operate it to make usable paper. “There was a real learn- ing curve because we weren’t running virgin paper and we had to make the right paper for each of our plants,” said Keigley. “That whole mill was a first.” “I remember Bob Lang being so invested in this plant succeeding that he said the recycled water – about a mil- lion gallons right under the property – would be so clean and pure that we could actually drink it, which was absurd, of course,” said Goldberg. That idea lasted about ten min- utes and that was it.” Sherri Garland-Clemmer remembered Bob taking her on a personal tour of the mill and trying to convince her to drink the water. He said, ‘Look, Sherri, this water is so clean you could drink it.’ I just looked at him and he said, ‘If you drink it, then I’ll drink it.’ I said I wasn’t going to drink his damn water and that he can drink it by himself and he said, ‘Well, I'm not going to drink it today,’ as if he would have sometime in the future. You can be sure he never did take even a sip of that water.” As it happened, the Linpac paper mill achieved another historic first: It was the site of the first enclosed water sys- tem. The mill also had the first electric boiler that was ever done and funded by the U.S. government. “There were a lot of ‘firsts’ at that mill. We didn't know what the hell we were doing, but that paper mill ended up making a lot of money,” said Long, who added that developing a costing system was an “adventure” until Goldberg figured out how to do it. “What Richie brought to us was a true costing sys-
tem where we could look at different grades of paper and come up with a certain cost. It gave us a mode of being able to tell what to sell it for because then we knew what the cost was. Prior to that, we didn’t have a clue. We ar- rived at a cost based on how much we thought we could get for it and be competitive in the marketplace.” “The biggest mistake we made at the mill was that we built it based on making 78/87-inch rolls,” said Goldberg. “We never considered the possibility of there ever being 98-inch rolls. But at the end of the day, Linpac’s success really came through that mill and its three sheet feeders.” “Wayne, you're exactly right, but the other part of it was that the friendships we all had with one another meant we weren’t going to let each other down,” confirmed Keig- ley. “We were going to bust our asses to do whatever we had to do to get the job done. There was no lack of confi- dence from anybody, we were borderline maniacs, full of confidence, all of us, but there was also this feeling of ‘I don’t want to let Wayne down and I don't want to let Richie down, I don't want to let Kenyon down, and I sure as hell don't want to let Sherri down because she would kick your ass!’ It was that kind of love and respect for one another that got us where we got to, which was success.” While on the topic of mutual love and respect, Kenyon Mayer shared another fond memory: “One of my favorite times with Richie was when we went to the UK to look at equipment and the rest of us on the trip made it a point CONTINUED ON PAGE 32
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