In the middle of the 20th century, the small borough of Montgomery had 13 active factories within its one-square-mile community. One of these factories was the Wald Manufacturing plant, which played a significant role in the early development of road markings.
As the number of automobiles increased, there was a growing need to improve road safety. Designing a machine that could paint on asphalt that would be permanent had been worked on for years by several companies with little success. ChatGPT noted, “Wald Manufacturing was one of the pioneers in this field, contributing to the standardization of road markings, which have since become a crucial aspect of road safety.”
One of the men who helped make this possible was my father, Frank Stout. He was 23 years of age when he applied as a machinist in March of 1949, just finishing his tour of duty with the US Army. The company was right on the edge of developing its line painting vehicles when my father arrived. After serving in World War II and growing up on a farm as the only male, challenges were right up his alley.
It was a good fit for both him and the company, as my dad was instrumental in the process of making the line painting machines operate correctly, and he also enjoyed the convenience of walking to work. On the company’s side was an effective worker who would eventually stick around for almost forty years.
When my brother Tom graduated from Montgomery Area High School in 1973, he joined his father at the company, which was now named Linear Dynamics. He and Dad worked together for sixteen years until my father retired in 1989. Tom continued, as the factory was renamed again as LaFarge Company, Road Marking Equipment Division.
Then, in 2004, the M-B Companies took over the factory and moved it out of the Montgomery borough and into an industrial park on Route 405 in Clinton Township. M-B Companies, Pavement Marking Division, is one of the very few companies in the United States that produce vehicles that provide road painting service to customers nationwide.
Both Tom and my father had the unique position of creating specialized parts that would be necessary for the specialized trucks. As the older folks retired one by one, Tom eventually became the senior worker. In fact, he was so much older than the new workers he got the nickname, the ‘Legend’ because of his longevity.
Tom’s job was never easy, but he never was a quitter. Like his father, life was not kind to him. Tom went through some tough health issues through the years and also suffered with the loss of loved ones. Yet, he also had a sense of responsibility to the company as his father did, and did not want to leave until the factory could fill his shoes.
As the years kept going by, he struggled with the younger generation behind him. Many of the workers were in their twenties, even including some of those who were his managers. Eventually, all things do end, and on Thursday, August 29th, 2024, Tom Stout finally clocked out for the last time. The company honored him with a plaque and a nice noon meal for the entire factory, which our family was invited to attend. It had a sense of history. I heard several of the workers trying to imagine what it would be like in the factory without the “Legend.”
Counting the four years that Tom was in the USAF in the late 1970s, he retired with 51 years with the same company. Between him and his father, it represented a Stout working continuously for this same company for the past 75 years!
Yes, this may seem like nepotism, but I believe these two are true role models. I know personally that their work was challenging in many respects, but both my father and brother accepted the good with the bad. They were not supermen but men who hated to quit or be defeated. Their commitment to their employers was a trait that made them better men. As Proverbs 13:4 tells us, “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.”
