To introduce myself, my name is Bob Giles (Robert D.), and I am a third generation printer in my family.

 

My grandfather, (first generation) Leo E. Giles (died in 1967) was a printer in South Dakota, and Oregon for all his life. He had several newspapers in South Dakota, and then, in the depression, moved to Oregon where he worked at newspapers in various cities, then became owner of the Roseburg News Review, and later moved to and printed the papers for the small towns of Brownsville, and Halsey.

 

My father, Robert N. Giles, worked with his dad at nearly all the family papers, then went on his own in Oregon, working in Coos Bay, Marshfield, Newberg, then to Sweet Home (where I was born), and later settling in Corvallis, where he worked for the Corvallis Gazette-Times. In 1969 when the GT went cold type/offset, he started his own small print shop, and today at the age of 89, he still works the craft nearly every day.

 

I went to work at the Gazette Times in Corvallis, Oregon in November of 1962 at the age of 18. I served my apprenticeship at the GT becoming a journeyman in about 1967. I started on the bank, proofing galleys, making corrections and learning my p's and q's. Moving on to page makeup, ad composition, and the many other jobs associated with producing a daily newspaper in hot metal.

 

Of course, my career changed dramatically with the advent of cold type and the newspaper converted to offset in 1969-70. I changed along with everything else and throughout my nearly 40 years in the printing business I have gone through almost every new process that has come along. I worked for a total of 11 years at the GT, then moved to Eugene and worked at the Register Guard as a sub for a total of five years. I then went to work for a small letterpress print shop in Eugene called Briggs Printing. In 1987 Briggs was bought by Shelton Turnbull Printers, one of Eugene's largest offset printers. I completed my career there in the prepress department and retired in June of '04.

 

I have a model 31 linotype machine with a pretty fair range of type and sizes, a 10 x 15 C&P press and a Vandercook SP-15. I have 4 cabinets of handset type and an Elrod machine (not working yet).

 

So far, my printing has been work for other local printers doing numbering, scoring, and die cutting and perfing. This got off to a slow start but mostly by word of mouth my business has increased to the point that I'm working on something almost every day. I have also done business cards, wedding  invitations, programs, and napkins.

 

To those who say that letterpress is dead, I say phooey!. I intend to practice this art as long as I am able and part of what I do is to try to pass on to anyone who will listen and see, the beauty and practicality of the craft. I'm not in it for the money, however it is nice to be able to make enough to keep the shop going and buying supplies.

 

I still consider myself a beginner (though competent) when it comes to the craft but I get better, and usually learn something with each job that I do. I hope that all of you enjoy working with lead as much as I do!

 

APA #782