Title
Interview with Karl Dornish
Files
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Date of Interview
3-20-2003
Duration of Audio File
Audio file 1 -- 01:11:15; Audio file 2 -- 01:00:28
Interviewee
Karl Dornish
Age
Born September 1932, 70 at time of interview
Gender
Male
Description
Dornish was senior production manager at S.D. Warren Westbrook, 1954-1970s, then at S.D. Warren-Somerset/Hinckley from late 1970s until around 1990. He spent a few years at S.D. Warren's Muskegon, Michigan mill before retiring in Waterville, Maine area, and is a graduate of Colby College.
Residence
Waterville, Maine
Occupation/Work History
Senior production manager
Role
Management
Mill or Principal Employer
S.D. Warren Company
Mill Location
Westbrook, Maine
Keywords
Paternalism, Paper mills - Maine, S.D.Warren - Maine, S.D. Warren - business history, S.D. Warren - labor relations history, paper mill - gender discrimination
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Hillard, Michael G. PhD, "Interview with Karl Dornish" (2003). S.D. Warren Company. 34.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/sd-warren/34
Comments
A "gold mine" interview on business and labor history of S.D. Warren Westbrook from 1950s-1970s, and S.D. Warren-Somerset/Hinckley mill from 1970s to 1990s. Describes post-World War II workforce comprised of alcoholics with trauma disorders, extensive paternalism of mill, including running a "drunk tank" for alcoholics, tolerating workers who produced very little, antiquated management practices towards workers, and how much of this changed after the mill unionized in 1970s. Important story about Warren's explicit gender wage discrimination practices that still existed in the 1960s. Detailed information about business including paper grades, profitability, and S.D. Warren's premier status. Later worked at the new S.D. Warren mill Hinckley, Maine. Sharp criticisms of Scott Paper's "Jointness" initiative in the late 1980s.