Workplace reminiscing

Jan 17, 2023

A small group of former employees of the basic oxygen plant in Weirton that was demolished in March 2019 after a half century of steelmaking history met at Tudor's Biscut World to celebrate the 90th birthday of their former fellow worker — Ron Martin of East Springfield, seated right. The gathering was occasion to not only mark Martin's birthday but also to reminisce about days gone by as the retirees had not all been together for more than 20 years. On hand were Don Elder and Martin, both of whom worked there as millwrights; and standing, Ron Georgette, millwright/welder; Rick Cook, BOP mechanical superintendent; and Paul Frey, mechanical engineer. Elder commented after the get-together that Martin told the story of how there wasn't a place in the BOP he hadn't been and he always marked with chalk when he was there. "We were all heartbroken when the BOP and property was sold and then torn down," Elder commented. According to the newspaper story that ran after the BOP was demolished, the plant opened in 1967 and was dubbed the "mill of the future" by former Chairman Thomas E. Millsop because it brought together three state-of-the-art technologies — basic oxygen steel production, vacuum degassing and continuous casting — for the first time in an automated, high-tonnage operation in the 1960s. Millsop, who earlier in his career had been president of Weirton Steel and Weirton's first mayor, died weeks before the first heat rolled off the production line in November 1967. It was part of the 1,100-acre parcel Frontier acquired in 2017 from ArcelorMittal, which no longer needed it for steelmaking.

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