![\"Guillermo](\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/f062755\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3709x2559+0+0\/resize\/880x607!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2F45%2Fe0%2F43268d0d4a48a7fc232b4d644ef3%2Fguillermo-lopez.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a recurring series: Lehigh Valley 250th \u2014 a project that examines our region’s place and contributions in American history leading up to the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.<\/p>\n
BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 Thirty years after the Bethlehem Steel stacks and mill fell silent forever, Bob Donchez worries.<\/p>\n
The 75-year-old former Bethlehem city councilman and mayor squints a look of concern gazing at the rusted stacks set against an azure sky.<\/p>\n
Donchez fears the impact of Bethlehem Steel, which at its peak employed 31,000 in the Lehigh Valley and was the 14th-largest corporation in America, may be forgotten.<\/p>\n
He fears that the impact of the company, which was the roaring economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than a century, will be forgotten.<\/p>\n
He fears its lofty place here and nationally during America\u2019s industrial revolution might fade into the mists of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the old-timers pass away, I worry people will forget about the importance and significance Bethlehem Steel played here and throughout the United States and through the war effort,\u201d Donchez said.<\/p>\n
As the Lehigh Valley joins America in celebrating the nation\u2019s 250th birthday in 2026, those who remember say it is imperative that current and future generations know of Bethlehem Steel\u2019s vital role locally and nationally.<\/p>\n
More than 100 years since they were built, the blast furnaces of Bethlehem Steel tell a multi-layered story.<\/p>\n
“People can never forget what Bethlehem Steel did.”<\/p>\n
Bob Donchez, former Bethlehem city councilman and mayor<\/p>\n
Among them are it becoming the towering centerpiece for one of the nation\u2019s largest and most successful brownfields redevelopment projects \u2014 consisting of Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII, the Majestic Bethlehem Center, Wind Creek Bethlehem casino, the SteelStacks campus and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on the city council when the steel plant closed (in 1995) and left a void,\u201d Donchez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at Pennsylvania, many times when steel companies closed, the towns didn\u2019t come back. When you lose your largest employer, water user and taxpayer, to come back as we have today, that\u2019s a credit to a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Steel stacks at dawn.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a048 inch mill section being rolled.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Lehigh plant view Bethlehem.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0workers in basic oxygen furnace.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Third Street Bethlehem 1965.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iron Ore storage yard Bethlehem.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Cooling bed for the combination mill.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Steel stacks at night.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Sintering plant, Bethlehem.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Hot saw for the cooling bed Bethlehem.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Open hearth hot metal charge at Bethlehem plant.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Employee applying product label 1966.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Basic oxygen furnace, Bethlehem plant.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Blast Furnace Cast Floor.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Employee measuring steel roll 1966.jpg\n <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
A comeback story<\/p>\n
Bethlehem was fortunate, Donchez said, to have bipartisan leadership to navigate the uncertain waters of post-steel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was great leadership with the Lehigh Valley Industrial Park and the Chamber,\u201d he said. \u201cBethlehem has two industrial parks \u2014 LVIP I on the west side by the airport, and LVIP VII on the old Bethlehem Steel property. We employ 8,000 people there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to put it together and the valley was able to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also to be remembered as one gazes at the rusted stacks was the blending of thousands of immigrants \u2014 Hungarians, Italians, Poles, Latinos and Slovaks \u2014 who worked together to create steel and a better life for themselves and their families.<\/p>\n
That mix of cultures \u2014 none wanting to be outworked by the others \u2014 rivaled the mix of iron ore, coal and scrap steel in importance in building the region and the nation.<\/p>\n
That is not an overstatement.<\/p>\n
What was built with Bethlehem Steel? The Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, George Washington Bridge, Rockefeller Center, Madison Square Garden, Hoover Dam, Chrysler Building, Ben Franklin Bridge and Alcatraz prison, to name a few.<\/p>\n
Also, 1,100 war ships during World War II, and vast quantities of armor, guns, shells and other munitions during World War I and II.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can never forget what Bethlehem Steel did,\u201d Donchez said.<\/p>\n
The history and legacy of Bethlehem Steel is complicated, what with the company\u2019s reluctance to modernize and innovate, and examples of greed by management and the unions playing a role in the company\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n
Yet, 30 years after the last steel beam was cast, the Steel’s imprint on the region and its people remains unmistakable.<\/p>\n
All in the family<\/p>\n
Don Cunningham remembers.<\/p>\n
At its peak in the 1950s, Bethlehem Steel employed tens of thousands across a five-mile stretch of steelmaking facilities in the city.<\/p>\n
Among them was Cunningham\u2019s father, Don, and before him his grandfather and great-grandfather.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all I knew growing up \u2014 the steel mill.”<\/p>\n
Don Cunningham, CEO of Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. and a former Bethlehem mayor<\/p>\n
