AADL Argus Oral History: Richard Moore

Wed, 11/29/2017 - 1:14pm

When: 2017 at Downtown Library: Conference Room A

Transcript

• [00:00:00.32] SPEAKER 1: This oral history interview is part of the Argus Oral History project, Ann Arbor District Library. And today we're talking to Richard Moore. Richard, please state and spell out you full name.
• [00:00:12.35] RICHARD MOORE: Richard Moore. R-I-C-H-A-R-D M-O-O-R-E.
• [00:00:17.78] SPEAKER 1: And where and when were you born?
• [00:00:20.63] RICHARD MOORE: Born right here in Ann Arbor at St. Joe Hospital in January of 1946.
• [00:00:28.28] SPEAKER 1: And where'd you grow up?
• [00:00:30.56] RICHARD MOORE: North of here in, it was actually Whitmore Lake Post Office but Dexter School System, kind of out in the country between the two places.
• [00:00:40.72] SPEAKER 1: And what level education have you completed?
• [00:00:44.17] RICHARD MOORE: High school and some technical schools after that.
• [00:00:46.96] SPEAKER 1: What kind of tech school did you go to?
• [00:00:49.51] RICHARD MOORE: I went to the electronics school. And learned some hands-on stuff by General Motors that they put on themselves.
• [00:01:01.48] SPEAKER 1: And what is your marital status?
• [00:01:04.21] RICHARD MOORE: I'm sorry?
• [00:01:05.41] SPEAKER 1: Were you married?
• [00:01:06.44] RICHARD MOORE: Yes, married, have three children, seven grandchildren.
• [00:01:11.65] SPEAKER 1: And what has been your primary occupation?
• [00:01:15.82] RICHARD MOORE: I worked at General Motors for the majority of my life in the Safety Research Development Lab crashing cars and doing instrumentation work. And then I got into the high-speed photo work there, too, because of my photo background.
• [00:01:30.55] So I ended up repairing the high-speed photo equipment. And then switched into the Instrumentation Department.
• [00:01:37.39] SPEAKER 1: Now when did you start working for Argus? And what brought you to Argus?
• [00:01:40.99] RICHARD MOORE: My brother-in-law knew that I liked mechanical things, and he thought I was really good at it. And my brother-in-law Marv Potter was an Argus employee. He worked in the Ann Arbor factory.
• [00:01:54.76] SPEAKER 1: You know what building he worked in? Was it Building One, Argus One or Argus Two?
• [00:01:58.31] RICHARD MOORE: You know, I don't know.
• [00:01:59.53] SPEAKER 1: What did he do?
• [00:02:01.40] RICHARD MOORE: He built cameras.
• [00:02:02.71] SPEAKER 1: OK.
• [00:02:04.81] RICHARD MOORE: And then he had a camera repair business on the side. And I helped him in that as well. So he knew that I new camera repair. And he knew that Argus wanted camera repairmen in Dexter, in the Dexter branch of Argus.
• [00:02:19.87] And I went out there and met Milt Campbell and pretty much hired right on the spot. Because of my brother-in-law's recommendation. And I had thought I knew Milt Campbell before that, probably did. But it's hard to remember 50 years ago.
• [00:02:36.83] SPEAKER 1: What year was that?
• [00:02:38.02] RICHARD MOORE: 1967.
• [00:02:41.73] SPEAKER 1: And what positions did your hold at Argus when you were there?
• [00:02:45.79] RICHARD MOORE: Well, I started in the repair department repairing Super 8 cameras and Super 8 projectors. And then when they talked about moving their repair facility in South Carolina, for a little while I switched over to the military department, which was just across the driveway.
• [00:03:06.13] SPEAKER 1: In Dexter, also?
• [00:03:07.22] RICHARD MOORE: Yes, yeah, it was right on the same property. And my job there was building and collimating government scopes for submarines and tanks. Argus had a pretty big contract, I understand, with them.
• [00:03:24.50] SPEAKER 1: Was it any branch of the military? Was it the Army or was it the Navy or was it all branches?
• [00:03:29.98] RICHARD MOORE: I think it was all branches, yes.
• [00:03:31.50] SPEAKER 1: And do you remember what kind of scopes you worked on?
• [00:03:34.81] RICHARD MOORE: Well there was one that was used in a submarine. And I don't remember the, it seemed like it was M1-18, but I'm not sure of that model number.
• [00:03:43.84] SPEAKER 1: There was a M1-18.
