Monday, January 21, 2008

Last Budd Employees Depart

With the December departure of Tara Maliszewski, human resources manager, and Mike Carr, payroll supervisor, there are no longer any employees from The Budd Company. Several former Budd employees are currently working for ThyssenKrupp USA. At one time Budd employed more than 20,000 people.

Another Detroit Plant Manager Remembered

The plant manager prior to Roy Schucker was Bob Haberlien who came to Detroit from Philadelphia Plant in the early 60's. He was a wonderful man and set the stage for much of the improvements in the plant.

Bud Evans

P.S. We may be able to trace plant managers back to the 1920s when Budd purchased the plant from the Liberty Motor Car Company.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Budd Glee Club Members

In answer to Jim O'Connor's question on the previous blog, following are some of those who joined Herman Foster in the early 1980s on the Budd Glee Club, actually the "Christmas Choir," at Troy Corporate.

Mary Ann Paris, KurtMoilanen, Lou Drapeau, Barbara (Haggard) King, Dawn Riege, Dorothy Strefling, Christa Tews-Albrecht, Julie (Craig) Barthold, Donna Tomlinson. The perennial Glee Club director was Lynne Wikarski.

Other performers of note: Paul Sichert as Santa Claus. Jim Quinn as Scrooge. Alvin (Mark Gordon) and the Chipmunks (Don Fairchild and Greg Burdick), directed by David Seville (Walter Young). Elves were Gloria Armstrong, Kathy (Daugherty) Grimaldi, Margarita (Barczak) Smith.

There was a lot of talent at Budd Troy.

The Choir was resurrected more than 20 years later in 2005 by, among others, Deborah K. Harris, Lori Mason, Sue Ting-Wang, Linda Stout and Nancy Rough.

From Foster to The Little Women at Budd

Having read your posting, two Holiday memories came to mind. I recall Herman Foster and others in the “Budd Glee Club?” singing carols at the corporate office. I recall that Herman had a great tenor voice. Unfortunately I cannot remember the names of the other singers. Perhaps another Budd Blogger will contribute.

The second Budd holiday memory was about a Stamping and Frame Christmas party. Jim Roth had been enjoying the first class refreshments and rose to give the obligatory thank you for the employee’s contribution the previous year. As he held forth for some time he said thanks to all the little women at home supporting their husbands efforts to make the division successful. Needless to say this was not appreciated by “all the little women” who also worked outside their homes as well as the ladies who worked at Stamping and Frame. This proved to be one of the more memorable parties and contributed to much office discussion and joking about “the little women at home”.
Regards

Jim O’Connor