Our Own Hall of Fame

 

GEORGE MATTHEW VERITY

 

LABOR RELATIONS BEST

Verity Built Armco Steel Out of Old Roofing Firm

 

DAYTON DAILY NEWS   MARCH 16, 1961

BY MARY ELLEN LYNCH

Daily News Staff Writer

 

     George Matthew Verity got into the steel business via a wholesale grocery and built an industrial empire out of a broken-down tin roofing company that employed 25 people.

     When he died in 1943 he left behind one of the nation’s biggest steel companies—one that had never lost a pound of production or an hour’s work due to labor trouble in the 30 years he was actively at its helm.

     The labor relations of Armco Steel of Middletown were—and are—almost as well known by brand name as the company’s ingots.  Armco was the first company in the steel industry to have an organized safety program, the first to extend the eight hour day to all employes.

     ARMCO SUPPORT of schools, churches, hospital and recreation facilities (Verity gave Middletown a 400 acre park) helped build the city into a happy, thriving community.

     The man who spearheaded all this was the son of a Methodist minister who averaged $500 a year income and served in 14 different communities before young George managed to graduate from high school at Georgetown, O.

     THERE WAS no money for college, so after a year of business school he worked for a grocery, then became manager of the Sagendorf Iron Roofing and Corrugating Co. in Middletown in 1889.

     Before long Verity—a vital man who, when he was 65, was still taking horses over the jumps—headed a reorganization.  What was to become Armco was born.  Verity’s investment was a borrowed $500.

     THE RED HEAD with the sandy complexion erected furnaces and rolling mills, developed new forms of conduit and culverts, brought out a technically pure iron.  Verity pioneered in specialty steels and human relationships.

     In 1922 the company risked $7 million on the success of a continuous rolling mill.  It worked, revolutionized the making of steel and helped make possible mass production of everything from autos to washing machines.

     GEORGE M. Verity was a Presbyterian, a Mason, a Republican and an erect handsome man who kept physically trim all his life.

     He stepped down as president of Armco in 1930, but continued as board chairman.  He kept beating the drums for “Armco spirit, “ said it made for “pep, pride, production, progress, patriotism and prosperity.”

     Verity died in 1943 at the age of 78.  Today his birthday is observed by Armco employes throughout the world.  On that day they do something George Verity would have liked—they do a good deed for their communities.

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