Installation of bronze statue downtown is dedication to the men and women who built Akron Doug Livingston, Akron Beacon Journal
Johnnie Downs returned from the Vietnam War in 1967 with no idea where he would work. He spent the next 18 years making tires at BF Goodrich.
“The conditions were bad, but the money was good,” said Downs, who is now 74 and retired. “See, the thing about working the job, sometimes you had to do what you had to do to take care of your family. And this was a means of me taking care of my family and my children.”
Downs stood Thursday morning with a few dozen people invited by the city of Akron to witness the unveiling of a 15-foot-tall bronze rubber worker statue. The commemorative work of art was sculpted by Zanesville artist Alan Cottrill and modeled after the 1920s tire worker on the cover of “Wheels of Fortune,” a book by former Beacon Journal writers David Giffels and Steve Love.