Community Corner

Retired Chrysler Worker Wins New Dodge Challenger

Robert Clark worked 30 years at the Twinsburg stamping plant

It seems ironic that after giving 30 years of his life to Chrysler, Robert Clark would win a brand-new Dodge-Chrysler car.

Clark, 78, won a new 2011 Dodge Challenger through the Champion Spark Plugs’ “Tune Up Your Garage” sweepstakes, presented to him at the store on Darrow Road Thursday afternoon.

He and his wife of 59 years, Reva, live on Cannon Road and are Chrysler people through-and-through. Clark spent 30 years at the Twinsburg Chrylser plant as a die-maker.

“It was very enjoyable,” Clark said. “I liked my job and the people were really nice.”

He retired in 1995, nearly 15 years before the stamping plant, a “big part of this community,” shut down in July 2010. With many of his years spent working in that building, Clark was upset when it shut down.

“Oh, I was kind of unhappy, because you have sentimental values that go along with where you work,” Clark said. “If you work there 30 years and retire you don’t like to see it be torn down.”

Even though the plant shut down, Clark is hopeful for its future. He said he hopes to see another manufacturer come in and pick up where Chrysler left off.

“We need manufacturing in the United States,” he said. “We need more revenue coming in.”

Clark said he is a “Dodge-Chrysler person” and has owned Chrysler products since he was 16, only owning two cars in his life that didn’t fit the mold. When he was first informed he won, Clark said he was skeptical.

“I really didn’t believe it,” Clark said. “I thought it was a practical joke or something.”

But like the true gentleman he is, Clark won’t be keeping the new hot-rod to himself.

“No, I’m going to give it to my wife,” he said.


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