Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2020)
E AST O REGONIAN WEEKEND, FEBRUARY 1, 2020 METAL MAN Staff photo by Kathy Aney Herb Bork works this week in his Rieth metal foundry, placing bricks on top of fl asks that contain sand that has been packed around molds. The next step is melting ingots and pouring the metal into impressions of the molds. Metal caster started foundry 40 years ago after education career By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian PENDLETON — Herb Bork says he doesn’t have time to get old. Almost every day, the 98-year-old drives from his Pendleton home to a metal foundry on his ranch near Echo where he casts white bronze. His wife, Nadene, who is 97, fi elds phone calls from people in need of custom saddle hardware. Inside the Quonset hut that serves as his foundry, Bork casts metal parts much the way metal casters did it decades ago. While large foundries mass produce, Bork creates rings, stirrups, saddle horns, rigging plates and other saddle hardware for one client at a time. “This is the way they did it 100 years ago,” Bork said, waving his hand around the voluminous room. “Now all this is auto- mated and computerized.” The foundry’s interior is a different world. Wooden fl asks, two-part frames in which sand is packed around a mold, are stacked high, waiting for Bork to pour molten metal into them. A mountain of metal dust sits near a belt sander he uses to grind off defor- mities. A pile of used belts has formed on the other side of the grinder. A hill of sand is across the way. In another area sit empty frames. Nearby are rugged gloves and tongs to lift buckets of liquid bronze. Light fi lters in through a window cut into the Quonset hut’s rounded roof. On a recent day, Bork shoveled sand onto a mold and packed it down fi rmly, moving with grace that belied his age. When done, he plucked the molds from the opposite halves, put the frames together to make one cavity, secured them and stacked them with others ready to be fi lled with molten metal. He placed bricks on top to keep them tight. Bork looks the part of an old-school metal caster. His hands are calloused and rough. He wears a frayed canvas coat, suspend- ers, jeans, dusty boots and a worn ball cap. Before leaving the foundry, or “the shop” as he calls it, he takes off his coat and hangs it on a hook like Mr. Rogers hanging his car- digan sweater. He also removes his cap and replaces it with a felt cowboy hat. This is Bork’s second or third iteration in life. He’s Herb Bork 3.0, maybe, or four or fi ve, but with every version fi rmly included in the whole man. His 40 years of working in his little foundry came after serving in World War II and careers as teacher, school admin- istrator, leather worker and businessman. He started out on his family’s homestead in Flora where he got up early to feed and water horses and cattle. Bork, the only boy his 1939 graduating class, learned in a one-room school. After graduation, he enrolled in teach- ers training, again the only male in his class. “It was a woman’s world then,” he said, grinning. “But there was a need for good teachers. Many were from the bottom of the barrel — if they could breathe, they’d get hired.” It was during the fi rst year of college when he fi rst met his future wife, Nadene, who admits she wasn’t really all that inter- ested in Bork at that time. It might have been for the best. He left school to join the Army and serve during World War II from 1942-45. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Staff photo by Kathy Aney Herb Bork, 98, carries a load of sand to a sta- tion inside his metal foundry where he will pack it over molds of saddle rings. Herb Bork works in his Rieth metal foundry where he makes custom saddle hardware. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Herb Bork holds a mold for some saddle hardware he made for the Hamley Saddle Shop. Contributed photo Staff photo by Kathy Aney Nadene and Herb Bork pose for a photo during an early year of their marriage. Nadene and Herb Bork pose at their Rieth ranch where Herb does custom metal casting in a small foundry and Nadene takes care of the phone and paperwork. Bork worked with a team of scientists tasked with keeping American forces from getting malaria. He helped check several thousand men for malaria, and surveyed and sprayed mosquito breeding areas. “We used a little Piper Cub to spray straight DDT,” he said. The soldiers received mosquito nets and repellant, but many stubbornly refused to carry them. “The Marines were tough guys. They left that stuff on the beach,” Bork said. “They didn’t realize that if you get malaria, you are fi nished.” On June 16, 1943, the sergeant was aboard a tank landing ship near the island of Gua- dalcanal, when nine Japanese dive bombers attacked. They dropped 300-pound bombs and strafed the ship. “They just riddled the ship,” Bork said. “They came in and hit the middle of the ship — that’s where the cargo nets were. I slid down the aft anchor.” Bork, not a good swimmer, realized too late he was in danger of being sucked into the ship’s turbine. The crew of a PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) spotted him and picked him up. Back from the war, Bork rebooted his quest to became a teacher. He was placed at the Granger, Washington, elementary school to fi nish out the year after the teacher for grades 5-8 was injured in a car wreck. When he arrived, he found his future wife Nadene there teaching the fi rst four grades. She remained unimpressed with Bork. After the two returned to school to get their master’s degrees, however, they sud- denly noticed one another with fresh eyes. The couple married in 1947. Nadine taught 40 years, the last 26 in Pendleton. Herb taught and later started tak- ing administrator jobs. He served as princi- pal of the John Murray Junior High School in Pendleton until his retirement. While at the junior high, Bork taught a general busi- ness class. To teach his students business principles and to help them earn money to pay tuition, they started a cinch-making business. Bork had learned saddle making as a kid and also how to make cinches out of horse hair. He taught his students both the art of cinch making and how to run a business. “It was a general business class and cinch making was the laboratory,” Bork said. After retirement, he started another cinch business that he grew to be one of the big- gest in the country. Bork got into metal cast- ing after he had trouble fi nding the neces- sary metal parts for the cinches. Forty years later, he is still fi nding fulfi ll- ment in this latest career choice. The Borks don’t have to advertise his wares. People have a way of fi nding them. Pedro Pedrini, formally a master sad- dle maker at the Hamley Western Store, recently ordered some hardware for vin- tage miniature saddles, once used by travel- ing saddle salesmen who didn’t have enough room in their vehicles for the full-size ver- sions. Pedrini marvels at Bork’s abilities. “Herb is a historian,” Pedrini said. “He knows more about saddle hardware than anyone alive.” There will be a void when Bork is gone, Pedrini said, but then he gave a quiet laugh remembering a recent comment by the metal caster. “He said, ‘I got another 6 years until I retire,” Pedrini said. At an age when some might say they are living on borrowed time, Herb and Nadene seem younger than their years. Because of balance issues, Nadene has started using a walker, but she remains sharp. Her husband takes no medications. He credits staying active for his vitality. “Getting up in the morning, I know there are at least 10 or 15 people waiting for their hardware,” Bork said. “I have a reason to exist.” Nadene says they live simply and culti- vate fresh vegetables from their garden. “We’ve stayed busy,” she said. “We don’t have time to be old people.” It’s all about balance, Herb said. “You got to eat, sleep and exercise and you’ve got to keep them in balance,” he said. “Sometimes when you feel like a day off, you just have to get busy.”
