Kaiser Sets Up Endowment Fund Will Provide Scholarships For Students In Technical Fields
Kaiser Aluminum Corp. donated $50,000 to the Community Colleges of Spokane on Wednesday to encourage students to enter manufacturing fields and to further cement the company’s place in the business community.
Kaiser Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George Haymaker Jr. presented the check during a downtown celebration of the aluminum maker’s 50th anniversary in Spokane.
“Locally grown takes on real meaning today,” said community college Vice President Donald Kolb, referring to Kaiser’s 50th anniversary slogan, “Internationally known, locally grown.”
“Our students can become better educated and hopefully better employees to Kaiser and other manufacturers.”
Flashing black-and-white news clips of the late Henry Kaiser and pinning flags around the banquet hall from the 30 nations where Kaiser does business, the giant Houston-based company threw a fancy luncheon for 500 business leaders and politicians at the Ridpath Hotel.
Gov. Mike Lowry presented Kaiser with the state’s outstanding achievement award for pollution prevention, while Spokane Mayor Jack Geraghty declared July 17 “Kaiser Aluminum Day.”
Haymaker urged other companies and economic development agencies to donate to the Kaiser Aluminum Manufacturing Technology/Skilled Crafts Endowment. The fund will provide scholarships to students enrolled in computer integrated manufacturing, electrical maintenance technology, machine shop technology and other technical fields.
The $50,000 contribution is seed money to Kaiser, a company that yielded nearly $10 million in profits on $531 million in sales during the first quarter of 1996.
Haymaker said there was a shortage of people qualified to work at Kaiser, where demand for quality and more sophisticated technology has eliminated applicants who do not hold a two-year college degree or greater. Just half of all of Spokane’s high school graduates go on to obtain the minimum college requirement, Haymaker said.
“They cannot work for us, nor would they be qualified to work for those industries you may target for your recruitment efforts,” Haymaker said.
Spokane School District 81 officials said 75 percent of all graduating seniors intend to earn a two-year or greater degree. However, many quit or enter the work force before getting their degrees.
Kaiser’s 2,600 jobs are among the best in the Inland Northwest.
In a press conference after the banquet, Haymaker said a $102 million investment the company plans to expand Trentwood’s heat-treat facility and modernize the Mead carbon bake facility “sets the stage for future expansion.”
He declined to elaborate.
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