Goodyear Lawton director, pilot reflect on 45 years of service

Starting out as a rubber factory in Akron, Ohio and eventually finding its way to Lawton, Goodyear Lawton is celebrating 45 years of service with the famous Goodyear Blimp that flew Wednesday and Thursday across the city.

Colby Clodfelter, Goodyear Lawton’s plant manufacturing director, said they gave rides to people who’ve worked at the plant for a long time.

“We’re giving out our rides based off how long people have been here,” Clodfelter said. “We started with the people who’ve been here 45 years and we worked down the list. I think we made it to 36 years of service, but we’re only offering it to our most senior people.”

“We value giving back to the community,” Clodfelter said. “One of the things we’re real proud of here is the associates that work in the plant. Altogether, we gave about half a million dollars to United Way last year, which is about 40 percent of the total contribution for the area. We’re really proud of the impact we have on the community and the relationship that we have.”

After 15 years working with Goodyear, Clodfelter loves interacting with his employees.

“I started my career here, I was born and raised here in Lawton,” Clodfelter said. “The opportunity to get to lead these people is an honor for me. It truly is what makes Lawton the advantage and why I’m so proud to be a part of this team.”

Joe Erbs, one of the Goodyear Blimp pilots, said he’s been a pilot for about 38 years and a Goodyear pilot for seven years.

“It’s fun,” Erbs said. “Flying a blimp is very unique, it’s different than everything else I’ve ever flown. I’m retired Air Force, I flew corporate and I ended up here. There’s some things about this job that are very similar to things I did in the Air Force. With camera angles, sun angles, noise levels and all this kind of stuff, it’s directly applicable to the Blimp. Traveling with a big crew and working with everybody else, nobody shows up saying ‘Oh, gosh. I gotta get on the Blimp today.’”

Hailing from outside Cleveland, Ohio, Erbs said the Blimp route varies.

“There’s different times where it’s busy with TV events,” Erbs said. “This trip here, we’re combining a lot of TV events and passenger rides and a cross country from Akron to Los Angeles. Sometimes we might do three or four passenger days in a week, sometimes we’ll go three or four weeks without passengers.”

Another aspect of the celebration is a tire sale for local residents, Clodfelter said. “We want to recognize not only the people that work inside the plant, but also people in the community that’s helped out over the years.” The sale is only for people who live and work in the Lawton area and will last until Oct. 10, according to the website. Clodfelter said they can get their tires installed at the two retail stores in Lawton.