ARTICLE :
LIFE LINES
EDGAR (POPPY) BYER, Pangborn Corporation's 70-year-old tool shop foreman, belongs to the diminishing ranks of true American craftsmen. Don't set the idea that Poppy has artistic, notions—if you asked him what he does, he'd probably tell you simply that he makes the tools that build machines.
In these days that's a big order. The Pangborn factory has expanded to record size and production in the past year, and Poppy is materially responsible for the production end of the increase. For in his 23 years of service with the company, he has saved thousands of man and machine hours with his fertile brain and clever fingers.
Poppy was born in Hagerstown and reared in Waynesboro, with a goodly mechanical heritage from his maternal grandfather, David Stoner, a renowned contractor who built the Middletown Lutheran Church, the Gettysburg jail, and bridges over sundry streams in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
According to Poppy, "everyone in Waynesboro was a mechanic then," and at the age of sixteen, after the usual public school education, "he went to work in the Frick machine shop in Waynesboro. At 25 his mechanical leanings led him to the now extinct Crawford Bicycle Company in Hagerstown, which stood on the site or the present Victor Products Company plant. In this city he met and married a local girl, Clara Amelia Humrichouse, the daughter of Edward P. Humrichouse.
For a few years Byer was an experimenter for the Keystone Typewriter Company in Harrisburg, but he returned to Hagerstown to set up a machine shop of his own. "It was a flop," declares Poppy, deprecatory. During the first World War he was making tools for the manufacture of shrapnel shells as a foreman in the Rupp Manufacturing Company.
In January, 1919, he became affiliated with Pangborn as a machine shop foreman. When his peculiar talent for tool making came into evidence, he was transferred to the department for the design and manufacture of production tools and dies, which is his official capacity at present.
Twenty-three years of service find Poppy one of the most indispensable men in the Pangborn plant. Fellow workers have an unshakable faith in him. Whenever one of them detects a flaw in the efficiency or speed of a machine or a process, he goes to Poppy at his work bench and explains the bottleneck. Poppy will think deeply for a while, then take out his pencil and design a part or tool that often cuts production time in half. Now that Pangborn is completely regimented to the war effort, there are few men who can point with more just pride to their contribution toward victory on the production front.
People who know call Poppy the greatest free hand tool designer they've ever seen. The concensus of opinion among his associates is this: "There's not a man of us who doesn't respect Poppy both as a worker and as a person." Many a youngster in the mechanical trade owes his sound basis to the guidance of the genial old fellow. And he is "Poppy" to everyone.
He has one son, Paul H. Byer, who is a mechanical engineer for Potomac Edison and a tow-haired grandson who is the apple of his eye.
Poppy has seen three wars, and has the rare record of having performed vital defense work in all three. It's men like poppy Byer that win wars from the ground up, and make American victory a sure thing.
Source : The Daily Mail Newspaper - Hagerstown, Washington Co., Maryland - Saturday, August 1, 1942
OBITUARY :
EDGAR HOWARD BYER DIES AT HOME HERE - Widely Known Tool Designer Was Eighty-One-Years-Old
EDGAR HOWARD BYER, widely known local tool designer, died yesterday at 2:30 p, m., at his home, 809 Hamilton boulevard, after an illness of two weeks, aged 81 years.
An employee of Pangborn Corporation for more than 28 years, he was credited with saving thousands of man and machine hours with his genius for designing and altering tools.
He was born in Hagerstown, the son of John and Susan Stoner Byer. During his early life, he resided in Waynesboro. Later, he was associated with the old Crawford Bicycle Company here.
During World, War II, Mr, Byer was credited with speeding war production through his work at Pangborn Corporation.
He was a member of Zion Reformed Church, the Kieffer-Wagner Bible Class, the Odd Fellows in Waynesboro, and the Royal Arcanum.
Surviving are a son, Paul H. Byer, Sr.; sister, Miss Etha A. Byer, Hagerstown; grandson, Paul H. Byer, Jr.; brother, Wilbur Byer, Hagerstown. The body was removed to the funeral home of A. K. Coffman, where the service will be conducted tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., the Rev. Dr. Scott R. Wagner officiating, assisted by the Rev. Henry K. Haines, with interment in Rose Hill cemetery.
