When I came to Detroit in the spring of 1966 looking for a job, I was a married college student about to graduate in June with no employment yet in sight. My wife and I did not have a car that would make the trip to Detroit and back, since we were the proud owners of a 1962 Nash Rambler which was almost always broken down. Instead we caught a ride with others that were coming north from Nashville, where we were in school and stayed with her parents who lived over near the old Hudson Motor Car factory site on Jefferson Avenue. I caught a city bus downtown and having no knowledge of how to find the General Motors Building, enlisted the aid of the bus driver to know when to get off the bus. I had no appointment with anyone but surveyed the marquee, which once hung in the rotunda and decided that the Director of Salary Personnel was perhaps the correct place to start.

When I got to the eighth floor and found the correct office, I announced to the secretary that I was there to see Mr. Turner. She checked the appointment book and let me know that I had no appointment, which of course I already knew. After contacting the boss she said with some surprise, "He will see you but you have to wait about an hour." That was no problem for me since time was what I had more of than anything else. The Director arranged an interview at the Ternstedt Central Office, which would later become GMAD and then Chevrolet Central Office. I interviewed with Mr. Walter Bee and others who offered me a job pricing invoices in the centralized accounting function.

Shortly after beginning my employment, I was drafted into the U.S., Army and the folks at Ternstedt were kind enough to interview and then hire my wife, who worked in Packaging and Material Handling while I was away for two years and then continued to work down the hall from me for a period of time until our first child came. When Fisher Body reacquired Ternstedt in 1969, their decision was to decentralize accounting, and I volunteered to go to the Fort Street Plant to work in the accounting department. I remember that Mr. E.J. Wray was the Resident Comptroller and shortly after I arrived GM was struck by the UAW for three months, during which I rearranged files all the way to the sub basement.

The Fort Street Plant, which had been the original location of Alva Ternstedt's manufacturing facility, was a wonderful place to work, if somewhat located in a changing neighborhood. We, with tongue in cheek, called it “The Mother Plant”, which was a double entendre referring to the original plant status, and the fact it was a difficult place to work, and it was a place to learn about many manufacturing processes. We had high speed presses doing heavy metal stamping, Rolling Mills, Benders, did bright metal plate, anodize, paint, injection molding, small assembly lines, die cast molding, and soft trim. It was a great place to get your start in the business since you got a little of everything.

I spent much of my time there doing product costing and learned how all of the parts went together. We did a complete set of financial statements for each plant in those days and did them by hand, and there is no substitute for that kind of experience. I remember that Ed Cole was President and Richard C. Gerstenberg was the Chairman. Lou Millian was our General Manager.

I stayed at Fort Street until 1978 when I transferred to Grand Rapids Metal Fab and to many locations following, but none was more instructional than Detroit Fort Street. I was there when we had the open house and still have the plated ashtrays with the Ternstedt Logo to remember it by. It was there that I began my MBA from Wayne State after being encouraged by Don Neuss, who was our boss. I drove to work in the 20” snow of 1970 only to find that General Motors had closed operations.

I recently met with one of the fellows who was a good friend during those days and we noted the strength of the relationships formed during those years. Many of the people became lifelong friends and remain so today. My wife and I will ever be grateful for the wonderful opportunity provided for us at Ternstedt and having retired in 2001, after nearly 35 years, seldom does a day go by that I do not think of someone from General Motors. In spite of its size, it was a place of relationships and I was always impressed with the ability, knowledge, and dedication of the people, who were just good people.

Tag Cloud