Pictured is Eddie Gordon working in the Laclede Log Yard
Eddie Gordon is a well-known team member at IFG Laclede due to his easy going temperament and humor. Eddie Gordon started at IFG 25 years ago. His first position was in the sawmill on a swing shift, where he stood in front of the board edger and twin saw and removed the board edger pieces. He did this job for a couple of years and then worked in the filing room. He said he could see the log yard from the filing room window and thought to himself that the Letourneau drivers had a pretty sweet job. Eddie began coming in early so he could learn about daily log yard operations and would then finish his day working his job in the sawmill. A bid came open for swing shift driving the Letourneau and Eddie got the job because he was already trained. He learned quickly that operating the Letourneau was not as easy as it looked and was a lot more stressful. Unloading logs was tricky, especially in the spring when the logs were slick. Eddie explained while laughing that when he first started operating the Letourneau he would unload a truck and get back to the log decks with only about 2 logs left and the rest a mess all over the log yard, and truck drivers honking at him to hurry up because time is money for them.
As he was operating the Letourneau, he mentioned that he could see the scalers working and thought to himself, “That looks like a pretty sweet job. I wonder if I could do that?” A Scaler bid came open and the main thing you need to know is how to differentiate log species, which he had perfected. Eddie started as a day shift scaler but the other scalers were so busy they didn’t have time to teach him. So he spent all day metal detecting logs until spring break up, when the scalers had time to teach him. He passed his scaler exam and began scaling for the Laclede log yard.
Around 2007 Eddie became the lead scaler. In 2008 the Laclede mill shut down due to the recession. He came back in 2009 as the Log Yard Manager, which is his current position at Laclede. Gordon is in charge of supervising the equipment operators and scalers in the log yard. He also does some scaling
When I asked him if there were any other jobs he wanted to try he said, “I’ve done everything in the log yard and the sawmill. I am pretty happy right where I am at. I will probably end up staying in my current position for the next 20 years.” He says, “I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with. They take care of each other, no matter what.”
“I have a fantastic job here. From Riley Creek to IFG. They have raised my family.” Eddie says, “ I have grown with the company, from when it was just Riley Creek. It is so much bigger now but Marc Brinkmeyer can still walk in and greet me by my first name!”