Source : The Morning Herald Newspaper - Hagerstown, Washington Co., Maryland - Monday, December 6, 1948
LIFE LINES
EDGAR (POPPY) BYER, Pangborn Corporation's 70-year-old tool shop foreman, belongs to the diminishing ranks of true American craftsmen. Don't set the idea that Poppy has artistic, notions—if you asked him what he does, he'd probably tell you simply that he makes the tools that build machines.
In these days that's a big order. The Pangborn factory has expanded to record size and production in the past year, and Poppy is materially responsible for the production end of the increase. For in his 23 years of service with the company, he has saved thousands of man and machine hours with his fertile brain and clever fingers.
Poppy was born in Hagerstown and reared in Waynesboro, with a goodly mechanical heritage from his maternal grandfather, David Stoner, a renowned contractor who built the Middletown Lutheran Church, the Gettysburg jail, and bridges over sundry streams in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
According to Poppy, "everyone in Waynesboro was a mechanic then," and at the age of sixteen, after the usual public school education, "he went to work in the Frick machine shop in Waynesboro. At 25 his mechanical leanings led him to the now extinct Crawford Bicycle Company in Hagerstown, which stood on the site or the present Victor Products Company plant. In this city he met and married a local girl, Clara Amelia Humrichouse, the daughter of Edward P. Humrichouse.
For a few years Byer was an experimenter for the Keystone Typewriter Company in Harrisburg, but he returned to Hagerstown to set up a machine shop of his own. "It was a flop," declares Poppy, deprecatory. During the first World War he was making tools for the manufacture of shrapnel shells as a foreman in the Rupp Manufacturing Company.
In January, 1919, he became affiliated with Pangborn as a machine shop foreman. When his peculiar talent for tool making came into evidence, he was transferred to the department for the design and manufacture of production tools and dies, which is his official capacity at present.
Twenty-three years of service find Poppy one of the most indispensable men in the Pangborn plant. Fellow workers have an unshakable faith in him. Whenever one of them detects a flaw in the efficiency or speed of a machine or a process, he goes to Poppy at his work bench and explains the bottleneck. Poppy will think deeply for a while, then take out his pencil and design a part or tool that often cuts production time in half. Now that Pangborn is completely regimented to the war effort, there are few men who can point with more just pride to their contribution toward victory on the production front.
People who know call Poppy the greatest free hand tool designer they've ever seen. The concensus of opinion among his associates is this: "There's not a man of us who doesn't respect Poppy both as a worker and as a person." Many a youngster in the mechanical trade owes his sound basis to the guidance of the genial old fellow. And he is "Poppy" to everyone.
He has one son, Paul H. Byer, who is a mechanical engineer for Potomac Edison and a tow-haired grandson who is the apple of his eye.
Poppy has seen three wars, and has the rare record of having performed vital defense work in all three. It's men like poppy Byer that win wars from the ground up, and make American victory a sure thing.
Source : The Daily Mail Newspaper - Hagerstown, Washington Co., Maryland - Saturday, August 1, 1942
OBITUARY :
EDGAR HOWARD BYER DIES AT HOME HERE - Widely Known Tool Designer Was Eighty-One-Years-Old
EDGAR HOWARD BYER, widely known local tool designer, died yesterday at 2:30 p, m., at his home, 809 Hamilton boulevard, after an illness of two weeks, aged 81 years.
An employee of Pangborn Corporation for more than 28 years, he was credited with saving thousands of man and machine hours with his genius for designing and altering tools.
He was born in Hagerstown, the son of John and Susan Stoner Byer. During his early life, he resided in Waynesboro. Later, he was associated with the old Crawford Bicycle Company here.
During World, War II, Mr, Byer was credited with speeding war production through his work at Pangborn Corporation.
He was a member of Zion Reformed Church, the Kieffer-Wagner Bible Class, the Odd Fellows in Waynesboro, and the Royal Arcanum.
Surviving are a son, Paul H. Byer, Sr.; sister, Miss Etha A. Byer, Hagerstown; grandson, Paul H. Byer, Jr.; brother, Wilbur Byer, Hagerstown. The body was removed to the funeral home of A. K. Coffman, where the service will be conducted tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., the Rev. Dr. Scott R. Wagner officiating, assisted by the Rev. Henry K. Haines, with interment in Rose Hill cemetery.
