Turner celebrates 30 years
Linda Turner recently celebrated 30 years with Dura-Line.
“A friend asked me to help him out in the office, but I didn’t think I could do the job because I didn’t know anything about pipe. So, I said I would try, but just don’t get mad at me if I quit,” said Turner, Senior Procurement Specialist for United State and Canada. “I asked all kinds of questions and probably drove everyone crazy, but I like to learn. I am still learning. Every day new projects pop up and when you don’t work with something all the time, you have to relearn.”
Today, Turner is one of 1,500 employees at Dura-Line, which is owned by Mexichem. Dura-Line has 11 manufacturing plants located across the United States and Canada and is headquartered in Knoxville.
“Back when I started, it was a small company in Middlesboro, Kentucky, and there were only two of us in the office,” Turner said. “I was doing customer service and collections. I invoiced the customers and took all orders, plus posting for accounting. I even did some shipping. We only had one plant and the company was just about to expand by opening a second plant in Sparks, Nevada.”
Turner remembers handwriting orders and logging them into journals. “We didn’t have computers; it wasn’t automated and connected. And, even when we got on computers, we still kept a ledger because we didn’t trust a computer.”
Technology has changed a lot during her 30-year career at Dura-Line, but one thing has not. “I just enjoyed coming to work and it’s just like a second family,” she said.
“I have worked 22 years with Paresh,” Turner said about Paresh Chari, Mexichem president of the Fluent Business Group. “I think the world of Peresh; he has been super. I’ve had some excellent bosses throughout my years at Dura-Line, and I always appreciated that he had an open-door policy.”
Turner said she still feels like that same small-town country girl, even though Knoxville has been her home for many years. “After I had been with the company about three or four years, we moved the headquarters to Knoxville for a more central location and better airport access for customers,” she said.
At the beginning, she commuted every day. “I never had been away from my family,” she said. “I had a sister in Maryville, so I lived with her for a while and would travel home every weekend to see my mother. Eventually I got an apartment and Knoxville is my home now I guess.”
With the move to Knoxville, the company expanded and hired more people. Turner said Tim Grimsley, who was her boss when she worked in customer service but is now senior vice president of Global Market and Product Development, taught her a lot about the products.
Turner oversaw customer service and managed a staff of five. “I’ve met all kinds of people. I used to travel when I was part of customer service. I got to go to California and to New York to meet the customers that I had only just talked to on the phone,” she said. “It was such a good experience. I talked to them on the phone for years and then all of a sudden, I got to meet them in person. I actually became really good friends with several customers.”
Turner was the customer service manager for many years and about eight years ago started working in purchasing. “I have a great boss. I’ve worked with Eddie Wysmierski for seven years. In purchasing, I make sure the plants have what they need to make the Dura-Line products, but I know that my job is to save the company money. Because I knew all about customer service, I was able to catch mistakes because I had worked with those customers myself. It was a good transition.”
Dura-Line has continued to grow and is now at its fourth location in Knoxville. Turner said the biggest change she has observed was when the company started MicroDucts and FuturePath. “I enjoyed that because it was a big step for the company,” she said.
“Things certainly have changed; you have to adapt to go forward,” Turner said. “I like change and I have learned a lot, so I’ve enjoyed every minute, but I don’t know what I’ll do in the future when I retire. I can’t say enough good things about Dura-Line. ... It’s just like family, and you don’t want to turn loose of family.”