And had the former Bethlehem mayor and current president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. had his way, he would have followed in their bootsteps.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all I knew growing up \u2014 the steel mill,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI just thought I was going to work at the mill. And my dad was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want you to do this.\u2019 He wanted better for me and my sister. He wanted us to go to college. He was insistent about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we went to college. You didn\u2019t fight him about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham Sr. is retired in South Florida. Proud of having built a life because of the steel mill. Prouder still that steel afforded his children \u2014 as it did many other steelworkers \u2014 the chance for a better, less-backbreaking life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched my dad\u2019s eyes one time talking about the benefits of having worked at the mill,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cHe was able to buy a little ranch house in Bethlehem Township and send his kids to college. He was grateful and proud. I\u2019ll never forget that look. All that he had, he credited to the steel mill.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jim Deegan<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
LehighValleyNews.com<\/p>\n
Guillermo Lopez, of Bethlehem, worked 27 years as a millwright at the old Bethlehem Steel coke works.<\/p>\n
Hard work, difficult conditions<\/p>\n
Guillermo Lopez remembers.<\/p>\n
The former steelworker estimates that his family, including those of his wife, worked 300 combined years at Bethlehem Steel.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven my wife worked there for three years,\u201d said Lopez, 70.<\/p>\n
Lopez himself spent 27 years as a millwright, a highly skilled mechanic on complex industrial machinery and equipment.<\/p>\n
A first-generation American of Puerto Rican descent, Lopez shares the good and the bad of his time with the company.<\/p>\n
If not for greed and arrogance on the part of management, Bethlehem Steel may have lived on, Lopez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a historian,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it appears to me that the arrogance of the steel industry put itself out of business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an inability to recognize that some people were smarter than they were. They were protesting, the union and the company, against foreign steel because it was making less money for them. All parts of the world were making steel for less.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe companies that put us out of business were making it smarter. The mini mills were smart enough to use scrap steel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez compared Bethlehem Steel management to the taxi industry that underestimated the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe taxi companies filed lawsuits to try to stop them,\u201d he said. \u201cEventually, they learned, somebody built a better mousetrap. Arrogance put steel out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez believes the poor working conditions at the plant were the cause of many of his coworkers to endure health issues.<\/p>\n
He believes a designated “clear air” lunchroom would have been a significant improvement to industrial working conditions at Bethlehem Steel, where workers were otherwise exposed to a century of severe air pollution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work itself was horrendous,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember sitting in the lunch room. It would\u2019ve been nice to have a clear air room. \u201cEverybody suffered from health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among them was Lopez\u2019s father, a 36-year worker who died from kidney disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m at that stage now with my kidneys,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m on the (transplant waiting) list.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘What now?’<\/p>\n
Jerry Green remembers.<\/p>\n
The recently retired and longest-serving president of Bethlehem\u2019s United Steelworkers\u2019 Union, Local 2599, began working at the steel mill in 1973 at age 18.<\/p>\n
There was a sense of pride not only among workers, Green said, but throughout the community when it was learned someone worked at Bethlehem Steel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had such a major impact on the Lehigh Valley,\u201d said Green, 70, who worked there until 1998 in various capacities.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears before me, and then during when I worked there, you\u2019d walk into a bank and tell them you were employed by Bethlehem Steel. They\u2019d put out the red carpet for you. It was like that for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the steel mill closed, the fear that permeated the Lehigh Valley was tangible: What now?<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople thought maybe it would turn into a ho-hum area,\u201d Green said. \u201cRemember, Bethlehem Steel was the second-largest steelmaker in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there were and are people here who I credit for keeping the local economy going, with the industrial parks and the casino. People like Don Cunningham, Bob Donchez, Lisa Boscola and Charlie Dent. They brought those jobs and big revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Memories live on<\/p>\n
Donchez, Cunningham, Lopez and Green.<\/p>\n
Each remains incredibly appreciative of when Bethlehem Steel was king in the Lehigh Valley. Respect bordering on reverence of how it impacted their lives and those of so many. How they continue holding those memories dear in their hearts and minds.<\/p>\n
And as they remember, their request to today\u2019s generation and beyond is simply this:<\/p>\n
Never forget.<\/p>\n
CHECK IT OUT: The National Museum of Industrial History<\/a>, 602 E. Second St. in Bethlehem, will host Steel Weekend<\/a> Oct. 11-12 at the museum and on the SteelStacks campus. Admission is free. Events include live demonstrations, a steelworkers’ reunion, guest speakers and a hot iron pour. At 3:30 p.m. Friday, Lehigh Valley Public Media will host a free screening of the PBS39-produced “Bethlehem Steel: The People Who Built America,” at the Univest Public Media Center on the SteelStacks campus. It will include reflections from Andria Zaia of the National Museum of Industrial History and Bette Kovach, a retired Bethlehem Steel spokesperson. Register for a free ticket here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a recurring series: Lehigh Valley 250th \u2014 a project that examines our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,5998,6001,5999,6000,6002,6003,6004,6005],"class_list":["post-6663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-steel","tag-bethlehem-steel-history","tag-bethlehem-steel-mill","tag-bethlehem-steel-plant","tag-lehigh-valley-250","tag-lehigh-valley-history","tag-lehigh-valley-steel-history","tag-lehigh-valley-steel-mill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}