Source : The Morning Herald Newspaper - Hagerstown, Washington Co., Maryland - Monday, December 6, 1948
ARTICLE :
LIFE LINES
EDGAR (POPPY) BYER, Pangborn Corporation's 70-year-old tool shop foreman, belongs to the diminishing ranks of true American craftsmen. Don't set the idea that Poppy has artistic, notions—if you asked him what he does, he'd probably tell you simply that he makes the tools that build machines.
In these days that's a big order. The Pangborn factory has expanded to record size and production in the past year, and Poppy is materially responsible for the production end of the increase. For in his 23 years of service with the company, he has saved thousands of man and machine hours with his fertile brain and clever fingers.
Poppy was born in Hagerstown and reared in Waynesboro, with a goodly mechanical heritage from his maternal grandfather, David Stoner, a renowned contractor who built the Middletown Lutheran Church, the Gettysburg jail, and bridges over sundry streams in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
According to Poppy, "everyone in Waynesboro was a mechanic then," and at the age of sixteen, after the usual public school education, "he went to work in the Frick machine shop in Waynesboro. At 25 his mechanical leanings led him to the now extinct Crawford Bicycle Company in Hagerstown, which stood on the site or the present Victor Products Company plant. In this city he met and married a local girl, Clara Amelia Humrichouse, the daughter of Edward P. Humrichouse.
For a few years Byer was an experimenter for the Keystone Typewriter Company in Harrisburg, but he returned to Hagerstown to set up a machine shop of his own. "It was a flop," declares Poppy, deprecatory. During the first World War he was making tools for the manufacture of shrapnel shells as a foreman in the Rupp Manufacturing Company.
In January, 1919, he became affiliated with Pangborn as a machine shop foreman. When his peculiar talent for tool making came into evidence, he was transferred to the department for the design and manufacture of production tools and dies, which is his official capacity at present.
Twenty-three years of service find Poppy one of the most indispensable men in the Pangborn plant. Fellow workers have an unshakable faith in him. Whenever one of them detects a flaw in the efficiency or speed of a machine or a process, he goes to Poppy at his work bench and explains the bottleneck. Poppy will think deeply for a while, then take out his pencil and design a part or tool that often cuts production time in half. Now that Pangborn is completely regimented to the war effort, there are few men who can point with more just pride to their contribution toward victory on the production front.
People who know call Poppy the greatest free hand tool designer they've ever seen. The concensus of opinion among his associates is this: "There's not a man of us who doesn't respect Poppy both as a worker and as a person." Many a youngster in the mechanical trade owes his sound basis to the guidance of the genial old fellow. And he is "Poppy" to everyone.
He has one son, Paul H. Byer, who is a mechanical engineer for Potomac Edison and a tow-haired grandson who is the apple of his eye.
Poppy has seen three wars, and has the rare record of having performed vital defense work in all three. It's men like poppy Byer that win wars from the ground up, and make American victory a sure thing.
Source : The Daily Mail Newspaper - Hagerstown, Washington Co., Maryland - Saturday, August 1, 1942
OBITUARY :
EDGAR HOWARD BYER DIES AT HOME HERE - Widely Known Tool Designer Was Eighty-One-Years-Old
EDGAR HOWARD BYER, widely known local tool designer, died yesterday at 2:30 p, m., at his home, 809 Hamilton boulevard, after an illness of two weeks, aged 81 years.
An employee of Pangborn Corporation for more than 28 years, he was credited with saving thousands of man and machine hours with his genius for designing and altering tools.
He was born in Hagerstown, the son of John and Susan Stoner Byer. During his early life, he resided in Waynesboro. Later, he was associated with the old Crawford Bicycle Company here.
During World, War II, Mr, Byer was credited with speeding war production through his work at Pangborn Corporation.
He was a member of Zion Reformed Church, the Kieffer-Wagner Bible Class, the Odd Fellows in Waynesboro, and the Royal Arcanum.
Surviving are a son, Paul H. Byer, Sr.; sister, Miss Etha A. Byer, Hagerstown; grandson, Paul H. Byer, Jr.; brother, Wilbur Byer, Hagerstown. The body was removed to the funeral home of A. K. Coffman, where the service will be conducted tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., the Rev. Dr. Scott R. Wagner officiating, assisted by the Rev. Henry K. Haines, with interment in Rose Hill cemetery.
