Alex Paul
He’s a quiet man who has made a positive impact in Sweet Home for the last 16 years.
Dwight Blatchley worked at Morse Brothers on Clark Mill Road since 1977, but will transfer this week to the company’s Albany plant due to closure of the Sweet Home operation.
Blatchley, 60, has worked for Morse Brothers since 1968 and said his tenure in Sweet Home has been once filled with many good memories.
“I plan to keep working until I’m 62,” Blatchley said. “When I started working in Sweet Home, Greg Morse was the local manager and we had 10 employees.”
Blatchley readily admits he “hates to leave Sweet Home.”
“I’m looking at it as a new challenge,” Blatchley said. “Our last load was November 14 and it went to Weyerhaeuser at Foster.”
Sweet Home is home to numerous “excellent contractors. Real good people. What I really like about the customers I worked with is that by and large, if someone said he’d be in the next day to pay up, he was there,” Blatchley said.
Blatchley grew up in Lebanon, where he and his wife of 41 years Madeline, still live.
“My uncle owned Hank’s Readi Mix, so I grew up around the business,” Blatchley said. “I worked at a mill nights and drove for Hank’s during the day.”
Blatchley’s career with Morse Brothers began driving a cement mixer in Lebanon.
Until four years ago, the Sweet Home plant also batched asphalt.
“There was a sense of a challenge to get concrete out on time and scheduling,” Blatchley said. “I liked working with equipment and the trucks. We’ve had really great crews to work with over the years.”
The trick to his job, Blatchley admits, was trying to schedule and fulfill multiple loads at the same time, knowing that contractors and employees were waiting.
“The goal was to find a balance,” Blatchley said.
Blatchley and his wife have three grown children, Don a readi mix driver in Amity and daughters Becky Evenhus and Beth Moore, both of Lebanon.
The light of his life though are his eight grandchildren, ranging in age from three to 22 years of age.
“I don’t have any big hobbies but I really enjoy being with the grandkids,” Blatchley said. He also takes care of his mother and mother-in-law’s homes.
Blatchley said he saw the local plant move from the days when batch tickets were all hand written to full computerization.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time here,” he said. “I have liked meeting so many nice people. It’s been a real steady income for my family. I’ve never had to draw unemployment in my life.”
Although he’s been retire for five years, Greg Morse said of Blatchley, “There aren’t enough superlatives to describe Dwight. He’s the salt of the earth, a wonderful employee, a great guy to work with and a great guy in general.”
Morse said that having Blatchley at the local plant, “made my life easy and better…he’s a super guy who is as dependable as the day is long. He always tried to please the customer and cares about the product.”