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The Harbor Line |
 As the St. Lawrence Seaway’s 40th anniversary is observed here and elsewhere, some folks seem to think I’m the Albert Woolson of Great Lakes port directors.
It is true I’ve been around for awhile — or as Hallett Dock Co. President Jerry Fryberger says, “since rainbows came in black and white.” But my maritime career, which started in 1958, was interrupted in the 1960s by a stint as a Duluth News- Tribune reporter. At the risk of overlooking someone — and hoping anyone I’ve missed will contact me — I have tried to identify those people who have toiled in the Port of DuluthSuperior without interruption from 1959 through today. So far, these are the folks still working who have devoted their careers to our local maritime industry: Ed Ruisi of Guthrie-Hubner, Inc., came to Duluth in 1959 from New York City and is in charge of the vessel agency’s general cargo ships and U. S. and Canadian laker operations. A true survivor, Ed endured a year as my roommate (we were later portrayed in film as “The Odd Couple”) before I got married. Kenneth (Boots) Stringer Jr., a member of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1037, Superior, was unloading pre-Seaway ocean vessels at the Great Northern Freight Shed in Superior and loading grain at the Great Northern Elevator in 1951 — when he was only 14. He was with American Grain Trimmers, Inc., from 1959 to 1975 and since then has been a full-time longshoreman. Gerald Arseneau joined the Osborne-McMillan Grain Co. in 1959 and stayed through various corporate buyouts and mergers, relocating to the former Globe Elevator and then Peavey-Connors Point Elevator. Jerry is a PVCP clerk. Edward Mudek began shoveling grain cars at the Capitol Elevator complex (now AGP Grain) in 1956 and spent the first few winters working at the Northwest Hanna Coal Docks. Now AGP’s chief grain inspector, Ed plans to retire next April. Three other Garfield Avenue elevator employees — Russell N. Johnson and Lloyd Lehto of Cargill and Dennis Jence of General Mills — began within three days of one another in early June 1959. Russ and Lloyd both shoveled grain cars at the Norris EHI Elevators which, in 1960, were acquired by Cargill. Russ is now a car dump operator and Lloyd is a truck dump operator. Dennis, who plans to retire in November, is the chief weigher at General Mills. Henry (Hank) Podgorak observes his 45th anniversary in August with what is now the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture’s Division of Grain Regulation. He started as a grain sampler in 1954 and now is the agency’s senior grain inspector. L. Keith Yetter, vice president of Marine Tech of Duluth, Inc., began his maritime career as a project engineer with the former Zenith Dredge Co. in 1956. Marine Tech succeeded Zenith Dredge in 1994 as the Port’s only local dredging contractor. Jerry Norick has been an independent diver/ engineer since leaving Zenith Dredge Co. in the late 1980s. He started with the Soo Line Railroad in 1957 doing dock maintenance and joined Zenith in 1960. Brothers Rueben and Bill Wiitala of Fraser Shipyards and Northern Engineering, respectively, just retired this spring after more than 40 years of service apiece. And then there’s the dean of maritime personnel in our port, Clarence LaLiberte, president of CutlerMagner Co. Clarence, whose father joined Cutler Magner in 1913, came home to Duluth after World War II and entered the firm in December 1945 as an engineer. I asked him if, at 81, he had retirement plans. “No,” he said. “As long as there’s still a challenge and I have good health and can add two plus two, I hope the good Lord is willing to keep me going for a few more years.” It’s almost poetic that Clarence LaLiberte should be our longevity leader. The company, whose docks process salt and limestone, traces its origins to 1880 and is the oldest locally owned business in Duluth-Superior. |
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For those too young or too new to the area to know, Mr. Woolson outlived all other survivors of the Union Army in the Civil War. Born in Watertown, N. Y., he spent the last several decades of his life in Duluth and died in August 1956 at the age of 109.
