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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.
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.
Introduction
In the winter of 1946, Perkins Pringle boarded the first leg of a 950-mile train ride from Durant, Mississippi, to Akron, Ohio the Rubber Capital of the World. He initially stayed with his Uncle Erich and found work at the twenty-five thousand-acre Ravenna Arsenal, which stockpiled ammunition and machinery during World War II. Eight years after his arrival, he ended up at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in the sooty mill room where workers mixed raw rubber with carbon black, or lamp black, which made tires strong and dark. He then moved to the tube room, the rubber shop, and eventually the tire tread shop, making it a point to learn every job there within six months.