The "A Memorable Birthday Greeting" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Opened my email and read my birthday greetings from my Facebook page.  Very nice to here from so many people whom I hadn't seen or talked with for years, but who still found time to send me a birthday greeting.  One such person, Greg High, was a student of mine years ago.  He was a very courteous and respectful student who I enjoyed having in class.  He was part of a Lancaster family that was involved in the steel industry in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  

High Steel as it appeared in 1931 on West Lemon Street.

His late grandfather started the family business in 1931 when he founded High Welding.  Greg's father stayed with the family business and was the catalyst for decades of diversifi- cation, growth and philan- thropy.  Greg though, has now chosen to take a different direction and will make his two-year-old consulting business, GH Family Business Consulting Group, his full-time job.  I'm sure he will still have some influence in the family welding and steel business, but in a different capacity.  

Former student of mine, Gregory High.

My reason for telling you about Greg is that today, after reading my birthday greetings, I turned on the History Channel's "Project Impossible" and began to watch a show titled "Engineering America."  The show talked about a bridge that was being constructed to replace the New York Tappan Zee Bridge which spans the Hudson River in Tarrytown, New York, north of New York City.  

The new Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in New York.

High Steel LLC is featured in the show since it is supplying much of the steel in the $3.98 billion Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.  The contract for the new bridge is the company's largest to date having supplied more than 50,000 tons of steel girders, cross frames and other structural elements for the bridge.  High was one of there fabricators on the project.  

A second High Welding on West James Street in Lancaster.

The show was amazing and as I watched I thought about Greg and his family and how proud he must be to have his family part of this massive project that was featured in the first edition of the new show on The History Channel.  After watching the hour-long show I "Googled" High Steel and read that they recently shipped the final two "superload" girders from its Williamsport plant to the new bridge in New York.  

And yet another High Welding along the Old Harrisburg Pike.

Each girder was twelve feet deep and 120 feet long and weighed about 90 tons.  The girders were hauled by High Transit, High Steel's sister company.  Seems that High Steel had fabricated 190 of these girders for the project with fabrication taking place at the Williamsport and Lancaster plants.  Fabrication began in 2014 and only recently was completed.  Four years to make all the needed girders for the bridge.  The story said that the contract value was more than $120 million, the largest in High Steel's 86-year history.  

Placing a High Steel girder on the new New York bridge.

High Steel met every engineering and delivery milestone in the contract "with outstanding quality."  As I read the story online about High Steel I was amazed.  Their success stories include the production of steel framing members for athletic, museum and educational facilities, crane girders for industrial facilities, plate girders for train stations and power plants and box beams for an airport expansion.  For years I have driven past their factory off of the Route 30 Bypass, not realizing the magnitude of what the company can do.  This all started in 1931 when Sanford and Benjamin High purchased King Welding Company in Lancaster and changed the name to High Welding Company.  

Transporting one of their large steel beams.

In 1958 they purchased automated welding equipment. About ten years later they built a second plant.  In 1971 they changed their name to High Steel Structures, Inc.  Many other highlights are listed online with the final entry being in 2015 when the original founder, the late Sanford H. High was inducted into the ARTBA Foundations's Transportation Development Hall of Fame.  All this because he had a dream and bought the tiny business on West Lemon Street in downtown Lancaster, PA.  I'm sure Greg is proud of his heritage just as I am proud of what he has become in his life.  Getting a birthday greeting from such a fine young man made my birthday something special this year.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.