Roger Hoffman, plant manager of Peerless Ohio Glove, went to work on June 11 just as he had for the past 15,000 days, or so.
That’s 41 years on the job in the same building with the same company.
Most viewers have switched jobs several times, but not Roger. Asked if he thinks of himself as the “ultimate Baby Boomer” because he works for the same company he started with in 1973, he answers: “No!”
“I actually have coffee every morning with guys I know were also at the same job close to, as long, or longer than me,” he says.
“I’m proud to be cut from the same cloth as they are, especially since I’ve dealt with all of them over the years and consider them friends,” he added.
Who is he talking about?
“You probably know one, some,or maybe all of them, as early-morning McDonald’s coffee drinkers,” says Hoffman. “I’ll name a few, knowing I’m certain to miss someone. There’s Bob Badertscher, Darrell Huber, Dick Boehr, Duane Crawford, Gary Kirtland, Harold Rau and Jim Baumgartner.”
“Heck, I’m probably the rookie of the bunch,” he laughs. (The Icon thinks that honor goes to Gary Kirtland.)
Most Icon viewers recognize the glove factory building at 327 N. Main St., but few know what goes on there.
“Many of Bluffton’s moms, grandmas or great-grandmas worked here until 1988. It’s been a long ride from its beginnings as the best manufactured cotton gloves in the country from 1952 to 1988. It’s now the main distribution center for gloves and safety supplies for General Motors Corp.,” he said.
Adding: “And, until lately, it served as the warehouse and distribution center for a corporation that carried pandemic emergency inventory supplies.”
“With pandemic emergencies not the threat that it was, we’re looking for what’s next. At the present time we have no thoughts of leaving,” he said.
Choctaw-Kabul Distribution Co., Detroit, owns Peerless Ohio Glove Co.
How long will Hoffman continue working? “Heck, I know I’ve got to put in another four years or so to have any credibility with the guys I hang out with in the morning.”
So, as Hoffman puts it: “A number of outstanding Baby Boomers certainly exist in our great small town, and this is just from the early morning coffee crew. I have buddies who take over the second shift at McDonald’s later in the morning, so it’s pretty amazing how many loyal, hardworking and responsible people make up our little community.”
