Retiring ATI plant manager proves you can go home again
Courtesy of Allegheny Technologies Inc.
In this 2020 file photo, flat-rolled materials go from furnace to furnace, resulting in an orange glow, at ATI’s Canton Township plant.
Rick Shrum/Observer-Reporter
Scott Armstrong, left, has managed Allegheny Technologies’ plate mill in Canton Township since 2013.
Courtesy of Allegheny Technologies Inc.
Manager Scott Armstrong oversees operations at Allegheny Technologies’ Canton Township plant.
For the nearly past eight years, every workday has been a homecoming day for Scott Armstrong.
He grew up, appropriately, on Armstrong Drive in Canton Township, where he developed high-level academic and athletic skills and embarked upon a career path that eventually would lead him back to his roots.
Armstrong is the manager at Washington Plate mill, which is owned and operated by Allegheny Technologies Inc., a global metals manufacturer. The facility is near the city, but actually in Canton, where the former Trinity and University of Pittsburgh soccer star became top administrator in 2013.
Since his hiring in 1993, Armstrong has helped ATI display its mettle in a worldwide economy – and most recently during a ceaseless pandemic. In a few months, though, his work-day world will change.
Armstrong, 54, plans to retire from the Pittsburgh-based company this spring.
“It will probably be the end of March or early April,” he said during a telephone interview Monday.
He said he wanted to notify ATI of his intentions now “to make sure they have a transition plan in place and find out who my replacement is going to be, which will sort of dictate when I go.”
Make that, when he will partially go.
“I’m not totally retiring,” said Armstrong, who will work with the company on a limited basis during the switchover and on other initiatives.
“Making sure the transition is smooth is important to me. After doing it for so many years, this is in my blood. This is my house. I grew up in this area. To show manufacturing is still alive in Washington County is something I take pride in. There is not a lot of manufacturing anymore.”
Armstrong said his plant, recognized by the company as Washington Operations, has “good long-term viability” in the markets and industries it primarily serves: aerospace, defense and oil and gas. He said ATI “probably has invested $100 million in this facility” over the past 15 years, including a $60 million expansion in 2007.
He is a highly regarded manager, said Eric Martin, vice president of operations for ATI Specialty Rolled Products – of which Washington Operations is a part.
“Scott’s leadership and technical knowledge have been instrumental in the growth and development of Washington Operations. He originally joined ATI as a melt process engineer (in Houston), which guided his influence on the operation’s development of titanium armor plating for military vehicles,” Martin said in a statement.
“We appreciate Scott’s many contributions, and will especially miss his unique sense of humor and Pitt Panther pride.”
Last year was not the best of times for ATI, and the pandemic was but one reason. Members of the United Steelworkers walked out March 30, 2021, the company’s first strike since 1994. The impasse affected an estimated 1,300 union members at nine U.S. facilities, including about 180 in Canton.
Forging a new contract took awhile. The two sides had been without a pact since Feb. 29, 2020. Work continued through a one-year extension and the beginning of another, when the strike began 13 months later. A contract finally was ratified July 13.
A previous contract dispute led to a seven-month lockout of employees, which ended in March 2016.
“We’ve had some work challenges, but we’ve been able to get by,” Armstrong said.
Although he has been at ATI for more than half of his life, Armstrong did not begin his career there. After earning a metallurgical engineering degree at Pitt, he worked for several years at Weirton Steel’s melt shop before going to ATI in Houston.
He still gets his kicks out of soccer, having toiled as an assistant coach at Trinity for the past 20 years, most recently as a volunteer. He has been coaching, at some level, since he was 15.
Armstrong also is a longtime board member of Washington County Chamber of Commerce.
He resides in North Franklin Township with his wife, Shelly, who taught in the Chartiers-Houston and Trinity schools, and now is a part-time employee at The Ivy Green in Washington.
“She loves flowers,” her spouse said.
They have a son, Austin, who works in the finance department for UPMC, and a daughter, Isabella, a junior at the University of Kentucky who is majoring in chemical engineering.
As for the family patriarch’s post-retirement agenda, he plans to assist at ATI and to work in real estate. His father, Phil, is involved in residential and commercial real estate.
“Dad retired from the old Washington Steel,” Armstrong said. “I like to joke that he worked for me for five years (at the Houston melt shop).”
In the meantime, Scott Armstrong will continue to diligently perform his full-time duties at Washington Plate.
“I take a lot of pride in what we’ve done here,” he said. “My goal is to leave this place in a position to continue to thrive.”
It has been a memorable homecoming.