Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The fall of Valley steelmaking discussed at Steel Museum
YOUNGSTOWN — Judge Diane Vettori recalls visiting the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan in 1975.
Her father, who worked at Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., looked at an exhibit on steel making in the 1800s and remarked, “The problem is that’s still how we make steel in Youngstown.”
Black Monday struck two years later and her father lost his job. So did about 5,000 others as Sheet & Tube announced the closing of its Campbell Works and the relocation of its corporate headquarters.
The event on Sept. 19, 1977, was marked tonight as nearly 200 people who attended a program at the Youngstown Historical Center.
Judge Vettori’s observation during a public comment period framed a key question of the evening: Were the closings of local steel mills inevitable?
“It was inevitable,” said a panelist, William Farragher, who was director of marketing communications for Sheet & Tube. “It was coming down the track for a long time. When it hit, there wasn’t anything anyone could do.”
For the complete story, see Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.