Tim Rogers and Zoran Pedisic have vastly different backgrounds, but the two work well together as recently appointed lead foreman and assistant foreman for Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc. (LSW), operator of Duluth’s Clure Public Marine Terminal general cargo facilities.

Tim Rogers is a local boy. He grew up in Duluth’s Denfeld area and married high school sweetheart Nancy in 1981. A longtime longshoreman, he was working for LSW when elected president of Duluth’s ILA Local 2061 in November 1994. Mr. Rogers was instrumental in creating Local 2061, LSW’s collective bargaining unit.

“This allowed people working here to represent themselves and work together with the company to make it a go,” he said. “It has provided an excellent company/union relationship, which is good for both parties — and for the Port.”

Mr. Rogers worked his way up the ranks and became an LSW foreman in 1998. When Lead Foreman Russell Wedin retired in May 2002, Mr. Rogers first filled in and then, in November, took over the position. A proud employee, he is quick to point out that under his watch 2002 will go on the books as LSW’s second most productive year.

His off-time hours are often spent hiking the hills surrounding his Skyline Boulevard home in Duluth or hiking closer to his waterfront work on the city’s Lakewalk. He also enjoys traveling. His favorite destination is Las Vegas, where he prefers adventures of the non-gambling variety. “I once rode a jet ski across the Hoover Dam just to be able to say I visited Arizona and Nevada during one trip,” he said.

He and his wife Nancy, an American Red Cross employee for 27 years, have two grown children who both reside in the area. Jill, 24, is in her last year at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and Jennifer, 26, (Mrs. Glanville as of June 2002), works as a supervisor for Duluth’s United Health Group.

Zoran Pedisic hails from Pasman, a Croatian island tucked between Italy and the Croatian Coast. So what brought him all the way to Duluth? “A girl,” he said with a smile.

“I was a sailor on the Yugoslavian vessel Sava, which visited Duluth in November 20 years ago. I met a girl named Kathy at a local watering hole. Her parents came from Bosnia and she was born in Duluth. We were married by June the next year.”
Mr. Pedisic’s first job in the U.S. was as a maintenance person at a boarding house in Duluth. He then drove for Superior’s Jeff Foster Trucking, Incorporated, for 10 years, often loading or unloading at LSW’s terminal. In February 1998 he became an LSW forklift operator and joined Local 2061, which he has served as president since June 2001.

Mr. Pedisic enjoyed a jack-of-all-trades role at LSW before being promoted to assistant foreman in November 2002. He now formulates schedules, helps with office work, oversees loading and unloading of products and especially likes operating one of the terminal’s two 90-ton gantry cranes.

Mr. Pedisic admits that for an island lad the winters here at first were “a little tough.” He has acclimated somewhat, but prefers the region’s summers when he can spend vacation time fishing, water-skiing and swimming at his cabin on Rose Lake near Cotton, Minn. He also enjoys soccer — a sport he played in Croatia. Pending world conditions, he would like to return to Pasman next summer to see his family for only the fourth time since moving to the States.

He and his wife Kathy, an assistant billing manager for the Duluth Billing Center, have three children who live at home. Twins Marko and Natalia are 17, and daughter Mariana is 19.