Life's easy after 50 years at EC Co. in Portland

February 15, 2008

As published in the Daily Journal of Commerce on February 15, 2008

EC Company had a hard time deciding how to reward Johnny Swensson for his 50 years of work at the company. His coworkers wanted to buy him more than the standard gold watch.

But they knew a lavish vacation wouldn't work - Swensson would never actually take it. So they settled on something more fitting: a brand-new, limited-edition Ford F-150 pickup truck.

Then on the 50th anniversary of Swensson's first day at EC Company -- January 18, 1958 - EC president George Adams handed him the keys in front of a roomful of family and friends.

"I just lost it," Swensson, the company's facility resources manager, recalled."I buy all the trucks (for the company) from Landmark Ford," he said. "I walked in there one day way before Christmas and sitting on the showroom floor was that truck and I says, 'I've got to figure out a way to buy this truck.' ... They hid it from me for a month."

Though he's worked for EC Company nearly his entire life, Swensson's job now is a far cry from his start in the company's motor shop. From his second-floor office at the company's Northwest Portland headquarters, Swensson can push a button to start the truck's engine before piling into the cab with coworkers for lunch at Tubby's Deli down the road.

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