Joseph E. Wiltrakis Papers

JOSEPH WILTRAKIS

Joseph E Wiltrakis (Sept 8, 1899 - Jan 22, 1983). was employed as an industrial engineer for Western Electric in Kearny for 44 years. He held several patents in material handling and tinting. In 1960, he headed a US delegation to the International Organization of Standardization.

Wilkatris was born in Boston and attended Loyola University in Chicago. He was married to Lucille Jucius and had two daughters.



WESTERN ELECTRIC, KEARNY (parts of this history from North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, The Morristown and Morris Township Library):

Western Electric began from an 1869 partnership of Elisha Gray and Enos Barton. In 1881, it was purchased by American Bell Telephone Company, and by 1891 was a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT and T).

In 1923, Western Electric began building its Kearney plant, along Central Ave. in Kearny. By this point, Western Electric was supplying 90% of all telephone equipment in the United States.“One could see it from far away across the Jersey meadows – a patch of light against the blackness, like some great liner passing in the distance. Closer, it resolved itself into a group of immense buildings whose outlines were determined by masses of brilliantly illuminated windows. ‘Western Electric’ – said the great sign on the roof of the largest building – in words of unmistakable emphasis that he who ran indeed might read, and from a long distance. It was the great Kearny Works of the Western Electric Company", wrote the 1938 Telephone Review.

The plant had more than a million square feet of space. The plant made everything for its manufacturing from paint to screws.

By 1983, when AT and T annouced the shutdown of the Kearny Plant, it had 4000 employees.

AT and T was ordered to break-up by the Federal Communications Commission in 1984, Western Electric ceased operation under its old name, becoming instead, AT and T Technologies. In the mid 1990's, AT and T first joined with Bell Labs to become Lucent Technologies, then merged with a French telecommunications company in 2006 to become Alcatel-Lucent.