NCR is ingrained in Dayton's past

For Daytonians, in other words, it's almost impossible to overestimate the psychic footprint of Patterson and the company he founded here 125 years ago. Everyone's lives were intertwined with "the Cash," whether they worked there or not. Even worse than the loss of some 1,250 jobs is the symbolism of it: The ultimate corporate citizen has come to epitomize the ultimate in corporate detachment.

That's more than a little ironic given Patterson's role as virtual city father, not to mention his pioneering views on nurturing the well-being of his employees. "He was part of a very engaged municipal leadership," noted Mark Bernstein, author of Dayton-area histories including Grand Eccentrics and Gentleman Amateurs.

One day Patterson noticed a female employee huddling over the radiator to warm up her coffee cup, and he conceived the idea for an employees' hot meal program. "His employee welfare program was derided by other manufacturers as babying his employees," observed Mary Oliver, director of the NCR archive for Dayton History. "The programs were so successful that they started imitating him. He increased the amount of windows to allow light and fresh air in. NCR became known for recreational activities and its lending library. Employees even took field trips."

I once knew a woman named Dorothy Eidemiller Taylor who, well into her 90s, reminisced fondly about her trip to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair with her NCR co-workers. She cherished memories of Patterson riding into work on his white horse.

Patterson was sometimes criticized for being too paternalistic. Present-day NCR chairman and CEO Bill Nuti appears to have given the bum's rush to city and regional leaders, who have criticized him for failing to meet with them. Employees, too, were left in the dark, and are now scrambling to plot their futures. No danger of any criticism of "coddling" the workers these days.

"John H. Patterson did treat Dayton as a fiefdom," Bernstein said. "He closed the factory for two months because he was feeling unappreciated."

Of course, Patterson was part and parcel of the community he loved. Nuti, by contrast, apparently held Dayton in such disdain he never bothered to move here despite initial assurances to the company that he would.

Bernstein noted that "the names of companies used to tell you where they were from and what they did — Toledo Scale, or Cincinnati Milacron. People are more tied to institutions than institutions are tied to people. It's a damn shame, but it's generally true that corporations no longer play that local role. "

NCR's founder once helped save Dayton from a great flood.

Which, of course, begs the question: Who will rescue us from the next one?

Mary McCarty is a reporter at the Dayton Daily News.