The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
LIFE ON THE ROAD
LOWER PROVIDENCE » Inching closer to a mid-January retirement, Bernie Gordon was thinking a lot about changes that have happened since he started working for PennDOT in 1982.
Over coffee at the Audubon Panera, the PennDOT Montgomery County foreman remembered a close call for one of his co-workers that made a profound impression on the way he would conduct business for the organization that supports more than 40,000 miles of state roads and highways in Pennsylvania.
“When I started I was 21 and getting a lot of my experience picking up trash on the highway, and the foreman at that time got hit while we were picking up trash,” Gordon said. “Somebody ran into the back of his pickup truck while he was in it. I was lucky that I was in front of the vehicle and wasn’t hurt, but he was out of work for about six months. That’s when I first learned how dangerous the highway can be.”
The episode made Gordon realize he would need to be heedful of his surroundings at all times when working, but thankfully it didn’t deter him from the job that would bring him an enormous sense of achievement while inspiring many others affected by his diligence over the next 35 years.
“Bernie has epitomized the ideal in what any team would hope to have,” said PennDOT Montgomery County maintenance manager Tony Goreski. “He has been a man of integrity, high character, and shown solid leadership with a strong positive attitude. When I started here he was one of the first to come up to me and voice his support and commit-
ment to making our operation a success.”
Gordon said that the 1982 accident never had him considering another line of work.
“It opened my eyes, but it was our job to pick up litter or tires or whatever was on the ground so I did what I was told,” noted Gordon, an Ambler native who moved to West Basin Street in Norristown in 1993.
“I got married and was looking for a house in Ambler but couldn’t afford it and a friend told me about a house in Norristown that was more in my comfort zone and I wouldn’t be living outside of my means,” said Gordon, who serves as vice president of the local chapter the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the PennDOT union.
He and his wife, Sandra, have two children, Bernard Jr. and Ashley, and a granddaughter, Skye.
Gordon, who attended Kutztown University, graduated from repairs and snow removal on the back roads of Whitemarsh Township to a foreman position in 1996, overseeing I-76 and I-476, based out of a satellite stockpile in Plymouth Meeting.
“That area covers Plymouth, Whitemarsh, Whitpain, West Conshohocken, Conshohocken, Norristown, Lower Merion. We do snow removal, debris removal, tree removal, some accidents. If they need sand or salt, that’s my job to get whatever they need to get the highway open and the traffic flowing again,” Gordon said. “People don’t like to be held up on the Schuylkill Expressway. There are times when we have to take maybe a right lane for a tree down or debris on the highway, and people don’t like that. What we try to do is get out as fast as possible. There’s a lot of commerce coming through King of Prussia down to the city and we don’t want to