Lordstown's latest plant manager recounts unexpected GM career

EDITOR’S NOTE — As 2014 winds down, The Vindicator is taking a daily look back at the people and events that made this year unforgettable. “The Vindicator Rewind” will highlight and update a memorable story from 2014.

LORDSTOWN

Steve Notar Donato found out July 14 what the eighth stop in his career with General Motors would be.

It’s a special date because it happens to be his birthday.

His present this year was the title of plant manager at Lords-town.

This plant delivers about 10 percent of GM’s production in the U.S., makes the automaker’s best-selling car, the Chevrolet Cruze, and is one of the largest GM plants in North America.

“I was ecstatic,” Notar Donato said. “What an operation it was to take responsibility over.”

On Aug. 1 he replaced former plant manager Bob Parcell, who was promoted to manufacturing manager of GM International Operations based in Singapore.

While his family remains in Indiana until his son graduates from high school, Notar Donato, 50, now lives out of a hotel

because of his recent appointment to the Lordstown plant.

He grew up in an Italian family across from Manhattan in New Jersey. Growing up, he never considered himself a “gear head.” He actually was going to be a doctor but decided against it after he saw his brother go through the program.

He would end up with a mechanical-engineering degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Read more about the winding road that brought him to this Valley in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.