Vignette — Edward (Eddie), An Ironworker and a Plumb Up Foreman

Meet Eddie, a Shuff Steel Ironworker and Plumb Up Foreman.

A vignette of a man who has a reason to be excited about this project.

by Dennis E. Park, MA, LLU Vision 2020 project photographer and blogger

Recently, I stood at grade waiting to take a photo of the next steel column to be set. Eddie, a Shuff Steel ironworker and plumb up foreman, stood next to me as he too was waiting for the crane to deliver the 12,000-lb column. After some small talk, I asked him how he felt about working on this hospital project. I have to admit, I was taken back by his reply. Without hesitation, he replied, “I think it’s great! He then quickly added, “I have really been excited about the possibility of working on this Loma Linda Hospital project. In fact, my wife and I have been excited about it for the last two years.” Without allowing me to query him about why he was excited, he gave me a coy smile and continued as he pointed toward the Medical Center: “I was born in this hospital in 1983, and then our son was born here in 2012.” He then laughed and stated: “That is pretty cool.” Wow. I had to agree with him, it was cool. What a legacy he has to tell. When I inquired as to what a plumb up foreman does? He looked at me (and I’ve seen that look before on the site) as if to say: “I better give this lay-person a short and simple answer.” And so he did. Motioning with hands vertically up and down, he explained: “Basically, a plumb up foreman is responsible for making sure the building is plumb (straight) as each floor rises.”  Got it . . . Silly me!

When asked what type of training is required of an ironworker, Eddie offered that he and most of his co-workers “attended four years of trade school including apprenticeship after which they graduated.” When asked if he would like to work on a New York City skyscraper, he responded with a broad smile and six words: “Yes, yes, I think I would.” He went on to tell me that he had worked temporarily on a couple of the highrise structures in Los Angeles. Our all too brief conversation came to a close as the crane’s cable began to slowly lower the column into place. As I walked to another section of the project, I looked back toward the steel skeleton with the Medical Center’s towers in the background. I paused a moment and thought how lucky Eddie was to be working on a project that meant so much to him. Just imagine, I pondered, when Eddie and his family pass the new hospitals towering above Barton Road and the campus, he may reduce his speed albeit for just a moment. Looking toward the glass towers, he points and says: “Son, see those towers, your dad worked on that project for many months, and see those Loma Linda beige buildings to the west, well son, that’s the old hospital where you and I were born.”

As I watch the steel skeleton rise, I think of Eddie and his son who were born in the Medical Center that will soon be dwarfed by modern towers. I think of Eddie and I know the building is plumb. I think of his ironworker buddies all–all who spend countless hours bolting the beams, maneuvering the beams, setting the beams, walking the beams, and welding the beams–doing their part to add a bit of polish to the institution’s motto: “To Make Man Whole.”

Eddie, with his left hand to his chin, looks up at a welder suspended on a floater welding a corner section of what will be the ceiling area of the ground floor. The young man to his right is Eddie’s nephew Caleb who is currently an apprentice and will graduate in a little over a year.

Edward standing next to the northwest cap slab in the shadow of the hospital where he and his son were born.

Eddie aligning the circular prism to check the plumbness of the northeast