• [00:03:44.85] RICHARD MOORE: It was like a Periscope type of thing. You looked at the bottom and the scope was up about two feet high and a little crank and it had a counter and a magnifier and all kinds of stuff with it. And I only worked there for a few months. And then they wanted me to help set up the repair department in South Carolina. So for a period of somewhere around six months, I flew back and forth every two weeks from here to South Carolina helping them set that up.
• [00:04:21.33] SPEAKER 1: And what city was that in?
• [00:04:23.16] RICHARD MOORE: That was in, hm--
• [00:04:26.01] SPEAKER 1: Was it Columbia? That's OK.
• [00:04:30.15] RICHARD MOORE: I don't know.
• [00:04:31.17] SPEAKER 1: That's all right.
• [00:04:31.61] RICHARD MOORE: It's hard to remember that long ago.
• [00:04:34.50] SPEAKER 1: Who did you do that project with, then?
• [00:04:39.58] RICHARD MOORE: Going back and forth with me was Dennis Kadel. Who kind of ran the Dexter facility there for quite a while. And he was really business-minded, you know. And he really wanted me to go down there and take over. In fact, they offered me the position of National Service Manager.
• [00:04:58.81] But for various reasons, the number one reason being that they were hiring from the outside people with no repair experience. They wanted me to train everybody. And I said I couldn't do that. I can't train a dozen people to repair cameras if they have no experience.
• [00:05:20.60] SPEAKER 1: Do you think that move was detrimental to Argus's, I guess, how people viewed them, their reputation?
• [00:05:30.44] RICHARD MOORE: Personally, I think it was. Part of that is looking back on what happened since, you know. At the time, I probably wouldn't have said that because it looked like it was progress at the time. But I understand the department didn't last very long done there.
• [00:05:44.27] SPEAKER 1: People didn't know what they were doing?
• [00:05:45.83] RICHARD MOORE: Right. And they got a, I guess they got a load of customer complaints based on that, you know.
• [00:05:52.07] SPEAKER 1: Did they have backlogs in also?
• [00:05:53.77] RICHARD MOORE: Yeah.
• [00:05:54.16] SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Going back when you first worked at Argus, who was your boss?
• [00:05:59.04] RICHARD MOORE: Milt Campbell. My immediate boss was Ron Dougherty. And then there was Dick Keaton as well. He was, he managed the Dexter facility too. In the military part of it, it was John Kinne.
• [00:06:19.73] SPEAKER 1: John Kinne?
• [00:06:20.63] RICHARD MOORE: Kinne. I believe, K-I-N-N-E.
• [00:06:23.04] SPEAKER 1: OK. And who else did you work with in those various departments, other fellow employees?
• [00:06:28.96] RICHARD MOORE: Just coworkers. I remember a few of the names. There was Dorothy Wier, who sat next to me. And then Brice Graham. Herb Pfabe. It's funny because Herb Pfabe, after 50 years I still remember him answering the phone, telling the people how to spell his last name because it started with a P, P-F-A-B-E. And he'd always say, Peter, Franky, Ellen, Betty, Edward for P-F-A-B-E. And I just remember that because I heard it probably 20 times a day for years.
• [00:07:00.24] SPEAKER 1: Yeah, that's a good memory.
• [00:07:02.58] RICHARD MOORE: And then I remember Jack Travis, who was my age. And I can picture a lot of the other people, but names-- There was a Pearl, but I don't remember her last name.
• [00:07:21.23] SPEAKER 1: In the military division, do you remember anybody, any fellow employees there?
• [00:07:26.47] RICHARD MOORE: Well like I said, John Kinne was my boss there. And there was a Bud that worked there. But his last name escapes me right now. I didn't, because of my shortness there, I didn't get to know many people that much in the military part of it.
• [00:07:44.25] SPEAKER 1: When you were going back and forth to South Carolina, was that the Sylvania years there, too? When you were in South Carolina, you know, did Sylvania or Mansfield own Argus at that point, too?
• [00:07:56.81] RICHARD MOORE: I don't know.
• [00:07:58.15] SPEAKER 1: Do you know what years that was?
• [00:07:59.62] RICHARD MOORE: That was about 1968 to '69 in the fall and spring period.
• [00:08:10.43] SPEAKER 1: And what facility did you work at? Just the Dexter plant?
• [00:08:13.63] RICHARD MOORE: Just the Dexter plant. So when people have said, oh, you work at Argus, you must know so-and-so. Well, I don't because I worked with a limited number of people in Dexter. And most of the people were here in Ann Arbor, obviously.
• [00:08:26.69] SPEAKER 1: But where is the Dexter plat located?
• [00:08:28.69] RICHARD MOORE: On [? June ?] River Drive, about one, about a half a mile outside of Dexter.
