Chuck Alder

Chuck Alder first started working at Lodge just after his 18th birthday in April 1969. He says he came to Lodge with a school group and ended up staying on to work. His first job was on the shakeout, which involved taking a casting as it came out of the sand mold. Alder remembers it being very hot and dusty. "You had a big glove on and had to take a pipe and a hot skillet and beat the sand out of it and throw it in a skid," recalls Alder. "You'd stand there with sweat just pouring off of you. Shakeout is where they tried you out to see if you would stay. I must have passed."

From his initial duties on shakeout, Chuck went on to work with the electric furnaces, in the mechanic department, the maintenance department, and finally to the position he has now in environmental maintenance. Chuck's tasks today include hauling away waste sand and pallets, keeping the roads and fences maintained and the fields bushhogged, among other things. "I like it better than any job I've had since I've been here," he says. Chuck has been at Lodge for 45 years, second only to CEO Bob Kellermann. He says, "Lodge is a part of my life. Actually, it's most of my life. There's no better place to work."

Thanks, Chuck for all your hard work over the years!