Barry McConnell is the operations manager of a mill that has been in business
since 1906. "It started as a summer job," says McConnell. "I started working
in a flour mill because my dad worked there."
After all these years, he still enjoys the flour mill business. "I think
it's the fact that no two days are the same. Nothing is really mundane.
Different problems and opportunities come up. It's not boring, that's
for sure."
On the other hand, there is one drawback. "You have to make sure you like
shift work," he says. "All mills here operate [24 hours a day, seven days
a week]."
Still, it's work that is well worth the inconvenience of shift work.
"So many people are dependent on bread and things like noodles that you know
you're doing something important," says McConnell.
David Ritchie is the general manager of a flour mill in Colorado. "I started...sweeping
floors as a summer job that I got through the...unemployment office," he says.
For three years, he worked every job available at the mill before being hired
as a miller trainee.
"I was sent to Europe for five years to complete an apprenticeship program,
and then I was the first American to graduate from the Swiss Milling School,"
says Ritchie. In his class, there were 26 students from 23 countries. They
each had a minimum of three years of practical experience in mills.
In his career, Ritchie has worked as a miller in 22 countries.
He says the challenge of milling is that every day is different. And he
finds it rewarding that 150,000 people a day are fed by the products made
at his company. "Just go to the grocery store and take a look at all the products
that are made with flour -- corn, soy, wheat, barley, etc."
Do you have what it takes to be a flour miller? "I have had people quit
in less than five minutes on the job," says Ritchie. "I have seen some people
spend 20 years doing this job and be very happy."
Nancy Edwards is a chemist in the flour milling research group for a grain
commission. If you're considering a career in this field, she recommends
you study math and physics. "To become head miller or production manager,
one would need further education," she says.
Theodore Hazen now resides in Virginia. He has also spent many years in
the milling industry. He's very knowledgeable about the history of milling.
"Traditionally, a person became a miller through an apprenticeship program.
Your father was a miller and the trade was handed down and learned by one
of his children," says Hazen.
His own grandfather was a millwright. "When I knew him, he had retired
from working in several mills. My grandfather and another man built a small
mill to operate and play with in their old age." Unfortunately, a kid in the
neighborhood burned down the mill.
"My father built several mill dams back in the 1930s, before I was born,
and there were many mills still operating in the area [northwestern Pennsylvania],"
says Hazen. "There was a water-wheel-powered cider mill and a number of water-powered
flour mills. I would enjoy seeing them as a kid."
Hazen has been involved in the milling industry his whole life. "I have
worked in a number of operating flour mills, both commercial and ones that
are restored and open to the public."
He has also worked as a millwright, millstone dresser and a milling consultant.
"So I build, restore and maintain flour and grist mills."
Is this great interest in mills hereditary? Hazen speculates that it might
be. "I am not sure that they have isolated the gene that would make one interested
in flour milling, but certainly it is something that is in the blood."