Relic tracks Armco workers in war
It all started with a Butler Eagle article.
Butler Township resident John Brough said he read the February 2018 piece on retired Armco plant manager Jerry Puff's effort to track down and distribute pictures of mill workers who served in World War II to the veterans in the photos or their families.
That article sparked Brough into action and led to a priceless World War II artifact being saved.
Brough immediately remembered a huge black book at his home that had languished, mostly unopened, since the early 1970s.
“I probably would still have it (at home) if I didn't read the newspaper,” Brough said.
He explained that his late father, Bob Brough of Center Township, was a World War II veteran in the Navy who began his career in 1947 at Armco, now AK Steel.
Now, decades later, Brough vaguely recalls how at some point before his death in 1974, his father noticed someone at the plant preparing to get rid of a large black book with the Armco logo and “Armco at War, March 1942-Aug. 1945” hand painted on the cover in yellow.The professionally bound book contains full-size pages, in order, from each Thursday edition of the Butler Eagle during the years written on the front.During that time, Armco bought a page in Thursday's Eagle to print photos, writings and updates on its employees serving overseas as soldiers, sailors, WACs and WAVEs.Thankfully, Brough believes, his father intervened and said he would take the book if it were destined for the trash.The relic landed in the coat closet of his childhood home, where it lay largely undisturbed until a few years ago when Brough took it home.
Upon seeing the story on Puff and his pictures, Brough called Puff for two reasons.First, he wanted to know if his father's picture was included in the box of Armco World War II veterans in Puff's possession.When Puff replied that Bob Brough was one of the many young sailors documented by Armco's staff photographers in the 1940s, he asked if he could come and retrieve the pictures.“And I told him I had something to show him,” Brough said. “He didn't know what I had, and thought it was a regular book.”When Puff saw the book, he was amazed at the priceless piece of history, which illustrates the service of the hundreds of Armco employees who fought Axis forces overseas.“Butler sure answered the call,” Puff said.Brough knew his children and grandchildren would not be interested in the one-of-a-kind book, which is in great shape given its age and contains no markings from a bookbinder or printer.“I told Jerry, 'You do whatever you want with it,'” Brough said.Puff can name and fondly remembers dozens of Armco employees included in the book.An appreciative Puff took the book to Minuteman Press in Butler to see if the pages could be digitized in the interest of preservation.
He said the young owner brought in a digital expert, and the two promised Puff they would digitize a page or two for him by the next day for Puff's personal use.They said digitizing the entire book would take much longer, which Puff understood.“They started looking through this thing and couldn't stop,” Puff said. “They (digitized) the whole thing by the next day. They said they worked past midnight.”Puff is not sure what he will do with the priceless Butler relic for the sake of posterity, but he wants to make a coffee-table book out of it, so anyone can enjoy the photos and articles.Brough has no doubt he did the right thing.“It went to a good person,” he said. “I think Jerry will do what is best for the book.”
