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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe P&WA Connection by James Lynch (United Technologies Bee Hive pamphlet) Summer 1978 - NP Reflects on influence of Aerospace workersAc 1�3b Seven square miles of sugary sand and scrub palmetto with a few scattered houses and a population of Tess than 100 men, women and children. That was the area north of Palm Beach, Florida in the summer of 1956 as Pratt & Whitney Aircraft initiated plans to build a rocket and jet engine facility on 7,000 acres of remote land nearby. The summer of '56 was the calm before the boom. News of the com- pany's intention to locate its plant 17 miles to the west had stirred real estate developers into action. A new plant would mean new people com- ing into the area, they reasoned, and there would be a substantial require- ment for housing. Why not build an entire community to accommodate VIL.LAGE OF NORTH PALM BEACH HISTORIAN THE P&WA CONNECTION By James Lynch Thriving North Palm Beach, Florida, Reflects the Influence of Aerospace Workers Who Helped Create It 20 Years Ago this anticipated influx of people? And so the village of North Palm Beach was born, taking its first breaths in concert with the new aerospace facility, now the Govern- ment Products Division of United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney Air- craft Group. Both the village and the division recently observed their official 20th anniversaries — and both are still growing. The developers actually broke ground for a $1.5-million water treat- ment and sewage disposal system in that summer of '56 even though they had not sold a single homesite. However, the arrival of an advance contingent of P&WA people to su- pervise work on the aerospace fa- cility gave them all the incentive they needed. In 1958, months before the P&WA center opened, newly built houses in North Palm Beach were selling briskly and more were under con- struction. At first, the bustling new community was made up almost ex- clusively of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft employees and their families but by 1968, when the developers com- pleted their 1 ,787th house, the population of 8,743 people included a substantial number of non-P&WA people. 17 Today, North Palm Beach has 15,000 residents, halfway to its plotted maturity of 30,000, and no one disputes the fact that much of its character has been shaped by Pratt & Whitney Aircraft people. But what caused such embryonic communities as North Palm Beach to mature almost overnight? Why would a company like P&WA move into desolate lowland 1,400 miles from its headquarters in East Hart- ford, Connecticut? William P. Gwinn, retired chair- man of United Technologies Corpo- ration, recalled the circumstances surrounding P&WA's decision to transfer some of its operations to Florida. "We reached a point where we had to expand. We were crowded in our East Hartford plant and there was growing pressure from our neighbors against testing jet engines at night." Gwinn pointed out that the loca- tion was ideal since "we were using liquid hydrogen, a largely unknown, highly flammable fuel for one of the classified engine projects we were working on at the time. We needed this kind of isolation for our work." The work Gwinn was referring to was the development of two ad- vanced technology propulsion sys- tems — what was later to become the RL10, the world's first liquid hy- drogen -fueled rocket engine, and the J58, the jet engine which would eventually power the world's fastest aircraft. The Florida team's tradition of successfully putting to work innova- tive technology for flight propulsion continues today with the F100, the most advanced military gas turbine engine in the world. The F100, which serves as the powerplant for both the McDonnell Douglas F-15 and the General Dy- namics F-16 fighter aircraft, was de- signed, developed and tested at the facility, renamed the Government Products Division in 1976. Palm Beach County Commis- sioner Lake Lytal considers the ad- vent of P&WA the "key to converting the county from a resort community into a year-round part of south Flor- ida. There hasn't been anything to The area north of Palm Beach (above) looked like this in 1956 when P&WA initiated plans to build a rocket and jet engine facility nearby. Today the village of North Palm Beach (right) has 15,000 residents, almost half of them P&WA employees and their families. match their (P&WA) contribution from day one until now." That contribution has added $1.4 billion to the state's economy dur- ing the past 20 years. Last year the Government Products Division con- tributed $150 million in payroll and purchases to Florida's economy. With employment currently at 6,700, the company is nowthe state's largest industrial employer. But more than money, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft people shaped their communities. North Palm Beach Village Mana- ger Paul J. Nicoletti explains that the type of people employed by the company, mainly engineers and highly skilled technicians, displayed the lofty personal values which the community has reflected for 20 years. The more than $9,000 per capita 18 personal income (second in its population class in the county be- hind Palm Beach); housing ranging from $30,000 to $250,000, and a crime rate that is the second lowest in the state for a municipality North Palm Beach's size are facts Nico- Ietti doesn't have to look up. William H. Brown, retired engi- neering manager at