HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1986-11-05, Page 91278 CHI1MPION
GSS/Wedraesday, Nov. 5. 1986
Elgin and Bob
have 80 years
of experience
Elgin Fisher hung around the
front door of Champion's
main plant on Maitland Road
for an entire week in 1947 before his
tenacity paid off in a job offer.
Thirty-nine years later, Elgin, who
remains one of the company's most
ardent ambassadors, is thankful he
had the good sense to remain
persistent in his desire to work for
Champion.
Bob Allen was laid off the day
before he was to be married.
Today, in retrospect, that
represents just a minor
inconvenience in a 40 -year career
with the:. company that began in 1946
when Allen, the smallest of five
people hired at the time,was the '
only one to last more tan a week.
Despite a layoff or two, Allen and
Fisher have relished their roles in
the development of Champion, a
company they believe is second -to -
none in industry anywhere.
It was employees like Bud
Sheardown, Jack MacDonald, Mary
MacLaren, Jack Grace, Allen and
Fisher that helped shape Champion
in its formitive years after the war.
With the war effort winding down
and with a new owner, people set
about rebuilding their lives and the
company that had, ostensibly, built
justabout anything connected with
the road building industry.
But under the firm and military
hand of Air Vice Marshall Sully, the
Dominion Road Machinery, Company
took bold and innovative steps. A
Experience
new type of grader was launched in
1946 while in later years the
company set the course of its future
by entering the offshore market and
establishing the road grader as its
only product.
AVM Sully was a man who
demanded honesty and. integrity
from his employees; he was a leader
who could inspire his employees and,
most of all, Allen and Fisher will
fondly recall, he was a man who
treated people like people.
"J.A. Sully just had a philosophy
about people and the family concept
was very important to him," Allen
remembered. "We used to have
parties and picnics and J.A. used to
come around and talk to you and ask
about things. I remember orte day he
stopped .by and said that one day we
would have over 1,000 graders in the
system and that we'd just sitback
and' make parts. That was just
inconceivable at the time."
The late 1940s and early 1950s
Elgin Fisher and Bob Alien have
more than 80 years experience
between them at Champion.
Bob Is now the company's
maintenance engineer and Elgin
is In charge of Quality
Assurance.
weren't exactly boom years for the
company and both Elgin and Bob
recall layoffs of short durations
because of the seasonality of the
grader manufacturing business.
"There were peaks and valleys
because the work wasn't always
there but we were always called
back to work," Elgin reflected. "But
the family concept is what has made
this company and today sons are
working here alongside their fathers.
We were just a small shop then and
we never dreamed we could grow
this big or be recognized as a giant
ih the grader world."
That Elgin has lasted with the
company for 40 years after his initial
experience, is a testimony to the
man's work ethic, integrity and
indomitable spirit.
Continued on Page 28
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