Thorco Alumni, Family & Friends Reunion
The Thorco Alumni, Family & Friends Reunion will be held on Saturday, November 18, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM at Thiebaud Auditorium Meeting Rooms 105 E 11th S. Lamar Mo.
The invitation extends to all permanent and temporary associates, their friends and family. Special guest Ken Howard, former owner, will be recognized at the event. Please feel free to bring a snack to share, bottled water will be provided.
The event is being organized by Debra Probert, Dawna Holzbach is coordinating the snacks, Sandy Harris arranged for the meeting place and Nancy Williams will be helping with set up and cleanup. Please feel free to reach out to any of these individuals on the Thorco Associates Facebook group if you wish to volunteer to assist.
Thorco operated for 117 years in Lamar. Thorco began with a man named Frank Thorpe and a problem. Thorpe saw customers picking potatoes out of bins one at a time, an often dirty and time-consuming job so he came up with a solution. His first product was a wire potato scoop.
As Thorpe took to the railroad, selling his invention at stops in Barton County, his business grew. By 1930, it had outgrown its first facility, and the decision was made to move to a building at the corner of 18th and Gulf in Lamar. Frank Thorpe converted an old mill into a manufacturing facility.
But the growth did not stop there. In fact, steady growth occurred through 1965, with a two-year break from 1943 through 1945 due to World War 2. In the late 1960’s, the facility was purchased by Jim Allen and Ken Howard. This period would represent huge growth for the business they renamed into Thorco, as products for major national companies like Walmart, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Kroger and Gerber Baby Foods, as well as the United States Navy were developed.
In fact, so much growth would take place, the company would eventually expand to four facilities in southwest Missouri including Nevada, Butler, Cassville as well as the original plants in Lamar. At one point there was also some manufacturing in Canada and Mexico with total employment reaching 1,200 at one time.
A long-time associate Tom Day was quoted in the press when asked about his 45 years of working for the company, “it became like a second family. We were pretty close knit. A lot of people that went to work there worked for 20 years, or whatever.”
Just prior to the plant closing the doors permanently on September 30, 2016 the group held a farewell event at Thiebaud Auditorium. At this event former Plant Manager Debra Probert noted that the average years of service of the associates was 22 years, and there were associates with more than four decades of service.
