Laurie Barcaskey: Growing Up Marking

by Laurie Barcaskey

Ever since I was a child I can remember marking being a part of my family and DNA. It was not unusual to see my grandfather on summer weekends taking time to hand file tapers onto hand stamps used for mold and badge marking.

The stores of his acquiring the rubber stamp business on the Southside of Pittsburgh, and working with Carnegie Steel to develop a shock-resistant steel for using in hand stamping operations were share frequently as reminders of his determination to grow the business into new horizons.

His perseverance and determination to succeed are keenly remembered by my father and uncles as they watched a building burn to the ground during the great flood of 1936. Sifting thru the rubble they were unified to the vision of rebuilding and growing to new heights.

With the help of many friends – especially those in the industry that actually loaned equipment from their own operations – the company was restored and grew into a thriving organization that installed custom built machinery to the defense, energy and metals industries to name a few.

As I grew into my teenage years I frequented the manufacturing facility that had moved to Franklin Park. I would watch hand stamps and type being quenched in oil after leaving the heat-treating furnaces, or to see the towering slab markers, and the roll marking systems that my father designed and built to meet the needs for marking heat numbers, serial numbers or other required markings for the customer’s specific industry.

Frank Speicher and Sons ready to rebuild. Laurie Barcaskey’s grandfather, uncles and father.

It was not unusual for us to have visitors from other countries and share in our family time. I received porcelain dolls from a friend in Japan, hand-crotchet doilies from another in Korea.

However it is the friendships that I’ve been able to retain over the years that I hold dear. I actually introduced a friend from France to his bride in the U. S., and truly felt a divine power in the center of it all.

It is these kind folks that have helped me face the finality of the family owning their own manufacturing operation.

When my father’s last invention needed marketing capital to get to market the company was sold. A long-time family friend, who had a distribution business in Pittsburgh, helped me find stable footing again, and from there I started the adventure of finding my own destination within the marking industry.

Through these relationships I’ve been able to expand my knowledge of interior and exterior facility signage for way-finding or those used by mechanical and electrical engineers. Whether it was custom built signs or simple pipe and valve identification I was exposed to another facet of marking.

By moving forward on my own as a partner to the industrial and construction accounts in my territory I am growing in my knowledge of the ever-changing and more frequently demanded need for marking and traceability solutions. With the same determination to succeed I want to be a dedicated partner that works with my customers to seek solutions that best meet their needs.

With perseverance through what may come – hopefully more good than bad – it is my intention to be persistently patient and professional as the details are explored together.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laurie Barcaskey of Leading Marks is an authorized manufacturer’s representative with 30 years of experience and shop floor knowledge of solutions for industrial identification, part traceability and pipe testing. Laurie is the third generation of one of the marking industry’s most innovative and enduring family legacies, tracing back to 1889.