12/22/2009
Payne ‘Moving On’ Into Retirement From Safety Socket
Richard Payne is retiring from Safety Socket Screw Corp. after 51 years.
Payne grew up in the fastener industry as his grandfather, Albert Overton, founded Safety Socket in 1931.
“In 1958, I began my official employment at Safety Socket Screw Corp and now December 2009, I begin my retirement,” Payne announced. He termed the transition as “moving on.”
“I must say that I was reluctant about leaving Safety until I sat down one Sunday after hearing a sermon titled ‘Keep Calm and Move On,’ Payne reflected.
He then started making a list of things to do and his yellow tablet “bucket list” grew: Usher for a season at Wrigley Field, be a starter or marshal at Glen Club country club, volunteer at Great Lakes Naval Hospital, special projects that Steve might need done, substitute bar tend for Dave at Club 45.
“In leaving I am reminded of all the people that I’ve worked with over the 51 years. I could (and might) write short stories about some of them,” Payne added.
He cited Jim Fortune who had some of the most interesting stories about his life and left two of his art pieces created from material that was thrown away to Payne.
“Then there was Clarence ‘Junior’ Keys who never graduated from grade school but could produce heat treated products in furnaces built in the 40’s and that never failed. And Wally Kobos who for three decades headed inspection and quality control, set up the cross drilling department, ran centerless grinding and thread grinding. “You did not want to produce junk as he would let you know instantly what he thought of the junk.”
“There were people like John Jones, Tom Crawford, and George Moore who stood in front of gas fired furnaces hot heading parts all year round.
Payne said he “cannot forget Betty Crane who operated the switchboard and was the best sale’s ambassador ever. I believe customers gave us orders just to call and talk to Betty.”
Al Sutrina who was a master mechanic, repairing everything and anything mechanical or electrical, ran headers, made tooling for the headers and always with a smile on his face.
“This is only a small sampling of the people I knew who were the real reason for Safety Socket being in business 78 years. Now that I think of it those short stories to be written might be a book of long stories.
“As you might be able to tell I am proud of the work and accomplishments of Safety Socket over these past years.
Payne recalled the story of how Safety Socket started when his grandfather “came home to my grandmother and said, ‘The Chicago Screw Company is going to fire me tomorrow but I’m going to quit on the bastards,’ which he did and started Safety Socket Screw Company in 1931.”
Payne noted the Safety Socket success story, “while today there is no Chicago Screw Co., or Allen Manufacturing Co. Now there is only a distributor owned Holo Krome Co., and Unbrako (SPS) is owned by a company in East India.”
“Change is inevitable,” said the 1997-98 NFDA associate chair. “My wish and hope for Safety Socket LLC is to manage the inevitable, grow and be successful for many years to come, while I “Move On.”
Payne can be contacted at E-mail: 123rcp@att.net
Safety Socket manufactures the Blue Devil brand of hexagon socket screw products for the machine tool, tool & die, MRO, aircraft, aerospace and electronics industries. Safety Socket also designs and manufactures special, engineered fasteners in a wide range of steel and nonferrous materials, up to 1″ diameter. Safety Socket was acquired by Chetrum Capital LLC at the end of 2004.
Safety Socket is located at 6501 North Avondale Ave., Chicago, IL 60631. Tel: 773 763-2020 Fax: 773 763-1610
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