Father, son combine for 78 years at plant

FORT CALHOUN, Neb. — Ray Massey Sr. is the antithesis of the modern U.S. worker who stays at one company for a few years and then moves on.

Massey, 68, has been at Wilkinson Industries in Fort Calhoun for 50 years.

His son, Ray Jr., has been with the company for 28 years.

Both have risen to senior-level positions at the company, which makes aluminum and plastic food containers for delis, supermarkets and restaurants. Ray Sr. is director of tool and die, and Ray Jr. is vice president of research and development.

Father and son were together this week at a celebration honoring the service of Ray Sr. and 11 other employees who had been with the company 10 years or longer.

Ray Sr. stood alone at 50 years, a record Wilkinson officials said might hold for many years to come at the company, founded in 1948.

“It's never happened before,” said Richard Vogt, the company's chief financial officer.

The milestone is increasingly uncommon in a rapidly changing, mobile world, he said.

The elder Massey received a standing ovation from colleagues, and they gathered around to shake his hand in congratulations. One asked if he would be at the company another 50 years.

“I don't think so,” Massey said, laughing. “Maybe another 10.”

He started at Wilkinson Industries in 1959, right out of high school. He advanced from a four-year apprenticeship in the tool and die trade to director of the division, overseeing six people in the plant of 350.

Massey said he has no immediate plans to retire. For one thing, he said, his retirement investments took a hit in the recession-driven stock market drop. He also enjoys what he is doing.

“I don't want to be one of those people that go home and sit on the couch. I have to be busy all the time.”

Ray Jr., 46, started in the tool and die division like his father but switched to designing because he became allergic to the oils used in the die shop.

Ray Jr. acknowledged that it's unusual for family members to work so long together at a company they don't own, but he said it has been an honor to work with his dad. “The only thing I miss is not being on the floor with my father.”

Ray Sr. has six children, all of whom live in Omaha. One son works at a company that builds shelving, another has his own woodworking shop and another sells houses. One daughter works at a post office and another at a university.

Wilkinson Industries has a storied history of its own.

Working with C.A. Swanson & Co. in Omaha, it developed the first TV dinner tray in 1953, a three-compartment aluminum container. Now owned by Mid Oaks Investment LLC in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Wilkinson makes more than 450 packaging products, including containers fashioned from renewable resources such as corn.

In May, Wilkinson merged with a South Carolina producer of disposable plastic cutlery, meal kits and straws.

Changes at the company include more computerization and expansion from aluminum into plastic materials, Ray Sr. said.

Working 50 years at the same company has been an accomplishment, he said, and creative challenges have kept it interesting.

“Why should I go look around for another job when everything's right here?” he asked.

Ray Jr. said the run he and his father have had at Wilkinson reflects a bond between the company and its workers.

“As a society, I think we're losing sight of what we're supposed to do, which is have fun and not worry about the almighty dollar,” Ray Jr. said. “You should have loyalty.”

Contact the writer:

444-1117, joe.ruff@owh.com