HERE’S A STICKER!

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18191, 15 February 1929, Page 3

HERE’S A STICKER!

“THE DADDY OF THE PLANT!” That’s what they call him out in the shops of the mammoth Dodge Brothers’ factory in Detroit—the grey-haired, slightly-stooped engineer on duty at one ot tlie big compressed air machines ior operating the huge steel presses. He is AVilliam AVohlfeil, and he is 60 years old, the last active member of the little group of Dodge Brothers’ workmen who have seen the organisation grow from a small machine shop with 20 employees to its outstanding position in the automotive industry, ranking with the greatest industrial concerns of tlie country and the world. But, in spite of his three score years, “Bill.” as he is known familiarly to thousands of his fellow employees, has kept pace with the times. His ideas of how the modern automobile should bo made are the ideas of to-dn.v. They came to him in the evolution of the industry, and tlie part lie has played in it—first the bicycle, then the lour, and now the popular six-cylinder Wohlfeil was a young man, barely 22 when he crossed over the Detroit river to the Canadian border town of AA’indsor 38 years ago to work for the Dodge Brothers in the manufacture of bicycles. Employed there until 1901, lie returned to Detroit with the .founders of the Company, to open their first machine shop, one of a bare handful ol employees. Later, when Dodge Brothers were turning out parts for* the pioneer automobile companies, lie was the blacksmith, and in 1914, with the ad veil j of the first Dodge motor-car. his engineer’s papers came. To-day, he takes a keen interest in his job ah engineer on the big air compressor. in nearly four decades with Dodge Brothers, Wohlleil has gained for himself the reputation of being among the most reliable employees in the plant “For more than 20 years, his time card has not varied more than a couple of minutes,” a Dodge official said. “He is always here five minutes ahead of time, and has seldom missed a day, or even an hour from his job.” His greatest compensation. AVohlfeil declares, has come through a feeling that he has been close to a phenomenal achievement—a sense of pride in tlu growth of the Dodge organisation, and the development of the automobile industry. ...