Spencer Bernard Bates------------What a Trip!
It’s been a long time, but it seems like yesterday. In the Spring of 1956, I went to Fort Lauderdale to join the Air Force to become a jet mechanic. I wanted to learn about jets and get out of town. No such luck, I was rated 4-F. For the next several years, I worked in a marine supply business, McClelland Firestone and as an electrician’s assistant building the Palm Beach Plaza on the turnpike. I parked cars at a restaurant at night and worked at the Atlantic gas station on the weekends.
Kimball Conrad came home from the Navy and asked if I wanted to ride up to Palm Beach Junior College, as he was thinking of attending. We met the president and he asked if I was interested. I said I would take a couple of courses. I got a job in a machine shop in Boca that allowed me flexible hours so I could attend the college. This lead to my installing the machines we made for textile mills in New Jersey and the Carolinas and to make sales calls for the company. I met my wife, Lynne in the Beacon Blanket Mill in Swannanoa, NC, where she was the secretary to the mill superintendent. We met in January and we were married in July 1961. The superintendent was a graduate of Clemson A & E College and he suggested that I visit some contacts he set up for me at the college. I did and was accepted.
I started Clemson in the fall semester of 1961, living in the dorm as housing was in short supply. I dropped out the next semester and went to work in the blanket factory as our first son, Spencer, was born in May 1962 in Asheville, NC. We were able to secure housing in July and we returned to Clemson. Our second son, Shandon, was born in March 1964 in Anderson, SC and I graduated in June with a BS degree in Textile Chemistry. After my class graduated, they changed the name to Clemson University.
My first job was as a Development Engineer with American Cyanamid’s acrylic fibers plant just outside of Pensacola, FL. After two years, they asked us to move to Connecticut, where I was a Research Engineer for Lederle Laboratories, Davis & Geck Surgical Suture Division in Danbury, CT. Upon arrival, I was assigned to Corporate Central Research in Stamford, CT to develop the first synthetic absorbable suture. While working in Stamford, I started my MBA at the University of Connecticut, Stamford Campus. During this time we lived in Brookfield and Bethel, CT. Our third son, Shea, was born in Danbury in July, 1968.
I made the decision to leave research and move into management and joined Indian Head Yarn and Thread in Winsted, CT as the Plant Engineer and Director of Quality Control. Later, I was named Plant Manager. At Indian Head, I supervised the quality approval of the Teflon sewing threads used in the Apollo space suits. Our fourth child, Amy Claire, was born in Winsted in September, 1969. I finished my MBA at the Hartford Campus and was awarded the degree in May, 1970.
The decision was made to consolidate the thread manufacturing operations in Alabama, so I closed the plant and prepared to move to Alabama. I received an offer from Rockwell International’s Draper Division to be Plant Manager of their Marion, SC manufacturing plant for weaving accessories, and we moved to Florence, SC and later to Marion, SC. The plant made wood and phenolic fly shuttles and metal weaving components. While in Marion, I was on the adjunct faculty for Francis Marion College teaching Operation Management. After several years, we moved to Milford, MA, where I was Product Manager for Weaving Accessories at the division headquarters in Hopedale, MA. I was later named Acting Group Manager for plants in NH, NY, SC, Mexico City and Limerick, Ireland. I was asked to reorganize the Beebe River, NH operations consisting of 70,000 acres of timberland in NY and 30,000 acres of timberland in New Hampshire, a large sawmill, a manufacturing facility and a village.
In 1974, we moved to Spartanburg, SC, where I became Business Development Manager for Accessory Products and spent a little over a year in this assignment when I was asked to manage the 250 tons per day gray iron foundry and machine shops as General Plant Manager. While we were in Spartanburg, I was on the adjunct faculty for the University of South Carolina teaching International Marketing and Sales and Promotion. After two years in that assignment we moved to Greensboro, NC where I was named General Plant Manager for the startup of the 300,000 square feet textile loom assembly plant and international distribution facility.
