"The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» domes are a familiar landmark when driving into the heart of Longview from the south. The name of the industrial company has changed several times — it’s now Komatsu. Still, for long-time residents, the domes retain the name of the company founder, who left his mark on this city in many ways. R.G. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» founded the company that bore his name, invented massive earth-moving equipment and off-shore oil drilling platforms, held hundreds of patents and developed a private Christian technical institute after World War II that evolved into Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³».
Eventually that company transitioned from family ownership. Its archives ended up at the university — dozens of boxes of records. This summer, along with my co-workers at the Estes Library, I am going through those boxes, categorizing contents, putting the material into archival file folders. It is fascinating work, not a bad way to spend several hours daily in air-conditioned comfort. That’s where I learned the story about those domes from reprinted magazine articles, published in 1954."
by Gary Borders, a local reporter on-staff with the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» Margaret Estes Library.
