Mechanic retires from JBS after 47 years

• Olson

Submitted Photo JBS celebrated the retirement of Don Olson (second from left) earlier this month. Olson worked in the hog processing business for more than 47 years. He is shown with JBS Worthington general manager Bob Krebs (left), assistant plant engineer Jeff Buysman and plant engineer Chuck Tennessen.

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WORTHINGTON — Few people can boast an employment record in which they’ve taken less than a handful of sick days in 27 years, much less 47 years, but Don Olson can count himself among them.

Olson was honored earlier this month by JBS in Worthington for more than 47 years of service in the hog processing industry. His long career began at Decker’s packing house in Mason City, Iowa, in 1959. The plant, owned by Armour’s, processed hogs and Olson worked a variety of different jobs all throughout the plant as he built up his seniority.

Then, in 1962, he was drafted by the U.S. Army as tensions escalated in Vietnam. Thirteen days before he was to be sent to Fort Riley, Kansas, he and his wife, Lois, were married.

Since Olson had already accumulated enough time at the processing plant in Mason City, his seniority continued to build up while he was on his two-year tour of duty at Fort Riley, and his job was waiting for him when he returned home to Iowa.

“I worked on the kill floor,” Olson said of his job when he returned. Six or seven months later, jobs were posted at the plant for opportunities at the brand new Armour’s plant in Worthington.

“There were over 500 of them that were wanting to go to Worthington,” Olson said. The Armour plant in Mason City had more than 2,500 workers, and it was an older plant.

“People could see that it would probably close,” Olson said. And that was the case about four years later.

Still, Olson was one of only a dozen people who chose to transfer to the Worthington facility. He and his wife, along with their one-year-old daughter, moved to town and he started his new job just a week after Armour’s opened its plant in town.

“I started out on the kill floor — today it’s called the harvest floor,” Olson said. He worked in that department, doing the same job day after day, until the late 1970s, when a position came available in the maintenance department.

“I’ve done maintenance work all my life,” he said. “That’s what I did in the Army too.”

His change in departments worked to his advantage when Armour’s closed and the plant was shut down for six months before Monfort reopened.

“During the shutdown, I only missed one day,” he said. As a maintenance mechanic, he was called back to work during the restructuring phase for the new company.

Olson enjoyed working maintenance at the plant, saying that each day was different.

“Maintenance is an every day learning experience,” he said. “There’s not one day the same when something breaks down.”

JBS Worthington General Manager Bob Krebs said Olson was a great fabricator while working at the company.

“As far as I’m concerned, there was nothing that he couldn’t build,” said Krebs, who described Olson as a “class act.”

“He was always a positive influence,” he added. “When you can count how many days a guy missed in 47 years on one hand, it’s pretty impressive.”

Though Olson enjoyed the job, he most appreciates the people he worked with.

“Everyone is there for a job and we’re there for the same reason — or I was,” he said. “The people were real good to get along with. I guess that’s why I worked until I was 72. You don’t do that under drudgery.

“When you commit yourself to do something, I think you better do it,” Olson said. “I think making a living motivates a person.”

Olson’s motivation was also his family. His wife Lois now resides in a nursing home in Luverne after years of living with multiple sclerosis. Their son and daughter live nearby, and they also have five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Olson looks forward to spending more time with his family now that he is officially retired, although his career as a mechanic hasn’t entirely been tossed aside.

“I have quite a bit of stuff to fix around here,” he said with a laugh.

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