A sad farewell to Tecumseh Products

By DEB WUETHRICH
and STAFF REPORTS

Though it did not come as a total surprise to most in the Tecumseh community, the news last Wednesday that Tecumseh Products Company would be closing its doors here brings a sinking of the heart to many who have become accustomed to the manufacturers’ far-reaching influence.

“There’s just nobody in Tecumseh who hasn’t been touched by the Products or the family associated with it or the philanthropy by them,” said Tecumseh Mayor Harvey Schmidt. He said his father was employed there, and the mayor also had a summer job at the Products when he was in college.

“We have been so blessed to have benefited by them for the last 74 years,” Schmidt said. “It’s just a huge loss to have the company gone, but I think the benefits that we have derived from having Tecumseh Products here will live on for a very, very, very long time.”

The name most synonymous with 20th century Tecumseh is Herrick. For three generations, the Herrick men, Ray, Ken and Todd have reshaped Tecumseh in most dramatic ways. Without finances for either a high school or college education, Ray Herrick became an apprentice after 8th grade. He learned the trade well and advanced quickly in his early employment. He was hired by Ford Motor Company and became friends with Henry Ford, who recognized his talents. He readily learned industrial production techniques and was assigned as a trouble-shooter because of his abilities.

Ray aspired to operate his own company and incorporated with William Sage in a venture named Hillsdale Machine and Tool Company. Within two years, Herrick increased sales tremendously, and with $10,000 of his life savings, bought controlling interest in the company. With sales and profits growing every year, Ray showed his appreciation to his employees. The company began giving gifts at Christmas time to employees and former employees, then in the military. In 1941, 6.5 tons of turkeys were given away. It was a practice that continued for many years.

Ray Herrick not only developed a struggling machine shop into a Fortune 500 company, he changed the face of Tecumseh. Starting with the gifts to the hospital, his philanthropy became legendary. Although he, other management officials and subsequent family members shunned public fanfare, they continued to provide huge contributions for capital improvements in the city. City Hall, the Civic Auditorium, many churches, the public library, the Community Center and the school system all are directly linked to the generosity of Ray Herrick, his family, The Herrick Foundation or the Tecumseh Products Company. Many educational and civic organizations also benefited.

Many a Tecumseh family can count among its members one or many individuals who were employed by Tecumseh Products and their stories and connections have been shared in the pages of The Herald through the years. One of those stories, published in September of 2006, told of former resident Clarence Bumpus, who was then 95, and recalled how Ray Herrick asked him to move to Tecumseh from Hillsdale. He was making 25 cents an hour, and Ray Herrick said he would up it to 40 cents an hour. “But I wasn’t to tell anybody,” said Clarence, who said he moved his family, which included a 7 month old little boy, to Evans Street in Tecumseh. Bumpus said 75 Hillsdale families relocated over the next two years.

“At that time everything was run off a line-shaft and it took a long time to get ready to go,” Bumpus said. “We made parts for Ford Motor Company for a long time before we could get the refrigeration jobs going. It took the better part of one-and-a-half to two years before it got going on refrigeration.” He said there were long hours and no pay until something went out the back door. “I remember Mr. Herrick sitting at his desk and crying because he couldn’t make the payroll. But Henry Ford and a few of his other friends managed to help him make the payroll, but it was tough going for a long time,” said Bumpus, who also helped fellow worker, Carl Fosbender, start an independent union called United Products Workers in 1937. The company had as many as 5,000 workers in the 1950s.

Like many, Bumpus was not the only family member who worked at the Products. “I had three brothers who worked there and my son and daughter and at least three grandsons,” he said. His daughter, Wilma Vanderdonck, worked a little over 35 years before retiring from the company and as secretary/treasurer of the United Products Union, she served 22 consecutive years, the longest of any in the union’s history. Her husband, Paul, worked more than 44 years and retired from the electrical engineering department. Many Tecumseh families can recount similar tenures as part of the memories they share about their own members when talk turns to how they made their livings and lived their lives in this small community that was for so long anchored by The Tecumseh Products Company.