Source : The Morning Herald Newspaper - Hagerstown, Washington Co., Maryland - Monday, December 6, 1948
LIFE LINES
EDGAR (POPPY) BYER, Pangborn Corporation's 70-year-old tool shop foreman, belongs to the diminishing ranks of true American craftsmen. Don't set the idea that Poppy has artistic, notions—if you asked him what he does, he'd probably tell you simply that he makes the tools that build machines.
In these days that's a big order. The Pangborn factory has expanded to record size and production in the past year, and Poppy is materially responsible for the production end of the increase. For in his 23 years of service with the company, he has saved thousands of man and machine hours with his fertile brain and clever fingers.
Poppy was born in Hagerstown and reared in Waynesboro, with a goodly mechanical heritage from his maternal grandfather, David Stoner, a renowned contractor who built the Middletown Lutheran Church, the Gettysburg jail, and bridges over sundry streams in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
According to Poppy, "everyone in Waynesboro was a mechanic then," and at the age of sixteen, after the usual public school education, "he went to work in the Frick machine shop in Waynesboro. At 25 his mechanical leanings led him to the now extinct Crawford Bicycle Company in Hagerstown, which stood on the site or the present Victor Products Company plant. In this city he met and married a local girl, Clara Amelia Humrichouse, the daughter of Edward P. Humrichouse.
For a few years Byer was an experimenter for the Keystone Typewriter Company in Harrisburg, but he returned to Hagerstown to set up a machine shop of his own. "It was a flop," declares Poppy, deprecatory. During the first World War he was making tools for the manufacture of shrapnel shells as a foreman in the Rupp Manufacturing Company.
In January, 1919, he became affiliated with Pangborn as a machine shop foreman. When his peculiar talent for tool making came into evidence, he was transferred to the department for the design and manufacture of production tools and dies, which is his official capacity at present.
Twenty-three years of service find Poppy one of the most indispensable men in the Pangborn plant. Fellow workers have an unshakable faith in him. Whenever one of them detects a flaw in the efficiency or speed of a machine or a process, he goes to Poppy at his work bench and explains the bottleneck. Poppy will think deeply for a while, then take out his pencil and design a part or tool that often cuts production time in half. Now that Pangborn is completely regimented to the war effort, there are few men who can point with more just pride to their contribution toward victory on the production front.
People who know call Poppy the greatest free hand tool designer they've ever seen. The concensus of opinion among his associates is this: "There's not a man of us who doesn't respect Poppy both as a worker and as a person." Many a youngster in the mechanical trade owes his sound basis to the guidance of the genial old fellow. And he is "Poppy" to everyone.
He has one son, Paul H. Byer, who is a mechanical engineer for Potomac Edison and a tow-haired grandson who is the apple of his eye.
Poppy has seen three wars, and has the rare record of having performed vital defense work in all three. It's men like poppy Byer that win wars from the ground up, and make American victory a sure thing.
Source : The Daily Mail Newspaper - Hagerstown, Washington Co., Maryland - Saturday, August 1, 1942
OBITUARY :
EDGAR HOWARD BYER DIES AT HOME HERE - Widely Known Tool Designer Was Eighty-One-Years-Old
EDGAR HOWARD BYER, widely known local tool designer, died yesterday at 2:30 p, m., at his home, 809 Hamilton boulevard, after an illness of two weeks, aged 81 years.
An employee of Pangborn Corporation for more than 28 years, he was credited with saving thousands of man and machine hours with his genius for designing and altering tools.
He was born in Hagerstown, the son of John and Susan Stoner Byer. During his early life, he resided in Waynesboro. Later, he was associated with the old Crawford Bicycle Company here.
During World, War II, Mr, Byer was credited with speeding war production through his work at Pangborn Corporation.
He was a member of Zion Reformed Church, the Kieffer-Wagner Bible Class, the Odd Fellows in Waynesboro, and the Royal Arcanum.
Surviving are a son, Paul H. Byer, Sr.; sister, Miss Etha A. Byer, Hagerstown; grandson, Paul H. Byer, Jr.; brother, Wilbur Byer, Hagerstown. The body was removed to the funeral home of A. K. Coffman, where the service will be conducted tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., the Rev. Dr. Scott R. Wagner officiating, assisted by the Rev. Henry K. Haines, with interment in Rose Hill cemetery.
Source : The Morning Herald Newspaper - Hagerstown, Washington Co., Maryland - Monday, December 6, 1948
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