• [00:08:33.64] SPEAKER 1: Going out of town?
• [00:08:35.20] RICHARD MOORE: Going toward Ann Arbor.
• [00:08:36.37] SPEAKER 1: Going toward Ann Arbor.
• [00:08:37.52] RICHARD MOORE: On Huron River Drive, right.
• [00:08:40.77] SPEAKER 1: So what kind of product did you work on? You said early you worked in the movie cameras, the Super 8s?
• [00:08:47.77] RICHARD MOORE: I'm sorry, what?
• [00:08:48.83] SPEAKER 1: Earlier, when you were first hired in, you worked on the Super 8 movie cameras.
• [00:08:51.76] RICHARD MOORE: Yes
• [00:08:52.18] SPEAKER 1: And projectors?
• [00:08:52.99] RICHARD MOORE: Super 8 movie cameras and then projectors.
• [00:08:56.62] SPEAKER 1: Do you remember anything about them?
• [00:08:57.92] RICHARD MOORE: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I still to this day, I could take apart a Argus 822 and put it back together successfully. I remember the problem with the projectors was always the rubber drive wheel was always getting soft or worn out. And that was a typical thing. A projector would come in, replace the drive wheel, send it back out, and it was OK.
• [00:09:19.31] SPEAKER 1: Did Argus charge for those repairs?
• [00:09:21.91] RICHARD MOORE: I believe so, yes. There were some that were warrantied but most of them were charges.
• [00:09:26.63] SPEAKER 1: So the 822 was a real poplar projector then?
• [00:09:29.16] RICHARD MOORE: Yes, camera.
• [00:09:30.55] SPEAKER 1: Oh, camera, yeah.
• [00:09:31.05] RICHARD MOORE: 822 was the camera. It was preceded by the 820, which was quite popular. But 822 had a lot of additional features on it, you know. And I owned an 822 and took a lot of pictures with it.
• [00:09:46.88] In fact, along that line, since they wanted people to take pictures with cameras that were repaired, the still cameras, I volunteered because they would buy the film and do the processing. So almost every day from work, I would bring home a camera or two and take pictures of my family.
• [00:10:06.84] My oldest daughter was a one-year-old at the time. And so I have hundreds of pictures of her. But the next daughter came along three years later, and I have almost none of her. So she's always felt left out. And I said, Argus paid for them.
• [00:10:22.26] RICHARD MOORE: What was your favorite Argus still camera that you liked to use?
• [00:10:25.84] RICHARD MOORE: Still camera? Probably the C44.
• [00:10:27.97] SPEAKER 1: That's mine, too, actually.
• [00:10:29.29] RICHARD MOORE: Really?
• [00:10:29.71] SPEAKER 1: Yeah.
• [00:10:31.26] RICHARD MOORE: It was a real work horse. In fact, I own one and I believe it is still working.
• [00:10:36.11] SPEAKER 1: Mine does.
• [00:10:37.03] RICHARD MOORE: Yeah.
• [00:10:39.79] SPEAKER 1: And what's your favorite movie camera? Was it, well the 822, you said.
• [00:10:42.91] RICHARD MOORE: Oh, yeah.
• [00:10:43.25] SPEAKER 1: Yeah.
• [00:10:43.96] RICHARD MOORE: Easily.
• [00:10:45.16] SPEAKER 1: What were some of the features that people liked about that?
• [00:10:47.74] RICHARD MOORE: The zoom and, of course, the automatic exposure. Some of the previous ones, they had to set the exposure. But this was automatic and they really liked that.
• [00:11:01.25] SPEAKER 1: What kind projector did you own? And what kind of projector did you, was your favorite?
• [00:11:05.87] RICHARD MOORE: It was, I don't remember the number, but it was just called the Show Master.
• [00:11:11.63] SPEAKER 1: Were those pretty popular too?
• [00:11:12.79] RICHARD MOORE: Oh, yeah. In fact, I still have, well, like I said before, I probably have about a dozen projectors. Some of them belonged to my brother-in-law, who has passed on. But I have, I think, three regular 8 and a couple of Super 8 projectors of my own.
• [00:11:32.70] SPEAKER 1: Was there any kind of repair issues that were common with the projectors?
• [00:11:36.39] RICHARD MOORE: Oh, yeah, like I said, the rubber drive wheel was one. And then the pull down claws were always getting bent that pulled on the film for each frame. They were always getting bent or out of place. So you had to adjust those very carefully.
• [00:11:51.38] SPEAKER 1: When you did your work, did you work as a team? Or mostly independently?
• [00:11:55.35] RICHARD MOORE: Independently.
• [00:11:56.64] SPEAKER 1: They just gave you a camera or a projector to fix, basically.