P&WA and now a member of the North Palm Beach Village Council, explains what he laughingly refers to as "the Pratt & Whitney connection." Says Brown: "The village is proof of the insistence of well-educated people to make their community a fine place in which to live." He is quick to dispute the argu- ment occasionally heard that P&WA personnel form a voting phalanx on the council which is unfair to others in the community. "I didn't get in- volved in village government until I retired," he says, "because I thought people might think, since many of our engineers worked under me, that they'd vote the way I'd vote. The fact is that Pratt & Whitney people on the council have some very basic differences of opinion. For instance, whether the village should apply for federal funding." Although P&WA employees and their families now number less than half the village population, they con- tinue to play prominent roles in North Palm Beach government. In the past 15 years all but one village mayor has been a P&WA employee. Incumbent Mayor Alvin C. Moore is a supervisor in the instrument en- gineering group. He had previously served for more than two years on thevillage council and anotherseven years on the North Palm Beach Plan- ning and Zoning Advisory Board. Moore's wife Nancy is the village reference librarian. She played a key role in the establishment of the North Palm Beach Library, a spa- cious, modern facility which was dedicated less than 10 years ago. Moore says his long involvement in local government was based on what he felt was "an obligation to pay my dues to the community in which I live." A strong candidate for the title of all-time P&WA community servant is W. E. Thomas of the design en- gineering department. He held six jobs in the village at the same time 20 years ago. He was vice mayor and councilman. He was president of the PTA, a captain in the village fire department, an auxil- iary policeman, and, finally, finance chairman of Boy Scout Troop 101. James C. DeLonga, F100 man- ager/F-16, is a former mayor of Palm Beach Gardens and currently a member of the Palm Beach County School Board. He explains his com- munity involvement this way: "We build things at Pratt & Whitney. But it doesn't stop there. Community building is just an extension, another manifestation of our training. And because there are so many of us in a relatively small area, and because we talk about what's going on in our towns while traveling back and forth to work, I think it's easier to become actively involved in community affairs." DeLonga, who is currently a mem- ber of the Palm Beach County school board, says he was strongly 19 influenced by company employees' attitudes toward continuing their ed- ucation and obtaining instruction in areas of their special interests. Although reluctant to accept any credit, DeLonga played a prominent role in establishing what is now the Adult and Community Education program at Palm Beach Gardens High School. But company employees, includ- ing the Browns, the DeLongas and the Moores, weren't content to just volunteer their time to Kcal govern- ment. There is the annual All -In -One charity drive, through which em- ployees have made financial con- tributions to a large number of health and service agencies since the com- pany began doing business in Flor- ida. The All -In -One figure for 1958 was a modest $24,700. But during the intervening years the total grew steadily until contributions in 1977 reached $269,000. A corporate gift from United Tech- nologies also accompanies P&WA employees' efforts. Last year a check for $40,000 was presented to the United Way of Palm Beach County. And there are other, though less conspicuous, beneficiaries of the P&WA presence. ��; i \ `•,a`::'C`l�.Cwv°C �. Y :`. .j1 1 �l�F w�. vxe .C� .� ,,�A'aw?: ., a .....A ... AR Officially opened in 1958, the Government Products Division plant (above right) now has 6,700 employees. The isolated swamp land upon which it was built (above) was populated only by wildlife when P&WA's advance party arrived in 1956. 20 60 � illusion' t t[ttttlt/t//tfttl//tltl •ate hC'am'� rtrrttrrtrrrr• rrrtrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr7rrn Before P&WA's arrival, the golf course (below) used to be used by vacationers from Palm Beach and other resort towns. Now an integral part of the North Palm Beach scene (below left), it attracts many P&WA employees who reside in the village. Dexter Tool Co., a precision ma- chine shop in Mangonia Park, Flor- ida, did $2.5 million in business last year — 90 percent coming from contracts awarded by either the Government Products Division or P&WA's Manufacturing Division in East Hartford, Connecticut. Dexter is one of the more than 1,000 companies in Florida that re- ceived a share of the $21 million in business from GPD last year. And since P&WA opened its Palm Beach County plant 20 years ago, it has bought more than $314 million worth of goods and services from Florida businesses. Edmund V. Marshall, president of the Government Products Division, looks to the future buoyed by the success of the F100 engine program and what he describes as an ag- gressive 10-year plan. "We see strong growth through the early 1980s," he says. "That growth will reach a point where 35 percent of our sales will be outside the U.S." He adds that although it would be easy to ride the crest of the F100 program, "we're making a large in- vestment in technology for growth after that." His forecasts sit well with the resi- dents of North Palm Beach. ■ 21