Pat Linton was a MiTek original, like none other, with his hands on and his arms around MiTek equipment for 44 years. He led by example, with the utmost humility, and was a key player in elevating MiTek machinery from mediocrity to magnificence. And his start, assembling two of the truss industry’s most prolific machines, couldn’t have been more auspicious. Here were Pat’s own recent recollections…
“I was hired on at Hydro-Air Engineering as an assembler late spring of 1978 at the old machinery plant on South Vandeventer. I spent the first three months basically building the press heads that would be used in the Mark 8 and 10 systems or the (world record holder multi-head) Glide-A-Way and helping out with a Beaver (floor truss machine) order every now and then.”
In mid-1978, Hydro-Air bought Art DePauw’s saw company in the Chicago suburbs and launched the most successful product line in industry history, but under incredible duress. Prior to the sale, Art had taken dozens of orders and down payments, without any means of fulfilling them, and precipitated a customer crisis that demanded drastic measures to resolve.
“I don’t remember the exact month, but I will say in September (1978) they were looking for volunteers to go up to St. Charles, Illinois to help build saws. I was young and single, so I accepted, I had nothing to lose. Steve Sueme being my age and a welder accepted to go as well so we drove up there together. Greg Finn joined us a few weeks after our arrival. It was a very small shop with a lot going on. You could see tons of parts everywhere throughout the shop since they were so busy. I have the number of 45 saws in my memory as to how many saws they had on order trying to fill. That was another reason we St. Louis people went up there, they needed help. We were working 70 plus hours a week.
Anyway, I could go on forever with more details like it being the coldest and snowiest winter that area had seen in years and how we warmed our toes up in our steel-toed boots with a torch and never walked outside, you always ran to where you were going. My time there lasted 6 months and by the time I left I could build a Quadri-Cut in my sleep and a Combi-Cut with a little help from a drawing.”
Since the 12,000 sq ft Hydro-Air plant barely accommodated the DePauw saws, it was fortunate that a new 60,000 sq ft Earth City, MO plant was ready for occupancy just in time.
“After we left (St. Charles, Illinois) and came back to St. Louis, we actually built one saw on Vandeventer while they were still producing the saw in St. Charles. Towards the end of 1979, we started moving things into the Earth City plant. Obviously at the same time they were shutting down the St. Charles facility and shipping all the inventory down to us. When it all arrived, it almost looked like they just dumped all the parts bins in the truck on purpose to where we had to spend hours to sort through everything and separate them back into the individual bins. It may have been a coincidence that things just spilled in transit, but when several trucks showed up that way you almost had to think some feelings got hurt with the move.
Once we had Earth City up and running, the hydraulic side and presses slowed down due to the lack of orders, but it seemed like we always had a saw to build.”
In 1991, when Hydro-Air and Gang-Nail merged to become MiTek Industries, Inc., the DePauw and Idaco Saws were also merged into the Easy-Set Series, with which Pat became intimately familiar.
Though he knew our saws like the back of his hand, Pat’s from-the-ground-up knowledge of hydraulics kept him involved in every hydraulic press built by Hydro-Air, Gang-Nail, or MiTek. When MiTek bought Pacific Automation Company in 2003, Pat became the Auto-8, 10, and 14 expert in the office and in the field.
Through all his working days, Pat was exceedingly conscientious and didn’t rest until every job was done well. He resolved countless customer issues, and forestalled innumerable others. Pat worked hard every day, without a hint of his terminal illness, until ten days before he passed away.
What we didn’t see, but surely suspected, was Pat’s devotion to his Faith and family. He was the youngest of five children and had been hired by his older brother Gary (now deceased) when Gary ran the Hydro-Air plant. After his parents were gone, Pat returned to the house he grew up in, and was a father-like figure to his ten nieces and nephews.
Pat Linton’s sterling character, which animated his life while he served the truss industry, stands even taller now that he has left us. Rest in peace, Brother Pat!