Last Man Standing

I was almost the last Asarco employee at the Tacoma plant. But Bob Miller beat me by a couple of months and he had the privilege of packing up the last few office supplies and shipping them down south.

It's been a year of 'lasts' ~ the last Asarco employee leaves Ruston, the last local Asarco office shuts down, personally I reach my last day with Asarco, and last night the Asarco retirees held their last annual dinner after 62 years.

So many of the rough, polite, hard-working, sincere, honest men and women are gone now and those remaining are aging. It's a passing of an era. We've come to view their work with such disdain these days. We have no idea what goes into producing the copper we use every day. Instead we naively shake our heads at the evil we see as the legacy of their efforts. Yes, we can (and should) argue about the environmental impacts and how to best address them.

But I want us to remember the good these men and women did. They devoted themselves work that produced something meaningful for America and our standard of living. They were a proud breed and fought for what they believed in. They cared deeply about each other, their families and their community. Their blood, sweat and tears built this town. We owe them so much more than our sometimes superior attitude that says their work was dirty or wrong or unnecessary.

So, we held our last dinner. So many are already gone. I missed Joe Percich, Leonard Campbell, Jerry White, Ike Wilkenson, Larry Lindquist, Bob and Owen Gallagher and so many more. We closed out an important chapter in our history last night. I pray in time we will value these men for their gift to us.