Employee marks 65 years at Hyster-Yale
Feb. 1—DANVILLE — It can be rare occurrence when someone stays at the same company for their entire career.
It's even rarer for an employee to celebrate 65 years of working with that company.
Don Jones of Danville celebrated his 65-year work anniversary in December at Hyster-Yale Group in Danville.
The bicycling enthusiast received an electric bike as a work anniversary present.
Don is currently a second-shift janitor. When Hyster manufactured forklifts in Danville he had other roles including in the tool crib, as truck driver and as overhead crane operator.
Don, born and raised in Danville, started working at Hyster after graduating Danville High School and attending night school classes for welding.
He heard Hyster was hiring. The position didn't involve welding, but cutting torches.
He mostly worked at the factory on Voorhees Street. Hyster-Yale Group is now on Fairchild Street in Danville.
Don, who lost his wife to breast cancer 20 years ago, said "I buried myself into work."
But he says, "I couldn't ask for a better place to work. The work environment is very good."
He said it's been a great place to come to work all these years and it has great benefits.
He said it's important to find a job you enjoy.
Don said he's appreciative too of the electric bike he received for his work anniversary. He's not had a chance to use it yet due to the winter weather. He looks forward to riding it this spring.
"I do a lot of bike riding," he said.
He also likes to camp and spend time with family.
He has three children, six grandchildren and two great- grandchildren.
Don said he's not sure when he'll retire.
"I'm sure there's a place on the calendar," he said.
Hyster-Yale officials say they have a great team of employees.
"Hyster-Yale Group has a long history of highly tenured employees," said Tom Hashimoto, director of parts operation at Hyster-Yale Group's Parts Distribution Center in Danville. "Along with celebrating Don's achievement this year, we had five other employees who celebrated anniversaries over 50 years, including Dianne Weddle, our purchasing clerk, who celebrated her 59th year working at Hyster-Yale Group. It comes to a total of 335 years of experience, just among those six people."
"We are so proud of Don, Dianne and all of our Danville team members and the incredible effort they give every day to support our customers," Hashimoto said.
Since Don is very active and enjoys bike riding whenever he gets the opportunity, to celebrate his anniversary, he was presented with a Trek Verve 2+ electric bike.
"It is something Don wanted so that he could travel farther and make it up the hills a little easier," Hashimoto said.
In attendance for the presentation were Don's colleagues from second shift operations in the warehouse as well as several senior leaders from the HYG Americas Division, including Chuck Pascarelli, president, Americas Division; John Gardiner, vice president, manufacturing; Ray Ulmer, vice president, finance; and Brett Schemerhorn, president, aftersales business.
The Hyster-Yale Group congratulated Don and the team.
Hyster-Yale Group (HYG) in Danville is the largest lift truck parts distribution center for the entire HYG customer base globally. HYG is a leading global manufacturer of lift trucks and other materials handling equipment. In Danville, the team handles the aftersales for the North, Central and South American markets, including warehousing and sales of service parts and a team of on-site customer support members.
