March 28, 2024

Wellman’s employee retires after 50 years with company

Charlie Weil was among the first employees hired by Wellman Dynamics in Creston when its doors opened Aug. 25, 1965.

On Aug. 25 this year, Weil retired, marking exactly 50 years working at Wellman’s. He was the last hourly employee left of the original hires.

“I like molding, but I just turned 68, and I figured that was long enough,” said Weil, who lives in Afton.

Weil worked as a molder for Wellman’s, which manufactures aluminum and magnesium sand castings for aerospace applications. After 14 months at Wellman’s, he was drafted into the Army.

“I was in Vietnam for a year. That was long enough,” Weil said.

Weil was stationed in south Saigon as an infantryman. While he was gone, his seniority at Wellman’s kept going. Once he completed his service, he returned to work at Wellman’s in the spring of 1968.

Right out of the Army, Weil got married and lived in Gravity for 35 years. In 1993, the couple divorced, and he later moved to Afton, where he currently lives.

Being a molder at Wellman’s was the first and only full-time job Weil has had throughout his life. At the time, no prior education or training was required to be hired at Wellman’s. He was a Bedford High School graduate who was trained to do tasks that were new to him.

“Some jobs were just a simple top and bottom part, which is a cope and drag,” Weil said. “Other jobs had about 100 cores, of any size and shape, to make the finished casting.”

When he first started, Weil molded using a machine called a squeezer.

“It was a young guy’s job – basically all physical work,” he said. “Back in 1965, that foundry was considered a modern foundry. I ran that thing by hand for 40-some years.”

In 1968, Jack Bakerink began working alongside Weil as an hourly employee. Now the engineering manager, Bakerink has also supervised Weil.

“Charlie was a guy who would surprise you with what he could physically do,” Bakerink said. “He worked on the squeezer line, and that was a pretty tough place to work, but Charlie could always handle it.”

Wellman’s eventually got rid of that type of squeezer, and Weil began molding with larger equipment.

“Then I started getting older, so they finally took me off of that and gave me an easier job: core assembly,” he said. “Still, if somebody didn’t show up, the supervisor would put me back to molding.”

Weil’s standard hours were 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, but sometimes he worked overtime.

“Back when I was younger, I didn’t mind overtime,” he said. “The extra money was OK. But as I got older, overtime didn’t agree with me.”

When Weil retired, Wellman’s held a small going away party to congratulate him and celebrate his accomplishments.

“A lot of (the employees) said, ‘I don’t know how you did it.’ Well, I don’t know how I did it either,” he joked.

Now that he has retired, Weil is unsure what to do with all the extra time on his hands.

“I tell you, it’s going to take some getting used to,” he said. “I need to get into some kind of a routine.”

One thing Weil plans to do is take his 1993 ruby red Corvette to more car shows. He plans to show off his Corvette at the upcoming show during Hot Air Balloon Days in Creston.