The everyday heroes
We are a nation of hero
worshipers, and the ones
at the receiving end of
that worship tend to be
sports figures.
Growing up a little
more than an hour
away from Chicago was
exciting, especially in the 1990s when the
Bulls were kings of the NBA and their
leader was Michael Jordan, whose name was
spoken by some with the same reverence as
Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Jesus.
The name Michael Jordan is sacred even
many years later, and I can honestly say I still
get weak in the knees every time I think
about his buzzer-beating shot versus the
Utah Jazz in game 6 of the 1998 NBA
Finals; his buzzer-beater over Craig Ehlo of
the Cleveland Cavaliers in game 5 of the
1989 playoffs, a shot that caused him to leap
with unbridled elation; and the image of him
cradling his first NBA World Championship
trophy after defeating the LA Lakers in
1991, with his father by his side.
But there are other types of heroes, ones
who carry on with their mission without a
camera crew in tow; ones who press on
without stadiums full of adoring fans and
who forge ahead despite the lack of recognition they deserve. Sometimes they don’t get
paid for what they do. Other times they
have to use their own money to help fund
their mission. They work long hours and
typically spend more time on the job than
they do with their family.
The welding industry has a lot of them.
Many are welding instructors, production
welders, supervisors, and CWIs. Perhaps you
know some of them, or are one of them.
Maybe you know someone like Don
Anderson or Jeré Donnelly of Bellingham
Technical College, Bellingham, Wash.
They, along with the other welding instructors at BTC, spend countless hours in the
classroom, lab, and advisory committee
meetings to make sure they are churning
out welders with skills relevant to the needs
of local industry. Much of their time in the
spring is spent planning the Welding
Rodeo, a sculpture competition where
teams of welders have eight hours to assemble a metal sculpture from donated scrap
metal. At the end of the competition, the
sculptures are auctioned off, with proceeds
benefiting BTC’s Welding Student
Scholarship Fund. Not only do students
benefit from the event, the community gets
an up-close and personal view of welding.
Maybe you know someone like Mike
Merriman or Larry Clevenger of Rock Valley
College, Rockford, Ill., who want so badly to
update their welding curriculum and give
their students the best chance to succeed.
You may be familiar with Merriman and
Clevenger from “Practical Welding
Television.” So technically, yes, they do have
a camera crew, but only for a few hours once
every two months. They don’t do it for
fame, fortune, or name recognition; they do
it because they genuinely want to educate
people about welding.
Or maybe you know of or work alongside
somebody like Doug Wilkinson, director of
manufacturing/operations at Reinke Manufacturing Co. Inc., Deshler, Neb. Wilkinson
has first-hand experience with how difficult
it is to find and keep good welders. But
instead of just talking about finding them,
he did the legwork to create a welding curriculum that would give high school and
adult students an opportunity to earn AWS
D1.1G or D1.2 1G certifications. Even
though he had an uphill climb ahead of him,
particularly when it came to changing the
public’s perception of welding, Wilkinson
never quit. His program is now a staple in two
area high schools and a community college,
and now he’s experimenting with teaching
middle school kids the art of welding.
Not all heroes have shoe contracts or
drive a Mercedes. Some wear blue jeans to
work or spend their free time devising a plan
to train the next generation of welders.
It’s the everyday heroes we should
remember from time to time.
I’ve got my everyday heroes. Who are
yours?
FMA OFFICERS & DIRECTORS
Chairman of the Board Mike Pellecchia, MC Machinery Systems Inc.
First Vice Chairman John Koschwanez, Independence Tube Corp.
Second Vice Chairman Tom Nederpel, VGAN Inc.
Secretary/Treasurer Dave Barber
Immediate Past Steve Heim, Brenco Industries Ltd.
Chairman of the Board
Directors Bruce Benedict, Production Tube Cutting Inc.
Tom Connell, Main Steel Polishing Co. Inc.
Burke Doar, TRUMPF Inc.
Vivek Gupta, Texas ProFab Corp.
Jeff Knauf, Medalist Laserfab Inc.
Dan McLeod, A. J. Forsyth—A Div. of
Russel Metals Inc.
Carlos Mendizabal Perez, Industrias Sekbir
S.A. de C. V.
Carlos Rodriguez, Acero-Prime S. de R. L.
de C.V.
Paul Russo, George A. Mitchell Co.
Ed Severson, Wilson Tool International
Edwin Stanley, The Gas House Inc.
Al Zelt, ASKO Inc.
President & CEO Gerald M. Shankel, Fabricators &
Manufacturers Association, Intl.
PRACTICAL WELDING TODAY
EDITORIAL REVIEW COMMITTEE
Tony Anderson, ESAB Welding & Cutting Products
David Bell, DWB Associates
Paul Cameron, PWC Inspection Service
J. Gerard Doneski, Lors Machinery Inc.
James Feil, Energy Steel & Supply Co.
Michael Francoeur, Joining Technologies LLC
Kenneth Frye, Air Liquide America Corp.
Bennett B. Grimmett, Babcock & Wilcox Companies
Steve Hidden, Miller Electric Mfg. Co.
Richard Holdren, Greenfield Professional Services LLC
Bob Hollingsworth, Consultant
Mike Jacobsen, Genesis Systems Group
Chuck Keibler, Genesis Systems Group
Ken Lee, The Lincoln Electric Co.
Greg Metko, Miller Electric Mfg. Co.
Andre Odermatt, Hobart Institute of Welding Technology
Mike Pankratz, Miller Electric Mfg. Co.
Dean Phillips, ITW–Hobart Bros.
Marty Rice, Dale Jackson Career Center
FMA’S CERTIFIED EDUCATION CENTERS
British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, BC Canada
www.bcit.ca
College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Ill., www.cod.edu
College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, Calif., www.coc.ca.us
Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, Fla., www.daytonastate.edu
Illinois Central College, East Peoria, Ill., www.icc.edu
Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kalamazoo, Mich.,
www.kvcc.edu
Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
www. kirkwood.cc.ia.us
Kwantlen Polytechnic, Surrey, British Columbia, www.kwantlen.ca
Lincoln Educational Services, Grand Prairie, Tex.,
www.lincolnedu.com
Long Beach City College, Long Beach, Calif., www.lbcc.edu
Louisiana Technical College, Greater Acadiana Region 4,
www.greateracadianaregion.net
Manufacturing Technology Academy, Traverse City, Mich.
www.mta.tc
Minuteman Regional Technical High School, Lexington, Mass.
www.minuteman.org
Moraine Park Technical College, West Bend, Wis.,
www.morainepark.edu
Pell City High School, Pell City, Ala., www.pellcityhigh.net
Renton Technical College, Renton, Wash., www.rtc.edu
Rock Valley College, Rockford, Ill., www.rockvalleycollege.edu
Thomas Nelson Community College, Hampton, Va., www.tncc.edu
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