Posted by Paul Beyer on November 21, 2009 at 8:47am
After 45 years of PatternMaking in industrial shops, but mostly job shops. I am counting my last 19 working days to close my box for the final time (well for pay anyway). It all started with training at the old Des Base in San Diego PM A School in the Navy. Then on to the U.S.S. Markab AR-23 in Alameda, under the leadership of H.M. Anderson and W. Bryant, both first class P.O.'s. After my four years in the Navy and two trips west pac, I settled in Iowa, finishing my apprenticeship in the trade. My continous years of building Patterns has taken my family to Colorado, Arizonia, Kansas, and then back to Iowa. I have seen and moved with the trade from recreating castings, building from blueprints, to the final stage of modeling to tool path in the computer age and CNC machining. I have enjoyed it all and been challenged beyond my beliefs at times. What the future holds for this trade has me baffled, at times I think it has reached its demise. I know the numbers of Pattern Makers has decreased immensely. It's been a great ride and to the Navy I owe it all. They give me the chance and the schooling and the trade. Let alone help shape me as a young man. I salute the Navy and all you other Pattern Makers out there that had similar experiences. Paul Beyer
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