• [00:12:00.59] RICHARD MOORE: Right, and I would read the customer's letter of complaint. And for a little while Ron Dougherty worked with me closely and kind of training me. But it wasn't very long he said, you know that. You can repair it by yourself.
• [00:12:14.11] And so for a long time, I would only talk with Ron Dougherty when I had a question because he would trust my repair ability. And I really appreciated that. That was, you know, being a young guy at the time, it was nice respect I got.
• [00:12:30.20] SPEAKER 1: About how many did you repair a day? Was it, you know, an average?
• [00:12:34.20] RICHARD MOORE: As I remember, it was about three to four, not usually more than that. On really good days, really good days there might be six or seven and really bad days, maybe only one.
• [00:12:48.75] SPEAKER 1: So how did you feel about working for Argus at the time?
• [00:12:51.81] RICHARD MOORE: Oh, I loved it. It seemed like family. And I got along with everybody there. It was a nice atmosphere. Like I said, there was a lot of trust and a lot of social activities going on. So it was great.
• [00:13:09.45] SPEAKER 1: How old were you when you hired in?
• [00:13:12.30] RICHARD MOORE: That would have been, OK, I was 23.
• [00:13:22.88] SPEAKER 1: So you worked there until 23 to about 27, 28?
• [00:13:25.06] RICHARD MOORE: Yeah.
• [00:13:25.40] SPEAKER 1: OK While your time there, did you win any company awards or recognition?
• [00:13:34.67] RICHARD MOORE: I don't recall receiving any of those.
• [00:13:37.53] SPEAKER 1: Sometimes they gave money for suggestions, too.
• [00:13:41.70] RICHARD MOORE: Yeah, I may have gotten some suggestion money. In fact, I know I did. But I've forgotten what those were.
• [00:13:49.91] SPEAKER 1: But when you worked there, what kind of activities did you participate in? Did you belong to any clubs, bowling, baseball, flying [INAUDIBLE]?
• [00:13:58.13] RICHARD MOORE: That were related to Argus?
• [00:13:59.41] SPEAKER 1: Yeah
• [00:14:00.50] RICHARD MOORE: I guess none of those things officially were related with Argus. So I really wasn't that much of a socialite at the time.
• [00:14:10.85] SPEAKER 1: When you worked at Argus, did you live in Dexter at the time, then?
• [00:14:14.21] RICHARD MOORE: I lived, like I said, in between Dexter and Whitmore Lake, out in the country. In fact, that's where I still live.
• [00:14:23.70] SPEAKER 1: In the same house. During your time off, did you do other things with fellow employees, you know, social events?
• [00:14:32.63] RICHARD MOORE: Yeah, Jack Travis and his wife were close friends with my wife and myself. And we would go out to dinner a lot and have them all for different things, parties and birthdays and so on. Other than Jack, I don't think there was that much that I remember.
• [00:14:52.30] SPEAKER 1: You mentioned already that your immediate boss treated you with respect. In general, how do you think Argus treated their employees?
• [00:15:01.84] RICHARD MOORE: From what I saw, very good. I was really happy with that.
• [00:15:07.80] SPEAKER 1: Members of the Argus Eyes company newsletter. And some have told me when it came out people were always excited and couldn't wait to see who was in it.
• [00:15:14.77] RICHARD MOORE: To tell you the truth, when I worked there, no. But since then, I've looked at copies and when you say it, yeah. I remember them now. But it's all since I quit there, you know.
• [00:15:27.31] SPEAKER 1: Was there any safety or security issues when you were working at Argus. Or was that addressed?
• [00:15:33.52] RICHARD MOORE: There didn't seem to be any issues. It was pretty much open building. And we'd walk in and out. And it was a place where the public generally didn't come because they didn't know they could bring the cameras there. They would generally ship their cameras to Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor would send them out to us.
• [00:15:50.74] SPEAKER 1: Ah, that's how it worked. And, well, here's kind of a dual question. What did you like most about working for Argus? And what did you like least about working for Argus?
• [00:16:01.64] RICHARD MOORE: Most, I think, like I said, was the respect and the friendliness of the employees. I never regretted going into work like I've done with some jobs since then. You know, on no, I've got to go to work tomorrow morning.
• [00:16:15.97] I never had that feeling with Argus. I liked going there. And if I had to work a few hours over the eight hour period to get something done, I didn't mind it at all.
• [00:16:26.44] SPEAKER 1: What did you like least about working for Argus?
• [00:16:32.09] RICHARD MOORE: I think, maybe, in the last few months, people coming in and making decisions that really didn't know the business that well. Making decisions that were, they had to do with the direction of the company.
