed popular show tunes and
light classical melodies. In the
early 1930s the show began fea
turing more serious music.
The company’s long-lived
radio series spanned nearly the
whole Golden Age of musical
radio and lasted well into the
early TV era. It was the first
program ever simulcast on both
TV and radio.
THE NEXT
BIG ADVANCE
WAS THE
RUBBER TIRE
‘$130
Division plants of Firestone Textiles Com
pany spent $203,000 in 1980 to maintain
equipment and facilities; reduce costs and
improve productivity.
Charles S. Ford, the division controller, lOr CVCry
said this expenditure "equates to $130 for
every employee in the division." The0j||Tjj0y00’
$203,000 applies to the Gastonia, Bennetts- ^ ^
ville and Bowling Green plants.
expense payback, arrest bond
guaranteed bail/bond certifi
cate, hotel and motel discounts,
theft reward, legal defense re
imbursement, and the Club
magazine “Checkpoint.”
Club membership is available
only to customers having a Fire
stone revolving charge account.
If you do not have Firestone re
volving charge, but would like
to join the Club, you can open a
Firestone account and charge
your Auto Club membership on
it for $2.50 a month.
The Club information bro
chure and revolving charge ap
plication are available from
Firestone Stores and dealers and
plant personnel offices.
Back to DST
We resume Daylight Sav
ing Time the last Sunday in
April. Set timepieces ahead
1 hour the 26th.
Consumer
action, etc.
We are all consumers. If
you’ve ever had occasion to ask
a manufacturer to make adjust
ment or “stand behind” a
product you have, and “got no
where,” this U. S. Office of
Consumer Affairs pamphlet
can help; “Consumer Fact
Sheet on Dispute-Resolution
Services.” It lists consumer ac
tion panels and trade associ
ations that offer meditation/
arbitration or other complaint-
handling procedures.
Also available are 2 fact
sheets—1 listing state and an
other on federal consumer com
plaint agencies—their services
available through toll-free tele
phone calls. For a free copy of
these 3 pamphlets, write U. S.
Consumer Affairs, Federal Com
plaint Coordinating Center,
621 Reporters Bldg., Washing
ton, D. C. 20201.
EQUAL
EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITY
Representatives
at Firestone Textiles
Company U. S. plants
Gastonia
S. E. Crawford
BennettsviUe
Frances Fletcher
Bowling Green
Sal Costanza
• Company founder Harvey Samuel Firestone started the
campaign to “Put the Farm on Rubber” in the 1930s. This
(late 1930s?) McCormick-Deering tractor with steel wheels
is a reminder of the “way it was.” It was photographed in
a farmshed on Hy 321 above Lenoir, N. C.
The “steel mule” was a major advance in farm power,
following the ox, horse and (live) mule. The next big ad
vance in this mechanical equipment was the rubber tire.
Back in the early 1930s, many farmers, makers of farm
equipment, and tire producers believed that Firestone’s
idea of putting the farm on rubber was impractical.
JUST THE SAME, Harvey Firestone had his engineers de
velop the first practical low-pressure pneumatic tractor tire.
He introduced it to the market in 1932.
Rubber-tired tractors saved considerably on gas consump
tion, added efficiency, saved time, and allowed more com
fort for the operator.
Putting the farm on rubber led to the eventual saving to
American farmers of multiplied-millions of dollars in fuel
cost, time saved, and made the work tremendously easier.
And it opened up a new market for Firestone and the whole
rubber industry.