In the summer of 1979, I left the Weaving Machinery Division and joined Rockwell’s Automotive Operations Western Wheel Division as Project Manager and General Plant Manager for the new $30 million Laurinburg, NC aluminum wheel manufacturing plant. We continued to live in Greensboro and I had an apartment in Detroit. The economy faltered and Rockwell halted the project and we moved to Mission Viejo, CA. I took over the La Mirada plant as General Plant Manager, producing aluminum wheels for the Corvettes, Cameros and Firebirds. Using Rockwell’s education policy I started my Executive Master of Art in Management at the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at the Claremont Graduate University. Peter Drucker was my professor. During this time I had the opportunity to study under Edward Deming, one of the fathers of the Japanese quality revolution.
In 1984, I left Rockwell after 14 years and joined Davis Walker Wire Co. as Vice President and General Manager of the Northern California Division, covering northern California, part of Nevada, Utah and Hawaii. The big plus was the quarterly Hawaii sales calls. A couple of years later Davis Walker was sold and reorganized and I joined the Hexcel Corporation as General Manager of the metal and composites honeycomb products division in the City of Industry, CA We made a variety of products including non nuclear devices for nuclear weapons, the window washer for the B-1s and products on a number of classified programs.
In 1988, I joined Fruhauf’s Kelsey-Hayes subsidiary as Project Manager and General Manager of Western Wheel de Venezuela in Valencia, Venezuela. For almost two years I commuted from CA to Detroit or Valencia. Later I was named Director of International Operation for aluminum wheels overseeing plants in Italy, Spain, Brazil, France and Mexico. In 1990, I joined Mark Industries in Brea, CA (my home) as Vice President Operations manufacturing man lift equipment for a variety of industries. I earned a certificate in International Strategic Alliances at the University of Michigan.
In 1993, I joined the University of Southern California School of Business as Senior Program Manager in Executive Education. I had the opportunity to work with Warren Bennis and a number of well-known faculty members. I later joined the Claremont School of Theology as Vice President and Chief Finance Officer and spent five years restructuring the finances and enlarging the campus facilities. Claremont is a Methodist institution. While at CST, I had a mild heart attack followed by quintuple bypass surgery which had complications requiring a second surgery the following day. This has had some lasting consequences.
In 2001, I was asked by the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches to join them as Associate General Secretary for Finance and Administration in Manhattan. I was also the Executive Director of the Ecumenical Trust and head of the Friendship Press. I had an apartment on Broadway in NYC and was in the city on 9/11. I retired from the NCC in 2003 and consulted with them for another year.
I now assist my children when they need me and assist in our church projects such as our current renovation and the finances. Our children are all married, as of December. We have four grandchildren with two more arriving this year. One of the grandchildren is a quarter Chinese and another is a quarter Japanese. Spencer Jr. married a young lady from Romania and she has a daughter from a previous marriage, so we will gain a Romanian/Iranian grandchild-in-law.
Spencer, the oldest son is the Iraq IT/Communication Manager for Parsons Engineering and has been in Iraq for over two years and expects to stay another. He is a Perot Systems employee on loan to Parsons. He is being offered other opportunities in the Middle East, Italy and Africa and may be overseas a bit longer. He has an MBA from USC. Shandon is the Director of Computer Systems at the University of California – Irvine in the Graduate School of Management. He is completing his Executive MBA at UCI. Shea has a musical career and works in the exposition industry. Amy earned her Masters in Fine Arts (dance) and is a professor at Mount San Antonio College.
My wife, Lynne, will retire in February next year, after 20 years as a Manager with CNA Insurance and we expect to be moving La Quinta in the desert near Palm Springs. She has had a rule that I could work anywhere in the world as long as she could live in California. It has worked out well. After my being gone for 8 of the 45 years we have been married, we will finally settle down in the desert. It has been a fun ride and we are looking forward to our retirement and traveling to see friends and family.
The best to all the ’56 Beanpickers.