• [00:16:47.84] SPEAKER 1: Do you know who that was? Was it a different company? Was some of the higher ups in Argus?
• [00:16:53.01] RICHARD MOORE: Well, I almost hate to use names.
• [00:16:54.74] SPEAKER 1: Yeah, true.
• [00:16:55.07] RICHARD MOORE: But you know, there were some upper management that I thought made the wrong decisions.
• [00:16:59.27] SPEAKER 1: You're not the only one that thinks that. That's why I was asking.
• [00:17:01.61] RICHARD MOORE: The immediate management knew the product well, and I trusted everything that they decided. But in the latter years, I thought, this company is not going to make it. And as It turns out--
• [00:17:12.61] SPEAKER 1: You were right.
• [00:17:13.10] RICHARD MOORE: I was right.
• [00:17:13.74] SPEAKER 1: Yes. So why did you leave Argus, then.
• [00:17:17.90] RICHARD MOORE: Because the facility was shut down. They did ship everything to South Carolina. Like I said, they offered me the job. I turned it down. And that was the end of my Argus career.
• [00:17:28.52] SPEAKER 1: Where did you go to work after Argus, then?
• [00:17:30.32] RICHARD MOORE: I worked at General Motors Proving Ground. Like I said, they knew I had camera repair experience, so I worked on repairing cameras for GM. And that's how I got in there, and I lasted there 31 years.
• [00:17:42.77] SPEAKER 1: And then you retired from GM?
• [00:17:44.87] RICHARD MOORE: I retired from GM in '02. And after that point, there was a interesting job opening at a company that made crash test dummies. And since I had experience with crash test dummies, they hired me.
• [00:17:58.94] And then I got into advertising for them, publications and advertising. That company folded and joined with another company. I went with a new company. So I was with those companies a total of eight years after that.
• [00:18:12.32] SPEAKER 1: Was it your experience in Argus and photography that got you into those positions?
• [00:18:17.10] RICHARD MOORE: Well, yeah, I guess you could say that because Argus got me the GM, and GM got me the other one in, you know, a chain of events.
• [00:18:24.68] SPEAKER 1: Do you still enjoy photography and your Argus cameras?
• [00:18:27.44] RICHARD MOORE: Oh, yes. I like Argus cameras. I don't use them because the film. You know that. Nobody does film anymore.
• [00:18:35.31] SPEAKER 1: Well, some people do, but yeah, it's become very rare.
• [00:18:38.60] RICHARD MOORE: But, yeah, I am, so-called, the photographer of the family. I have a business that I have a lab set-up similar to this. So I do a lot of still photography. I do a lot for Grass Lake Schools. their plays and, kind of, event photography. So yeah, I enjoy that. That's all stills, obviously.
• [00:19:06.47] SPEAKER 1: Do you do anything with movies?
• [00:19:09.01] RICHARD MOORE: No.
• [00:19:13.98] SPEAKER 1: Let's see here. So when you worked in Dexter, was there a cafeteria in that facility, too?
• [00:19:22.09] RICHARD MOORE: No, there was not. A lot of us would bring our lunch. Some of them would go downtown Dexter to eat, you know, A&W, places like that. But most of the employees just brought their lunch. There was no cafeteria on site.
• [00:19:37.92] SPEAKER 1: Do you see any of your old fellow employees?
• [00:19:41.85] RICHARD MOORE: Only at the Argus gatherings, I haven't seen any separate from that.
• [00:19:47.98] SPEAKER 1: All right, well--
• [00:19:48.95] RICHARD MOORE: In fact, well, I did see one. Milt Campbell that I mentioned who was my boss, he was also a Dexter High School graduate. And I met him at the Dexter High School Reunion.
• [00:19:59.11] SPEAKER 1: Oh, great.
• [00:19:59.88] RICHARD MOORE: I thought, Milt, I didn't expect to see you here. That was kind of nice.
• [00:20:03.41] SPEAKER 1: Yeah, we interviewed him a few months ago.
• [00:20:04.96] RICHARD MOORE: Really?
• [00:20:05.30] SPEAKER 1: Yeah, what a gentleman. Well, is there anything else you want to talk about, Argus or Ann Arbor, even? You've been around Ann Arbor for quite a few years.
• [00:20:17.55] RICHARD MOORE: Well, none that come to mind right away.
• [00:20:22.30] SPEAKER 1: That's OK, too then. Well, thank you, then. Thank you for your time.
• [00:20:26.26] RICHARD MOORE: Well, you're certainly welcome.
• [00:20:27.42] SPEAKER 1: All right.