Ilion High School - Class of 1979

Utica Observer - April 22, 1979

A Toast to the Remington Spirit

Article 3

Source is here Utica NY Observer 1979 - 4517.pdf on fultonhistory.com

Utica Observer - A Toast to the Remington Spirit - Class of 1979

A Toast to the Remington Spirit

By Harold Whittemore

Memories of good times and hard times will bring 300 men and women together in Herkimer next month.

They'll gather at the VFW hall for a UNIVAC reunion.

To refresh your memory, UNIVAC was one of the first computers developed in the early 1950s. The 300 men and women who will toast UNIVAC Saturday night, May 12, in Herkimer, are only a handful of those who played a significant role in the whirlwind development of the computer age.

They worked in Ilion and in Utica from the 50s through the early 70s until UNIVAC moved out of the Mohawk Valley. Many UNIVAC people faced difficult decisions then: whether to move with UNIVAC or to stay in the valley and fashion new careers. Some had grown old in the service of UNIVAC. Starting fresh at 40 or 50 wasn't easy.

Moving wasn't easy, either.

Family bonds, friendly ties with neighbors weren't easily broken.

Reluctantly, they sold homes, pulled youngsters from schools, left bowling and golf leagues, resigned church offices, gave up community leadership roles, said farewell and set out for a new life in a strange land. They moved, some to Bristol, Tenn , some to Kentucky, others to California and elsewhere across the nation.

They have drifted back sometimes for the holidays, renewed friendships, vowed to return to the valley some day. Those who remained In the valley found new jobs, or retired early and talked about the old days.

Although it will be mainly UNIVAC people at the reunion, they will be part of a century-old tradition in Ilion and the Mohawk Valley. The names changed - the Remington Typewriter Co., Remington Rand Inc., Sperry-Rand, UNIVAC - but the loyalty, the skill, the experience and the dedication of the workers remained steadfast.

The tens of thousands of Ilion men and women who made the Remington name what it is today developed and but the first typewriter, were pioneers in the manufacture of bicycles, farm machinery and electric shavers; front runners in the development and manufacture of tabulating, data-processing equipment and finally computers.

Their reputation for skill and ingenuity in development-and-production remains an established tact today throughout the manufacturing world.

I covered the Remington story for years. To get that story, I sometimes visited the plush and paneled offices of the top executives in New York City and I once interviewed the late James H. Rand Jr. (company president) in an empty seventh floor corridor of the old Plant 1 during the 1936 strike in Ilion. He was flanked by two of the biggest guards I had ever seen, but he talked with me.

Among the rank and file, it has always been a standing joke that with Remington Rand, its forerunners and successors, it was always either everyone on time and a half or everyone laid off.

They danced noon hours in the plant cafeteria during the great days of the Remington Typewriter Bands with A. V. "Paddy" Sutton and the late Sammy Nile. They whirled and twirled at a company dance in. Utica's Memorial Auditorium only a few years ago.

They fought and cried, won and lost in bitter labor disputes through the years. In fact, a former Ilionite, George Orick, a free-lance writer and television editor in New York, was in Ilion a few weeks ago researching a story on the 1936 strike which left untreated scars.

But never have the Mohawk Valley workers settled for mediocrity. That's why the Remington Arms Co. in Ilion (absolutely no relation to the other Remington industries) is a world leader today in the manufacture of sporting guns. Their skill still is an asset to the Mohawk Valley today in the search for new industry.

When a town such as Ilion is a one factory community as it always has been, careers are launched, romances blossom, lasting friendships are made and mutual respect flourishes as men and women work side by side through the years.

Most of the old factories are gone now in Ilion, replaced by parking lots, gas stations, shopping malls and modern manufacturing.

But the Remington spirit still prevails. They'll drink a toast to that the night of May 12 in Herkimer.

Created and maintained by Aileen Carney Sweeney - Class of 1974