ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 TAG: 9609100046
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
ROAD SIGNS leading into the plant proclaimed Neil E. Hiatt Boulevard as his co-workers honored him Monday.
The challenge of the job - whatever job he was given to do - and satisfaction in doing it well has kept Neil Hiatt coming back to work every day for the past 50 years.
Hiatt, 71, is an international sales manager for General Electric Co.'s Motors and Industrial Systems Division based in Salem. He joined GE in Pittsfield, Mass., on Sept. 9, 1946, and has worked at the company's Salem plant for the past 22 years.
"I've been always fortunate to have an opportunity to work," Hiatt said. The jobs over the years "were always challenging and in my case were quite exciting."
He noted that not many people are given that kind of chance with a single company anymore or even want it.
Hiatt's co-workers honored him Monday, his golden anniversary with GE. Road signs leading into the Salem plant proclaimed Neil E. Hiatt Boulevard. A sign over the main entrance to the plant's offices recognized his achievement, and a group was waiting outside to shake his hand when he arrived at work. The mayors of both Roanoke and Salem sent along proclamations, declaring Monday as Neil E. Hiatt Day in those two communities.
"I never had a desire to work anywhere else besides GE," Hiatt said. He has particularly enjoyed working in sales the past 20 years, he said.
The contact he has had with people from all over the world is what he likes best about his job. "The real challenge," he said, "is when you're meeting with people and trying to get them to buy your product."
His advice to young salesmen is to be honest in what you are saying to your customers and be responsive to their needs. Whenever a customer contacts the plant, he follows up immediately to let the customer know the correspondence has arrived and that the company plans to answer it.
Hiatt grew up in Evanston, Ill. He attended Northwestern University in that Chicago suburb during World War II under a special Navy program designed to train officers. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in two years and eight months. He was commissioned an ensign in the Navy and spent four months on a cruiser in the Atlantic.
After the Navy, he joined GE in a testing job that paid $1.181/2 per hour. He soon moved to a GE plant in Schenectady, N.Y. During the 1960s, he helped develop GE's marketing plan to bring automation systems to the steel industry.
Hiatt currently is responsible for sales of the company's industrial drive systems to steel mills in Europe, Africa and Russia. His boss, Tom Engl, said Hiatt is one of the most dedicated people he's encountered in his own 33 years with GE.
"Everything he does, he jumps in with both feet," Engl said. "He's very customer-focused, customer-oriented."
During his career with GE, Engl said he has known of only two other people who worked 50 years for the company. One of those was Al Fredericks, who formerly worked at the Salem plant. The vast experience that Hiatt brings to the job is invaluable, Engl said.
GE has no mandatory retirement age, and Hiatt said he has no plans to retire but doesn't rule it out in a few years.
One of his hobbies is physical fitness, and he has taught fitness classes for business people at YMCAs in Schenectady and Roanoke. He had to give that up because of the travel his sales job requires.
He still follows an exercise regimen and walks daily with his wife, Mary Lou, who works in real estate sales with Boone and Co.
Hiatt's other hobbies include home repair and gardening. He liked photography when he was young and thinks he might like to try that again. He also has an interest in getting involved with Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for the poor, when he retires. He is an elder in his church, Covenant Presbyterian on Deyerle Road.
He and his wife have six children between them from former marriages and three grandchildren with two more on the way. Three of the children were young enough to have attended schools in the Cave Spring area after the family moved to Roanoke County.
The only one still living in this area is a son, Jeffrey Clemens, pastor of a church near the Peaks of Otter in Bedford County. Clemens stopped by the plant Monday with some anniversary gifts for Hiatt.
"Whatever my father has done, he always done 110 percent," Clemens said.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PHILIP HOLMAN\Staff. Neil Hiatt is an internationalby CNBsales manager for the General Electric Co.'s Motors and Industrial
Systems Division based in Salem. color.