Lynn Shirdon - An Amphenol Icon

Lynn Shirdon has been an IAMAW union member and Amphenol employee for 55 years. He was hired by the company on Aug. 6th, 1951. On Sept. 30th 2006, Lynn turned 80 years old. He has the highest seniority of any person who ever worked at the Sidney, New York factory now known as Amphenol. Over the years, Lynn has seen the name change many times. When he was first hired, the company name was Scintilla. He has since seen the names Bendix, Allied, Allied Signal, a couple of investment firm names, and finally Amphenol  adorn his paychecks. Lynn remembers when the payroll was paid with cash and as they rolled the pay cart from department to department, an armed guard accompanied the cart on it’s rounds.

  Lynn served in the Armed Forces out of high school and got out in 1946.  He came home and ran the family dairy farm. In the fall of 1948 he went to Morrisville College full time under the GI bill. He drove back and forth (32 miles one way) for the first year while still running a full time farm by himself . (He said he bought gas in Binghamton for 12.5 cents a gallon, 8 gallons for a dollar. It was 16 cents in Sidney and the surrounding area). The 2nd year he stayed at the college most of the time. He graduated in 1950 with a degree in automotive mechanics from Morrisville College. In 1951 he came to work at Scintilla as a pre-production mechanic. In 1959 Lynn went to molding and worked there until 1966 when he bid on and got a job in machinery repair. In 1970 Lynn was laid off with 19 years seniority. That was when the company had a big layoff of approximately 2000 workers. He was only out the door for two weeks when they called him back and he went to molding. Eventually in 1976, he went back to machinery repair. Lynn has been an oiler for the last ten years he has worked at Amphenol.

  The first 12 years from 1951 until 1963 Lynn was on 2nd shift. In 1956 Lynn and his wife bought an automotive garage in Rockdale, New York. In 1963 Lynn went on 3rd shift. Lynn would get off 3rd shift, go home and run his  garage full time doing automotive mechanics and he also had a wrecker/tow truck.  He would sleep in the evening after he was done doing the mechanic work in his garage. His wife ran the gas pumps into the evening while Lynn was getting some sleep. In 1976 Lynn got Pneumonia and had to ease up on running his garage. He lost 40 lbs. in one week. In 1984 he shut the gas pumps down when Exxon moved their business out of New York State.

  Lynn says the biggest change at the Sidney factory is the use of CNC machines. He said he can remember the blue oil haze hanging in the air from the Gridleys in Depts. 48 and 52 and from other manual machines. You could see it all the way from the East end of the plant.

  Some of Lynn’s hobbies include bowling, deer hunting, and working on cars and trucks. I bowled with Lynn on the midnight league for a number of years and always enjoyed bowling against Lynn’s team. He is such a good natured fellow and always has a big smile and a positive attitude. It is a pleasure knowing and working with Lynn. I asked Lynn if he had plans on retiring. I couldn’t get an affirmative answer from him. He did say that when he started working here people had to retire at age 68. I hope when I’m 80, I can still work if I choose to do so. You are an inspiration to us all Lynn.