Sarah Brown
Retirement could perhaps be most appreciated by someone who has invested most his life in the same company.
One of Sweet Home’s own residents has earned the right to this sense of pride.
Sam Galster is set to retire from the Murphy Plywood mill in Foster, colloquially known as “Foster Mill,” on April 5, following 45 years of employment. He started when the mill was owned by Willamette Industries, stuck with it through the Weyerhaeuser years, and will say goodbye to what is now Murphy Company.
“Sam’s got quite a legacy with this plant; we’re very proud of him,” said John Murphy, Sr., owner of Murphy Company. “Regrettably, people with this kind of commitment to the wood products industry is not common.”
Having been there the longest, Galster had the highest seniority and his co-workers called him “Grampa.”
“There’s not too many old people left out there,” Galster said. “There’s a few of us, but not too many.”
The first thing Galster said he wants to do after his retirement is travel with his wife, Kathi Galster. Being Elvis Presley fans, they plan to visit Graceland, and they also want to see Cher sing in Las Vegas.
He also wants to cross off his bucket list the experience of riding a train across the states. Ultimately, he’s hoping to see all 50 states, Kathi said. Outside of Oregon, Sam has only been to Washington, Nevada and California.
For the remainder of his free time, he expects to watch “The Price is Right” and work on his one-acre property, though Kathi promises not to give him any “honey do” lists. If she does, he threatens he’ll go back to work.
Though born in Lebanon on June 8, 1953, Galster spent most of his growing-up years in California until he returned to Linn County with his mother when he was 17.
His first jobs were with a cannery and a tannery, before he landed a position at Willamette Industries on March 27, 1973 at age 19.
“They stuck me on graveyard and they had me out pushing blocks,” he said. “A long time ago, in the olden days, you had to push blocks into the mill. I was out there, and there was thunder and lightning; I was scared to death.”
In his 45 years at the mill, Galster has worked a variety of positions and saw a lot of changes as Willamette Industries became Weyerhaeuser, and Weyerhaeuser sold the enterprise to Murphy Company last December.
Galster drove up to Portland with co-workers when the spotted owl issue was threatening jobs at the mills. Some new changes also included transitions into new technologies and computers, which Galster “slowly” adapted to, he said.
“Back when I first started, it was all a lot of manual labor. (Now) it’s all computerized; everything does everything by itself. Except my job, I gotta drive jitney.”
When he worked green chain years ago, they had to pull the wood into carts, he said. Now stackers do the work while two people keep an eye on them for proper functioning.
Kathi noted that Sam has been a hard worker all his life, and hardly missed any days in the 45 years he was there. She’s appreciated the fact he’d come home smelling like wood, especially those days he worked the dryer feed.
“I just love that smell,” she said. “He used to come home and I’d just hug him because he smelled like wood.”
He would often pull knots out of the wood and give them to his wife, sometimes with little notes on them.
Sam joked that just as he’s been through three different companies at the mill, he’s also been through three marriages, each of which provided him a child. He met his third wife, Kathi, through a friend and they’ve since been married 22 years.
Kathi said she’ll never forget the day they met.
“He was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper, and he peeked over the newspaper,” she said.
After one special look between the two, she knew she was going to marry him. He taught her how to gamble at the horse races on their first date, and proposed to her within the year. They live with their son, Richie, and a parakeet named Pretty Girl.
Other hobbies Sam said he plans to enjoy during retirement include gardening, fishing, hunting, photography, gambling, and motorcycling.
Sam said he’ll miss the people at the mill, but has high hopes for Murphy Company.
“I wish them luck for keeping it going,” he said. “It’s been a good job for me through the years; got me through three marriages. It was a good ride. I’ll miss working, but I’m ready to retire.”